Richard H. Popkin, a prominent professor of philosophy, author and longtime Palisades resident, died on April 14. He was 81. Born December 27, 1923, in New York City, Richard was the son of Louis and Zelda Popkin, who ran one of the country’s first public-relations firms. Popkin received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in philosophy from Columbia University. He taught at the Universities of Connecticut and Iowa; Washington University in St. Louis; Harvey Mudd College in Claremont; UC San Diego, where in 1963 he was the founding chair of the philosophy department, and UCLA. He also had numerous visiting appointments. Popkin’s best-known book, ‘The History of Scepticism,’ reshaped the way philosophers understood the development of their discipline. In this book, first published in 1960, Popkin showed how skeptical arguments about the impossibility of defining reliable knowledge challenged philosophers from Erasmus to Descartes to reshape their claims about what human beings could know concerning God and the world. His final revised edition, published in 2003, reflected his findings about the relationship between religion and philosophy in the 16th and 17th centuries. Popkin’s work on the history of scepticism (which he preferred to spell with a ‘c’), achieved worldwide recognition and was translated into four languages. Colleagues also appreciated Popkin’s willingness to pursue original ideas that took him well beyond the boundaries of conventional philosophy. He was a pioneer in researching the interaction of Jewish and Christian philosophy and theology, and in giving serious attention to what were often seen as bizarre forms of thought, such as millenarian speculation, the subject of ‘Messianic Revolution,’ which he co-authored with David Katz in 1998. His interest in skepticism was reflected not only in his scholarly work but in his book, ‘The Second Oswald’ (1966), which disputed the Warren Commission’s conclusion that President John Kennedy had been killed by a lone assassin. Popkin’s enthusiasm in the classroom attracted numerous students, who found his approach a welcome alternative to the more abstract analytical philosophy that came to dominate American campuses after World War II. Graduate students quickly learned that their best chance to get to know their professor came during the marathon sessions of pinochle he loved to preside over. ‘Dick was an inveterate traveler,’ said friend and first Ph.D. student, Professor Harry Bracken, who studied with Dick in Iowa City. ‘He visited libraries in Ireland, The Netherlands, England, France, Germany , Sweden, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Italy. Wherever he went he made friends, and found material which other scholars had not noticed. He leaves literally hundreds of scholars around the world whose lives he touched and whose minds he had fired up.’ One of Popkin’s English friends and colleagues, Sarah Hutton, remembers ‘his generosity towards others, irrespective of age, status or gender, or even whether they agreed with him. His wry sense of humor. The skepticism which ensured that he never took himself or others over seriously. And the way he simply took for granted that scholarship and families did not belong to separate spheres.’ Popkin and his wife Juliet raised three children and lived in cities in a number of countries, throughout the world, including Paris, London, Utrecht, Wolfenbuttel (Germany), Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. They moved to Los Angeles in 1981, when Popkin became the Clark Professor at UCLA’s Clark Library. After his early retirement in 1986, they settled in Pacific Palisades. In his later years, Popkin lost most of his vision, and emphysema rendered him unable to walk. Yet the bearded figure in his wheelchair, with his L.A. Lakers cap on his head, was a familiar sight in the restaurants in his neighborhood. Despite his handicaps, he continued to work, dictating to research assistants, and at the time of his death had nearly completed a book on the 16th century Rabbi Isaac of Troki, whose polemics against Christianity influenced the thinkers of the European Enlightenment and continue to be studied in countless seminaries all over the world. Popkin received many honors, including fellowships from the Guggenheim and Fulbright Foundations. In 1963, he founded the Journal of the History of Philosophy, which became the leading publication in its field, and he was co-founder of the International Archives of the History of Ideas, a major monograph series published in The Netherlands. In 1977, Popkin distinguished himself by chewing gum through the entire commencement at Columbia University, the first after the student rebellions of the ’60s and ’70s, where he was awarded the Nicholas Murray Butler Medal. He had just given up smoking and became the featured element in The New York Times story about the event. In addition to his wife of 60 years, he is survived by his children, Jeremy D. Popkin of Lexington, Kentucky, Margaret L. Popkin of Silver Spring, Maryland, and Susan J. Popkin of Vienna, Virginia; and five grandchildren: Gabriel, Alexander, Damian, Zachary and Rachel. A tribute to Richard Popkin was held Sunday at Aldersgate Retreat Center in the Palisades.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
