Charles E. Scott (1935-2026)

Charles E. Scott, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Research Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Vanderbilt University and Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Penn State University, known for his work in continental philosophy, has died. The following obituary is by Nancy Tuana. Charles E. Scott (1935-2026) Charles E. Scott, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Research Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Vanderbilt University and Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Penn State University, a highly regarded continental philosopher, died on March 30, 2026. He was 90. Dr. Scott’s contributions to continental philosophy were highly influential. He published 17 books and anthologies—among them Living with Indifference, The Lives of Things, The Question of Ethics, and Telling Silence. In 2020 he co-authored with Nancy Tuana Beyond Philosophy: Nietzsche, Foucault, Anzaldúa. He published over 200 articles and chapters on thinkers such as Foucault, Heidegger, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, as well as on topics such as psychoanalysis, ethics, death and dying, and love. He was working on a new manuscript, Ever For Ever Now. He served as the Director of the Robert Penn Warran Center for the Humanities at Vanderbilt as well as the Founding Director of the Vanderbilt University Center for Ethics. Charles Scott’s philosophy, Michael Naas explains, “always begins, like philosophy itself, in wonder, in astonishment, though that wonder is often to be found in places that are rarely taken seriously, let alone explored, by philosophy. He begins the first chapter of The Lives of Things by suggesting that ‘facts’ —facts of all things!—‘are as effective as ‘poetic experiences’ in occasioning astonishment and a sense of wonder.’ We are now in the wondrous universe of Charles Scott, for whom ‘experiences of astonishment do not require universal necessity or something transcendent beyond our worlds of meaning.’” Dr. Scott brought that deep sense of wonder to the classroom. Students remember him as a powerful orator with a keen sense of humor. He was, as John Lysaker recounted, “one who gives us back to ourselves richer than ever without robbing us of the task that each of us is, the task of finding ourselves in the conduct of life.” Robert Bernasconi writes, “For an original thinker, Charles Scott had the rare ability to be able to help others develop.. The post Charles E. Scott (1935-2026) first appeared on Daily Nous.