Philosopher Jennifer Whiting (Toronto) invited me to share this memorial notice she wrote about Professor Baker:
Less well-known perhaps than Judith, the hypothetical sister of Shakespeare, Judith Baker, actual philosopher at Glendon College (York University), died two weeks ago today, just after her 76th birthday. Jude – as her husband Ian Hacking was prone to call her – was no doubt more obscure than she deserved, given the brilliance of her thought, to be. But she was – from her early work with Paul Grice through to her late work with Philip Clark – a quintessentially collaborative philosopher. (Clark presented some of their joint work, only days after her death, at the annual meeting of the Canadian Philosophical Association.) One can glimpse something of the character of Baker’s mind in her frequently cited “Trust and Rationality” (Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 1987). But it was in interpersonal dialogue that her brilliance shone through: she was a marvelous interlocutor, always willing to consider another’s work on its own terms; a sharp but sympathetic critic; and an imaginative source of vivid and realistic examples (which, according to Grice, enlivened his own interest in ethics in his later years). Baker was above all an amazing friend, one who never failed to ask attentively after the troubles of those who visited her bedside. Such virtues are difficult to quantify and can easily be overlooked. But we should take care not to overlook these who would not – not even on their death beds – let others be overlooked.
I will add links to other memorial notices when they appear.
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