Robert C. Solomon (September 14, 1942 – January 2, 2007) was a

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and business ethicist, notable author, and Distinguished Teaching Professor of Business and Philosophy at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

, where he held a named chair and taught for more than 30 years, authoring ''The Passions: Emotions and the Meaning of Life'' (1976) and more than 45 other books and editions. Critical of the narrow focus of Anglo-American

analytic philosophy Analytic philosophy is a broad movement within Western philosophy, especially English-speaking world, anglophone philosophy, focused on analysis as a philosophical method; clarity of prose; rigor in arguments; and making use of formal logic, mat ...

, which he thought denied human nature and abdicated the important questions of life, he instead wrote analytically in response to the continental discourses of phenomenology and existentialism, on sex and love, on business ethics, and on other topics to which he brought an Aristotelian perspective on

virtue ethics Virtue ethics (also aretaic ethics, from Greek []) is a philosophical approach that treats virtue and moral character, character as the primary subjects of ethics, in contrast to other ethical systems that put consequences of voluntary acts, pri ...

. He also wrote ''A Short History of Philosophy'' and others with his wife, Kathleen Higgins. Solomon won many teaching honors, including the Standard Oil Outstanding Teaching Award in 1973; the University of Texas President's Associates Teaching Award (twice); a Fulbright Lecture Award; University Research and National Endowment for the Humanities Grants; and the Chad Oliver Plan II Teaching Award in 1998. His many works include ''About Love'', ''Ethics and Excellence'', ''A Better Way to Think about Business'', ''The Joy of Philosophy'', ''Spirituality for the Skeptic'', ''Not Passion's Slave'', and ''In Defense of Sentimentality''.

Personal life and career

Early life

Solomon was born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, U.S. His father was a

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

, and his mother an

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

. He was born with a hole in his heart and was not expected to live into adulthood. He earned a bachelor's degree in

molecular biology Molecular biology is a branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecule, molecular basis of biological activity in and between Cell (biology), cells, including biomolecule, biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactio ...

from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

in 1963 and his master's and doctoral degrees in philosophy and

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

in 1965 and 1967, respectively.

Teaching and research

He held visiting appointments at the

; the

University of Auckland The University of Auckland (; Māori: ''Waipapa Taumata Rau'') is a public research university based in Auckland, New Zealand. The institution was established in 1883 as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. Initially loc ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

;

Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in South Hadley, Massachusetts, United States. It is the oldest member of the h ...

;

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

; the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

, and the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

. From 1972 until his death, except for two years at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

at Riverside in the mid-1980s, he taught at

, serving as Quincy Lee Centennial Professor of Philosophy and Business. He was a member of the University of Texas Academy of Distinguished Teachers, which is devoted to providing leadership in improving the quality and depth of undergraduate instruction. Solomon was also a member of the inaugural class of Academic Advisors at the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics. His interests were in

19th-century The 19th century began on 1 January 1801 (represented by the Roman numerals MDCCCI), and ended on 31 December 1900 (MCM). It was the 9th century of the 2nd millennium. It was characterized by vast social upheaval. Slavery was abolished in ...

German philosophy German philosophy, meaning philosophy in the German language or philosophy by German people, in its diversity, is fundamental for both the analytic and continental traditions. It covers figures such as Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Immanuel Kant, ...

—especially

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political philosophy and t ...

and

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philology, classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche bec ...

—and 20th-century

continental philosophy Continental philosophy is a group of philosophies prominent in 20th-century continental Europe that derive from a broadly Kantianism, Kantian tradition.Continental philosophers usually identify such conditions with the transcendental subject or ...

—especially Paul Ricoeur,

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary criticism, literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th ...

and

phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (Peirce), a branch of philosophy according to Charles Sanders Peirce (1839� ...

, as well as

ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...

and the philosophy of emotions. Solomon published more than 40 books on philosophy, and was also a published

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

. He made a cameo appearance in

Richard Linklater Richard Linklater (; born July 30, 1960) is an American filmmaker. He is known for making films that deal thematically with suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. In 2015, Linklater was included on the annual ''Time'' 100 li ...

's film ''

Waking Life ''Waking Life'' is a 2001 American adult animated surrealist drama film written and directed by Richard Linklater. The film explores a wide range of philosophical issues, including the nature of reality, dreams and lucid dreams, consciousness, ...

'' (2001), where he discussed the continuing relevance of

existentialism Existentialism is a family of philosophical views and inquiry that explore the human individual's struggle to lead an authentic life despite the apparent absurdity or incomprehensibility of existence. In examining meaning, purpose, and valu ...

in a

postmodern Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting the wo ...

world. Solomon received numerous teaching awards at the University of Texas at Austin, and was a frequent lecturer in the highly regarded Plan II Honors Program. Solomon was known for his lectures on

Søren Kierkegaard Søren Aabye Kierkegaard ( , ; ; 5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) was a Danes, Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical tex ...

, Nietzsche, Sartre and other

existentialist Existentialism is a family of philosophical views and inquiry that explore the human individual's struggle to lead an authentic life despite the apparent absurdity or incomprehensibility of existence. In examining meaning, purpose, and value ...

philosophers. Solomon described in one lecture a very personal experience he had while a medical student at the

. He recounted how he stumbled as if by chance into a crowded lecture hall. He was rather unhappy in his medical studies at the time, and was perhaps seeking something different that day. He got precisely that. The professor, Frithjof Bergmann, was lecturing that day on something that Solomon had not yet been acquainted with. The professor spoke of how Nietzsche's idea of the eternal return asks the fundamental question: "If given the opportunity to live your life over and over again ''

ad infinitum ''Ad infinitum'' is a Latin phrase meaning "to infinity" or "forevermore". Description In context, it usually means "continue forever, without limit" and this can be used to describe a non-terminating process, a non-terminating ''repeating'' pro ...

'', forced to go through all of the pain and the grief of existence, would you be overcome with despair? Or would you fall to your knees in gratitude?" After this lecture, Solomon quit medical school and began studies in philosophy. He taught three courses as part of

The Great Courses The Teaching Company, doing business as The Great Courses, formerly Wondrium, is a media production company which produces educational, video, and audio content in the form of courses, documentaries, and series under two content brands: The Grea ...

series: ''Will to Power: The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche'', which he taught alongside his wife; ''No Excuses: Existentialism and the Meaning of Life''; and ''Passions: Philosophy and the Intelligence of Emotions.''

Marriage, family, and legacy

He was married to Kathleen Higgins, with whom he co-authored several of his books. She is a professor of philosophy at

. Solomon collapsed and died of

pulmonary hypertension Pulmonary hypertension (PH or PHTN) is a condition of increased blood pressure in the pulmonary artery, arteries of the lungs. Symptoms include dypsnea, shortness of breath, Syncope (medicine), fainting, tiredness, chest pain, pedal edema, swell ...

on January 2, 2007, while changing planes at

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

airport.

Philosophy

The passions: emotions and the meaning of life

Solomon developed a cognitivist theory of the emotions as moral judgements about reality that inherently manifest a natural, pre-deliberative logic. As such, they are susceptible to rational appraisal and revision no less than our beliefs and propositions, and furthermore to strategic ethical reasoning. Emotions should not be suppressed or repressed by efforts at philosophic rationalism, which suffers a withering critique under his analysis, calling it "emasculated" and "absurd". It is our passions, according to R.Solomon, and ''not'' our reason, which are capable of demonstrating to us the meaning and purpose of life. Every emotion has a purpose or goal, even those that seem stupid or painful. Although the objects and strategies differ with each emotion, person, and relationship, the natural purpose of each is to maximize human dignity, the good for oneself and for humankind. Regarding the "air of paradox surrounding an attempt by philosophy to deal with the passions" and the "certain irony that surrounds an attempt by philosophy to deal with the question of the meaning of life", Solomon asks, "is not philosophy, itself, the problem?".

Romeo Romeo Montague () is the male protagonist of William Shakespeare's tragedy ''Romeo and Juliet''. The son of Characters in Romeo and Juliet#Lord Montague, Lord Montague and his wife, Characters in Romeo and Juliet#Lady Montague, Lady Montague, he ...

's conclusion constitutes his premise: "Hang up philosophy! Unless philosophy can make a

Juliet Juliet Capulet () is the female protagonist in William Shakespeare's romantic tragedy ''Romeo and Juliet''. A 13-year-old girl, Juliet is the only daughter of the patriarch of the House of Capulet. She falls in love with the male protagonist Ro ...

." He derides modernist and contemporary theories of the mind and psyche influenced by materialism and scientism as having created a "myth of the passions", which he explodes, exposing the vicissitudes of its "hydraulic model".

On sex, love, marriage, and children

Solomon was particularly interested in the idea of

love Love is a feeling of strong attraction and emotional attachment (psychology), attachment to a person, animal, or thing. It is expressed in many forms, encompassing a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most su ...

, arguing against the notion that

romantic love Romance or romantic love is a feeling of love for, or a Interpersonal attraction, strong attraction towards another person, and the Courtship, courtship behaviors undertaken by an individual to express those overall feelings and resultant ...

is an inherent state of being, maintaining that it is instead a construct of

Western culture Western culture, also known as Western civilization, European civilization, Occidental culture, Western society, or simply the West, refers to the Cultural heritage, internally diverse culture of the Western world. The term "Western" encompas ...

, popularized and propagated in such a way that it has achieved the status of a universal in the eyes of many. Love for Solomon is not a universal, static quality, but an emotion, subject to the same vicissitudes as other emotions, like anger or sadness.

On business ethics

His book ''Ethics and Excellence'' renewed in

business ethics Business ethics (also known as corporate ethics) is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics, that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that can arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of business c ...

— philosophers and managers alike — an interest in Aristotelian

, which he explained so that it could be applied to management development and leadership training. This caused the misunderstanding with some authors (Crane/Matten, ''Business Ethics: A European Perspective'') that virtue ethics was a modern approach, unaware of the roots in

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

. He also wrote about business ethics in ''Above the Bottom Line'', ''It’s Good Business'', ''Ethics and Excellence'', ''New World of Business'' and ''A Better Way to Think about Business''. He had designed and provided programs for

corporations A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the State (polity), state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as ...

and organizations around the world and his books have been translated into more than a dozen languages.

On the history of philosophy

A significant portion of Solomon's work focused on existentialism and phenomenology. He delved into the ideas of existentialist philosophers like Jean-Paul Sartre and phenomenologists like Martin Heidegger. His writings explored profound questions related to human existence, freedom, and personal responsibility. He noted that the topic of the emotions was largely being ignored in Anglo-American analytic philosophy and social science, and also on the continent in the new scientism and structuralism when ''The Passions'' was written in 1976.

Published works

*Above the Bottom Line (Cengage Learning, 1983) *A Better Way to Think About Business: How Personal Integrity Leads to Corporate Success (Oxford, 1999) *A Handbook for Ethics (Cengage Learning, 1993) *''A Passion For Justice'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 1995) *A Passion for Wisdom: A Very Brief History of Philosophy (Oxford, 1990) *Introducing Philosophy: A Text with Integrated Readings (Oxford, 1977) * *''About Love: Reinventing Romance for Our Times'' (Simon & Schuster, 1988) *Building Trust: In Business, Politics, Relationships, and Life (Oxford, 2001) *''Continental Philosophy Since 1750'' (Oxford, 1988) *''Dark Feelings, Grim Thoughts: Experience and Reflection in Camus and Sartre'' (Oxford, 2006) *Entertaining Ideas (Prometheus Books, 1970) *''Ethics and Excellence'' (Oxford, 1992) *Ethics: A Short Introduction (Brown & Benchmark, 1993) *Ethics and Excellence: Cooperation and Integrity in Business (Oxford, 1992) *''From Africa to Zen: An Invitation to World Philosophy'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003) *''From Hegel to Existentialism'' (Oxford, 1987) *''From Rationalism to Existentialism'': The Existentialists and Their Nineteenth-century Backgrounds (Rowman & Littlefield, 2001) *''Existentialism'' (McGraw–Hill, 1974) *"Graduate Study in Continental Philosophy in American Universities," Teaching Philosophy 1:2, 1975 * * * *"Teaching Hegel," Teaching Philosophy 2:3/4, 1977 *''History and Human Nature: A Philosophical Review of European Philosophy and Culture, 1750–1850 (Harcourt Brace Janovich, 1979)'' *In Defense of Sentimentality (Oxford, 2004) *''In the Spirit of Hegel'' (Oxford, 1983) *Introducing Philosophy for Canadians: A Text with Integrative Readings (Oxford, 2011) *Introducing philosophy: Problems and perspectives (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977) *Introducing the Existentialists: Imaginary Interviews with Sartre, Heidegger, and Camus (Hackett Publishing Company, 1981) *Introducing the German Idealists: Mock Interviews with Kant, Hegel and Others and a Letter from Schopenhauer (Hackett Publishing Company, 1981) *''It's Good Business: Ethics and Free Enterprise for the New Millennium'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 1997) *''Living with Nietzsche'' (Oxford, 2003) *Love (Hackett Publishing Company, 2006) *Morality and the Good Life: An Introduction to Ethics Through Classical Sources (McGraw-Hill, 1984) *''Not Passion's Slave: Emotions and Choice'' (Oxford, 2003) *On Ethics and Living Well (Thomson Wadsworth, 2005) *''Phenomenology and Existentialism'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2001) *Philosophy of Religion: A Global Approach (Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1996) *Reading Nietzsche (Oxford, 1990) *''Sexual Paradigms'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002) *Since Socrates: A Concise Source Book of Classic Readings (Cengage Learning, 2004) *''Spirituality for the Skeptic: The Thoughtful Love of Life'' (Oxford, 2002) * *''The Bully Culture: Enlightenment, Romanticism, and the Transcendental Pretense, 1750–1850(Littlefield Adams, 1992)'' *''The Big Questions: A Short Introduction to Philosophy'' (Wadsworth Publishing, 2002) *''The Joy of Philosophy'' (Oxford, 1999) *''The Little Philosophy Book'' (Oxford, 2007) *The New World of Business: Ethics and Free Enterprise in the Global 1990s (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1994) *''The Philosophy of (Erotic) Love'', with Kathleen M. Higgins (University Press of Kansas, 1991) *''Thinking about Feeling: Contemporary Philosophers on Emotions'' (Oxford, 2004) *''True to Our Feelings: What Our Emotions Are Really Telling Us'' (Oxford, 2006) *Up the : Re-Creating Higher Education in America (Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1993) *''What Is An Emotion?: Classic and Contemporary Readings'' (Oxford, 2003) *''What Nietzsche'' Really ''Said'' (Random House/

Schocken Books Schocken Books is a book publishing imprint of Penguin Random House that specializes in Jewish literary works. Originally established in 1931 by Salman Schocken as Schocken Verlag in Berlin, the company later moved to Israel and then the Unit ...

, 2000) (coauthored with Kathleen M. Higgins) *''Wicked Pleasures: Meditations on the 'Seven' Deadly Sins'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2000) *World Philosophy: A Text with Readings (McGraw-Hill, 1995)