In Memoriam, John Haugeland, 1945-2010
John Haugeland was one of the leading scholars in the movement, begun in the 1970's, to approach Martin Heidegger's Being and Time anew, to bring it into relation to developments in the Anglophone philosophical context, and to present Heidegger's philosophy in plain language. Haugeland did not write a vast amount on Heidegger, but what he did write has been collected into a single volume along with his unfinished manuscript, Dasein Disclosed (ed. Joe Rouse, Harvard UP, 2013).
Haugeland began attending the Asilomar meetings during the second year, joining his de facto doctoral advisor, Hubert Dreyfus, who was one of the inspirations for the founding of the Asilomar group. In doing so Haugeland joined his and Dreyfus's students and other younger scholars whom they influenced, as well as fellow-traveler scholars along this new path in European philosophy (Joseph Rouse, Mark Okrent, Steven Crowell, and keynote speakers Charles Taylor, Alexander Nehamas, Hans Sluga, Albert Borgmann).
Haugeland and Wellman rapidly became not only an intellectual, but also a social center at the Asilomar meetings, hosting gatherings lubricated with wine. As the years progressed, more of Haugeland's students began to participate in the meetings. Aside from the author of this page, William Blattner (PhD, Pittsburgh, 1989, who wrote on Heidegger and Kant under Haugeland), we were subsequently joined by Rebecca Kukla (PhD, Pittsburgh, 1996, who studied Heidegger under Haugeland), Joseph Schear (PhD, Chicago, 2006, who wrote on Heidegger and Husserl under Haugeland and Robert Pippin), Katherine Withy (PhD, 2009, Chicago, who wrote on Heidegger with Haugeland and Jonathan Lear), and Matthew Shockey (PhD, 2004, Chicago).
Haugeland passed away suddenly and far too young during the summer of 2010. He will be sorely missed, not only as a teacher and interlocutor, but as a friend.
See Haugeland's official Univ. of Chicago obituary here.