Jonathan Lear
American philosopher and psychoanalyst (1948–2025)
title: "Jonathan Lear" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1948-births", "2025-deaths", "21st-century-american-philosophers", "alumni-of-the-university-of-cambridge", "american-logicians", "american-psychoanalysts", "deaths-from-stomach-cancer-in-illinois", "members-of-the-american-philosophical-society", "philosophers-of-psychology", "rockefeller-university-alumni", "university-of-chicago-faculty", "yale-college-alumni", "people-from-west-hartford,-connecticut"] description: "American philosopher and psychoanalyst (1948–2025)" topic_path: "philosophy" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Lear" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American philosopher and psychoanalyst (1948–2025) ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox philosopher"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Jonathan Lear |
| image | Jonathan Lear.jpg |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | New York City, U.S. |
| death_date | |
| death_place | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| education | Yale University (BA) |
| Cambridge University (BA) | |
| Rockefeller University (PhD) | |
| spouse | |
| children | 2 |
| institutions | University of Chicago |
| main_interests | |
| :: |
| honorific_prefix = | name = Jonathan Lear | native_name = | honorific_suffix = | image = Jonathan Lear.jpg | birth_date = | birth_place = New York City, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | education = Yale University (BA) Cambridge University (BA) Rockefeller University (PhD) | alma_mater = | spouse = | children = 2 | institutions = University of Chicago | main_interests = | notable_ideas = | website =
Jonathan David Lear (October 9, 1948 – September 22, 2025) was an American philosopher and psychoanalyst. He was the John U. Nef Distinguished Service Professor in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago and served as the Roman Family Director of the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society from 2014 to 2022.
Background and career
Jonathan David Lear was born in New York City on October 9, 1948. His father and Norman Lear were first cousins. Lear was brought up in West Hartford, Connecticut.
Lear earned his B.A. (cum laude) in history at Yale in 1970 and his B.A. in philosophy at Cambridge in 1973. He then received his Ph.D. in philosophy at Rockefeller University with a dissertation on Aristotle's logic directed by Saul Kripke. He also trained at the Western New England Institute for Psychoanalysis in 1995. He subsequently won the Gradiva Award from the National Association for Psychoanalysis three times for work that advances psychoanalysis.
Before moving to Chicago permanently in 1996, Lear taught philosophy at Cambridge University (1979-1985), where he was a fellow and the director of studies in philosophy of Clare College. He also taught philosophy at Yale University and was chair of the department of philosophy (1978–79, 1985–1996). He is a member of the International Psychoanalytical Association. In 2009, he received the Mellon Distinguished Achievement Award in the Humanities.
During his time as the Roman Family Director of the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society was able to work with the Apsáalooke Nation and the Field Museum of Natural History to sponsor the exhibit Apsáalooke Women and Warriors.
In 2017, he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2019.
Lear was first married to Cynthia Farrar, with whom he had a daughter before divorcing.
Philosophical work
Lear's early work focused on formal logic and ancient Greek philosophy. Much of his work involves the intersection of psychoanalysis and philosophy. In addition to work involving Sigmund Freud, he also wrote widely on Aristotle, Plato, Immanuel Kant, Søren Kierkegaard and Ludwig Wittgenstein, focusing on ideas of the human psyche. His most recent work explores the ethical task of managing to live with the fears and anxieties of world-catastrophe.
Lear argues that mourning is a central human practice through which we confront transience, reclaim meaning after loss, and shape how we live ethically in a finite world.
Awards and honors
- American Philosophical Society, Member (2019)
- American Academy of Arts and Science, Fellow (2017)
- Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Distinguished Achievement Award in the Humanities (2011–2014)
- Gradiva Award, National Association for Psychoanalysis
- Best Article on the Subject of Psychoanalysis (1995), *"*The shrink is in", The New Republic
- Best Psychoanalytic Book (1998), Open Minded: Working Out the Logic of the Soul
- Best Psychoanalytic Book (2000), Happiness, Death and the Remainder of Life
- John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship (1987–88)
- National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for Independent Study and Research (1984–85)
- The Tanner Lectures on Human Values,
- Harvard University (November, 2010)
- Cambridge University (November, 1999)
Works
- Aristotle and Logical Theory (1980)
- Aristotle: The Desire to Understand (1988)
- Love and Its Place in Nature (1990)
- Open Minded: Working Out the Logic of the Soul (1998)
- Happiness, Death, and the Remainder of Life (2000)
- Therapeutic Action: An Earnest Plea for Irony (2003)
- Freud (2005)
- Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation (2006)
- A Case for Irony (2011)
- Wisdom Won From Illness: Essays in Philosophy and Psychoanalysis (2017)
- The Idea of a Philosophical Anthropology: The Spinoza Lectures (2017)
- Imagining the End: Mourning and Ethical Life (2022)
References
References
- (6 October 2014). "Jonathan Lear named Roman Family Director of Neubauer Collegium".
- Rosenwald, Michael S.. (October 8, 2025). "Jonathan Lear, Philosopher Who Embraced Freud, Dies at 76". [[The New York Times]].
- (26 March 2010). "Mellon Foundation award to fund Lear's ongoing work on human imagination".
- "The Neubauer Collegium".
- "Newly Elected Fellows".
- "Jonathan Lear Elected to the American Philosophical Society {{!}} Division of the Humanities".
- (22 September 2025). "Jonathan Lear (1948–2025)".
- "Q&A with... Jonathan Lear".
- "PHF {{!}} Jonathan Lear".
- "Why Mourning Is Essential to Our Well-Being: Big Brains podcast with Jonathan Lear".
- "APS Member History".
- (2024-03-20). "Jonathan Lear {{!}} American Academy of Arts and Sciences".
- "Mellon Foundation".
- "Jonathan D. Lear".
- "Harvard University Press".
- Griffiths, Paul J.. (January 2023). "Mourned or lamented?". Commonweal.
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