FEINBERG, Joel 1926-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born October 19, 1926, in Detroit, MI; died of complications from Parkinson's disease, March 29, 2004, in Tucson, AZ. Philosopher, educator, and author. Feinberg was a highly regarded philosopher who was acclaimed for his writings concerning the limitations of the law and government on public morality. After attending the University of Illinois for a year, he served in the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1946, returning to his studies at the University of Michigan, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1957. His academic career began at Brown University in 1955, followed by teaching positions at Princeton University and the University of California in the mid-1960s. From 1967 to 1977, he was professor of philosophy at Rockefeller University, where he also served as chair of the department from 1971 to 1977. Feinberg then moved on to Tucson in 1977, where he joined the University of Arizona faculty, was head of the philosophy department from 1978 to 1981, and became Regents Professor of Philosophy and Law in 1988. He retired as a professor emeritus in 1994. Feinberg was lauded by his colleagues for his ability to convey complex ideas simply in books such as Rights, Justice and the Bounds of Liberty: Essays in Social Philosophy (1980), the four-volume The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law (1984-88), and Freedom and Fulfillment (1992). In these books he established what he felt should be the limits of government and the law on individuals' personal freedoms. Feinberg, who was also a former president of the American Philosophical Association, continued to lecture widely after his retirement.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Chicago Tribune, April 6, 2004, Section 3, p. 13.

Los Angeles Times, April 7, 2004, p. B11.

New York Times, April 5, 2004, p. A23.