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Unfortunately, there is a second piece of bad news today: the University of Texas community is mourning the loss of long-time philosophy professor Robert Solomon. Solomon died Jan. 2 in an airport in Switzerland. The Statesman reports that he died suddenly, in the middle of changing planes, from pulmonary hypertension, likely the result of a lifelong congenital heart defect.
Solomon taught the only two philosophy classes I ever took at UT, as part of a Plan II seminar. Below the jump are a couple personal recollections of the man.
After the news broke, I emailed some friends from the class with the news, asking for their memories of the man, and my friend Clare wrote back,
It's hard to believe he's gone, just like that.I don't really know what to say, except to describe his classes. On the first day of the semester, every desk in his "Existentialism" class was filled and students hoping to talk their way in were sitting on tables and standing in the back of the room. He was one of the best lecturers I had at UT -- that man could have read the dictionary out loud and I would have taken notes. He maintained his warmth and enthusiasm outside of the classroom, too, having students over to discuss philosophy and life over Shiner and Indian food.
The mustache, the cartoon character ties... He will be missed.
I’d forgotten about the ties. As a reflection of himself, at least as far as his students could know him, Solomon couldn’t have chosen a better accessory.
Solomon was a small, seemingly serious man, but he had a quick smile. His features pinched in toward the middle of his face and were often obscured by a flourish of red facial hair. I could never decide if it was a face made for consternation or if it had simply been shaped that way after years of thought.
Maybe what I remember best, though, is his voice. Deep and seeming to exude patience, it was made for radio, or maybe the therapist’s chair. Often staring at the ground, his eyebrows drawn together and his moustache twitching in concetration, he delivered lectures in slow, measured words — which could have narcoleptic effects on students fresh off all-nighters — while sitting on a table, legs dangling a few inches off the ground. Then suddenly, his thought completed, he’d relax, look up, and crack or joke or open the floor for discussion.
In his give and take with his students Solomon showed an amazing tolerance for bullshit. Long after I had stopped paying attention to the few know-it-alls arguing in circles, Solomon would listen and offer carefully worded rejoinders. It was the mark of his professionalism that even though he was a world-renowned expert in his field, year after year you could find him sitting cross-legged on a table discussing with college sophomores what it means to be alive.
Image from the University of San Diego.
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I had Solomon as well for his Existentialism course. I wasn't a philosophy major, but I knew I had to experience his pedagogy and enrolled as soon as the opportunity came.
The whole semester I knew I was around people who had taken 3, 4...7 more courses that better prepared them to apprecaite the material. However Dr. Solomon made the material very approachable and preached in such a compelling way.
I've mourned the passing of several relatives this past year, but this occasion is so communally sad because I can share the loss with fellow friends and classmates - all who knew how great of a professor, of a man, that so many others will not have the opportunity to experience.
This is absolutely awful timing. As a philosophy minor at UT, I was finally signed up for Solomon's Existentialism class this spring, and I've been looking forward to it for a few years now. The man is legendary in the UT philosophy department.
I didn't attend UT but his bit part in Richard Linklater's Waking Life was perhaps my favorite part of the movie.
He also provided an excellent module for The Teaching Company (TTC) called No Excuses - Existentialism and The Meaning of Life. I've heard probably 6 of the 24 lectures and they're outstanding. For those that have missed the opportunity to sit in his class (like me), that TTC course (search the internets/bittorrents) can provide a glimpse into his perspective and teaching style.
I worked my tail off in Solomon's Plan II Philosophy class in the early 1980's, and the "A" that I managed to earn is one of the grades that I'm proudest of in a rather, ahem, checkered transcript. I was very sorry to read of his sudden passing. Thanks for remembering him.
This is very sad news indeed. The philosophy department of UT has been dealt a serious blow. Solomon's vitatlity, his love of teaching, and love of his students was legend - and merited being so.
I have a dozen books that I always keep with me, no matter the size of apartment or where I am, Solomon's In the Spirit of Hegel ( in many ways better than the Philosophy of Spirit ) is one of the best books on how to read philosophy ever written (in addition to introducing a famously difficult text).
His existentialism class and 18th c. German Idealism classes both were among my favorites at the university and both of them tapped into a Nietzschean undercurrent that he charged his students with understanding: that life is precious, life should be lived passionately, with love and verve, and to live, love, and learn is the path to the virtuous life.
Two teaching anecdotes for those who remember him or will never have the pleasure of having these experiences:
Story 1: Philosophy as a life changer
Solomon told a wonderful story (other students feel free to correct my memory, it's been a decade...) about how a young medical student in Michigan saw a flyer on campus for a brown-bag session about Nietzsche. The naive young man attended the session and heard things about love and passion and that fearsome sturm und drang that lay behind Nietzche's writing. That afternoon the student changed his major to philosophy and thus would-be Dr. Solomon MD became the beloved Dr. Solomon who so changed my life, and so many others.
Story 2: Music as Philosophy
In the 18th c. German Idealism class the Enlightenment as zeitgeist and Kant are the groundwork for the Hegellian heart of the class. I'll never forget the day Solomon came in with a small stereo and played a bit of Mozart (Eine Kleine Nachtmusik if I'm not mistaken). "This is Kant", he intoned, continuing: "Order, reason, balance, control." He stopped the sample. "And this...", the Hand of Fate opening of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony filled the wide lecture room on the south end of Waggener Hall, "is Hegel: Passion, Spirit, the Napoleonic spirit."
My heart shot up to my throat. I could see the march of the Napoleon through the remains of the Holy Roman Empire and understood just how very real art and philosophy both were. It was one of the most sublime moments of my education.
Future generations are blessed that this seed has been lovingly rotoscoped into eternity thanks to his appearance in "Waking Life".
Goodbye Dr. Solomon and my condolences to his family, friends, and students. Truly a great man has left us for Parnassus.
I took Professor Solomon's Plan II PHL 610QA (Problems of Knowledge and Valuation) class the fall before last. Honestly, before the first day of class I didn't take philosophy very seriously, but his lectures gradually proved to me (and probably to all of us in there) that the most important qualitative questions about life, existence, and what's beyond us aren't really discussed anywhere else.
At first impression, Prof. Solomon reminded me of Marlon Brando's portrayal of Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather: smooth, profound. Whenever he walked into the room, the class would quiet; all of the energetic chaos of Plan II student-friends conversing would dissipate, and everyone would listen and take notes. He taught us that beneath the rituals and practices of different religions and philosophies around the world, there often flows a deep spirituality and humanity. That it should never be "us" vs. "them", since we are all part of that spiritual existence.
I wish I had known him better.
I took Professor Solomon's Plan II PHL 610QA (Problems of Knowledge and Valuation) class the fall before last. Honestly, before the first day of class I didn't take philosophy very seriously, but his lectures gradually convinced me (and probably to all of us in there) that the most important qualitative questions about life, existence, and what's beyond us aren't really discussed anywhere else.
At first impression, Prof. Solomon reminded me of Marlon Brando's portrayal of Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather: smooth, profound. Whenever he walked into the room, the class would quiet; all of the energetic chaos of Plan II student-friends conversing would dissipate, and everyone would listen and take notes. He taught us that beneath the rituals and practices of different religions and philosophies around the world, there often flows a deep spirituality and humanity. That it should never be "us" vs. "them", since we are all part of that spiritual existence.
I wish I had known him better.
I took Professor Solomon's Plan II PHL 610QA (Problems of Knowledge and Valuation) class the fall before last. Honestly, before the first day of class I didn't take philosophy very seriously, but his lectures gradually convinced me (and probably to all of us in there) that the most important qualitative questions about life, existence, and what's beyond us aren't really discussed anywhere else.
At first impression, Prof. Solomon reminded me of Marlon Brando's portrayal of Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather: smooth, profound. Whenever he walked into the room, the class would quiet; all of the energetic chaos of Plan II student-friends conversing would dissipate, and everyone would listen and take notes. He taught us that beneath the rituals and practices of different religions and philosophies around the world, there often flows a deep spirituality and humanity. That it should never be "us" vs. "them", since we are all part of that spiritual existence.
I wish I had known him better.
sorry it posted twice. feel free to remove the duplicate.
I took Solomon's existentialism class and on the first day, i walked up to him, told him i was excited about the class and that i have read several of his books prior. He took it with extreme modesty. It didn't take me long to realize where this modesty came from. He did did not want me to admire him from reading the books. He wanted me to admire myself. He is probably the only person that can make a student leave an existentialism class feeling great about themselves and life in general. He didn't just want us to think of the existence of life, but to think about the experience of life. There are only about 4 people that i can honestly say changed my life. He is easily among them.
Bob Solomon wrote two of the texts required for our Plan II Philosophy class back in 1992, and he was so loathe to make money off his students that he pledged to use every penny of it to fund the beverage purchase for off-campus, after-hours philosophy discussions (some would say "beer parties").
His class was hard--hard, hard, hard--but he was warm and engaging and always kind. It makes me very sad that he is no longer prowling around the basement of Painter Hall with chalk dust on his back and deep thoughts in his eyes.
What a sad, sad loss for those future students who will never know what it's like to be in Bob Solomon's class.
Oh how very, very sad! Way too young to be gone. At the advanced age of near 50 myself, I was in Bob's very first Plan II Philosophy course in the Spring of 78, and it rocked my world in many ways and changed the trajectory of my life in terms of what I devoted my degree coursework to . . . took many more philosophy courses as an undergraduate after my introduction to the field by him.
My peers were the initiates in the beer parties over at Eastwoods park he hosted with the profits of our required textbook he authored. Still have that book and still refer to it from time to time.
Even more what I remember is the incredible class room experience he created in large class of 150. I remember still the faces in that room, the arguments, the study groups to cram for the incredible essay questions we prepared to write about in our blue books, not knowing in advance which questions he might pick. And how on the day of the Final he showed up and engaged us in a philosophical debate about the merits of not having the exam at all since we had already accomplished the primary goals of learning the material--why did we need to "prove" it and be "compared" in terms of grades? You can imagine the fantastic arguments emanating from the crowd of little grade grubbers we were so focused on our GPAs that a mere P/F would be unthinkable to us!!
God speed Bob! Thank you for the gift of your life and learning. You were a generous soul that continues to inspire the best in all of us who had the great blessing of ever being your students.
Jeannine Moore Miller, Class of 1980
After transferring from a somewhat reactionary university in College Station, my best friend caught me between classes and insisted I sit in on one of Dr. Solomon's existential lectures. My eternal gratitude goes to both of them. One lecture was on Kierkegaard and Dr. Solomon said "live your life like you're on a stage and the audience is ecstatically weeping". This lifted us from the day to day situational myopia into an appreciation of the gift of life's conscious journey and opportunities to help others. From that point on I became less cynical and more appreciative and kind. This has remained the most important lesson in my life. I can still see Dr. Solomon pacing during his engaging lectures and hope we all cross paths in another life to learn more to live by. God bless you and my sincerest condolences to your family.
Woody Lemcke '74