Jerome B. Schneewind *57

A scholar of the history of philosophy, Jerry died in Baltimore Jan. 8, 2024, at age 93.

Born May 17, 1930, in Mount Vernon, N.Y., Jerry earned a bachelor’s degree from Cornell in 1951 and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton in 1957. From 1954 until 1956 he served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps.

Jerry joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 1981, retiring in 2002. Prior to Hopkins, he taught at the University of Chicago, Princeton, Yale, the University of Pittsburgh (dean of the College of Arts and Sciences 1969-1973), Stanford, the University of Leicester, and Hunter College (provost 1975-1981).

He was best known for his innovative research on the history of ethics and for placing major thinkers in moral philosophy in their broader cultural context, Among his books were Sidgwick’s Ethics and Victorian Moral Philosophy and The Invention of Autonomy. Along with the history of ethics, his teaching covered types of ethical theory, the British empiricists, Kant’s ethics, and utopian thought.

Jerry served as president of the American Philosophical Association’s Eastern Division in 1995-96 and chair of the group’s national board from 1999 to 2002.

Jerry is survived by daughters Sarah, Rachel, and Hannah, and four grandchildren.

Graduate alumni memorials are prepared by the APGA.