Updated to include new links…
My mentor, hero and I hope friend, David Lee Hull died on the morning of 11 August 2010, at the age of 75.
If not for the fact that David marked my masters thesis and remarked that he hoped to see some of it published, I would never have considered myself competent enough to publish, and hence would never have ended up an academic (at the tender age of 48).
David was a remarkable man. Not only did he effectively define professional philosophy of biology as a newly minted doctor of philosophy, he was also actively engaged in gay rights struggles, both in Chicago generally and in professional biology and philosophy. His long time partner Richard Wellman died in the first wave of the AIDS epidemic, and David nursed him while he wrote his magnum opus Science as a Process, on which I had written my masters.
I will have more to say about him when I gather my thoughts.
Late note: Michael Ruse has sent this message around; I hope he won’t mind my posting it here:
He died this morning at nine – I gather peacefully and not in pain. The young men looking after him have truly been secular saints. There will be no funeral but a memorial service sometime in the fall. We are all going to be sad, but let us also be joyful both for a life really well lived and for a release that was truly welcome, not the least by David himself.
The Chicago Sun-Times has a nice obituary here and his university, Northwestern, has one here [h/t Leiter]
New: Grant Yamashita is another new philosopher helped by David. His obit is here.Peter Godfrey Smith has an obit here.
condolences. only knew of him through his work, but it was great.
I knew nothing about David Hull as a person but have long respected him highly for the Science as a Process book.
John,
As you know, David’s “Science as A Process” was the book that turned me on to HPS as a biology grad student. I had the pleasure of letting him know how much the book meant to me when I first met him at ISHPSSB a few years back. He was a gentleman and will be missed.
Unlike my other mentor, also a gay man named David [Rindos], at least I got to know David in person before he died. I still grieve that I never met David Rindos in person, and now I grieve for a man I did.
I should also add that his “Darwin and HIs Critics” served as the template for the reprint series I did with Thoemmes.
Pingback: David Hull (1935-2010) « The Dispersal of Darwin
Pingback: David Hull (1935 – 2010) « a simple prop
I’m so sorry. You have cited his name so many times; it is possible I would not have known about him but for you.
The Wiki page says nothing about his personal life except that he was gay. Did he have a partner or husband? Children?
His partner Richard of 25 years died in 1989 from AIDS. He had no kids so far as I know.
I’m so sorry to hear this. I only knew him from his work, but I had an enormous amount of respect for him and his accomplishments. My condolences, John, and my best wishes to his family.
Damn! Soory to hear this.
Very sad. David was a good friend, one of the best, for many, many years.
I am also truly sorry to hear this news. I’m moving to Chicago in two weeks and was hoping to run into him over the course of the year… but I also had no idea he was in poor health. His work was truly great.
I’m so sorry. I so adore “science as a process” and wish I could make my students read it.
My condolences. It is a great loss for you as well as all of the rest of us. Carry the work on, John. It needs to be done.
It is a great loss to the philosophy of science and, no doubt, an even greater loss to his friends and those he mentored. My condolences.
Condolences. I’ve only read some of his work, but I particularly enjoyed the stuff on the ontological status of species. Must look into the rest.
Condolences John. I can’t say I’ve heard of this gentleman before. It’s obvious however that he has made an important contribution.
One thing Hull brought to the game was an appreciation that there are interesting philosophical questions about the ontological commitments of scientific theories — he wasn’t afraid of metaphysics. Even if we didn’t agree with him on fine points of philosophy, he was a breath of fresh air for those of us who had been straining against a narrow focus on the logic of justification in philosophy of science.
I’m sorry to hear that. It was clear from what you wrote about him that he meant a great deal to you. My condolences.
ditto
It’s sad to lose someone important to you, especially if they’re far away. Condolences.
Around 1995 I discovered Science as a Process and immediately recognized it as the key to understanding the nature of language change. A couple years later I was visiting Chicago and I contacted David and met him at his house. He read the manuscript of the book I had written, where I applied his General Analysis of Selection to language change, and so began an intellectual dialogue which was extremely stimulating and enriching for me. Now a significant part of my career is devoted to propagating and elaborating David’s ideas in linguistics. I hadn’t been in touch with him the past two years, sadly, so this news comes as a shock. David was very generous yet incisive, an excellent friend and mentor, and I will greatly miss his knowledge and wit.
Hi Bill; we met at Connecticut Ish, and I responded to your paper in the now-defunct Selection. I’d love to see some of your more recent papers on the matter.
Oh yes! I’m better at remembering faces than names, but I remember you well from Connecticut and Selection. I’ll send you a few papers shortly.