Brayton (Brady) Polka, a professor emeritus in the humanities department at York University, passed away on March 1 at the age of 88. A distinguished scholar and educator, Polka’s impact on academia and his students spanned over five decades.
Polka once shared that his everyday motivation was best evoked by adapting something philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said: “to become the person I am and to be the person I become.”
Over the course of his life, Polka lived up to that mantra in becoming a long-serving and influential York University professor whose life was marked by intellectual contributions and dedication to education.
Originally from Oregon, Polka earned his PhD in Renaissance history from Harvard University in 1962 before joining York University in 1966 as an assistant professor of history and humanities after being encouraged by a colleague to “come north.”
In the ensuing years, Polka played a pivotal role in shaping the University’s academic landscape, co-founding the graduate program in social and political thought in 1973 and leading the initiative to establish a graduate program in the humanities. Even after his official retirement in 2002, he remained an active member of the academic community, continuing to teach graduate courses until 2021.
Polka was deeply committed to his students, fostering their intellectual growth with a guiding principle drawn from philosopher Immanuel Kant’s call to enlightment: Sapere aude – “Dare to think.” He was dedicated to critical, independent and truthful thinking, as well as to the generations of students who received his mentorship and scholarly insight.
His academic interests focused on European philosophy, religion, literature and the arts. He explored the intersection of philosophy, theology and modernity, challenging conventional dichotomies between religion and philosophy, faith and reason, and the secular and the religious. His contributions to scholarship, particularly around the works of Baruch Spinoza, Sigmund Freud, Kant and William Shakespeare, were widely recognized and respected.
Throughout his career, Polka was a prolific author, publishing 11 books and numerous articles. A notable work was his 1986 book, The Dialectic of Biblical Critique, which first articulated his innovative perspective on the fundamental differences between the ancient Greek and modern (biblical) worlds. Central to his philosophy was the belief that philosophy was not merely the “love of wisdom,” as understood in Ancient Greece, but, inspired by the Old and New Testaments, a “love of neighbor.”
"Brady was a giant both with respect to intellectual stature and kindness and warmth to students. He was very patient with students, but he held them to very high standard. He was never afraid to debate anyone and to tell you if you were wrong, but also never afraid to tell you if he found your contributions useful. His impact at York, especially in social and political thought was enormous, having mentored several students, leaving a significant and lasting legacy," says Gamal Abdel-Shehid, a professor in York University’s Department of Social Sciences.
Beyond academia, Polka was known for his passion for art, music and culture. He was an avid birder, traveller and enthusiast of fine art. He was also a frequent patron of Toronto’s premier cultural institutions, including the Royal Ontario Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Opera Atelier and the Toronto Summer Music Festival.
When he was honoured by York University for 55 years of service, he shared some words that resonate with the legacy he now leaves behind. “It has always been for me truly an honour, a privilege and a blessing to be in the position of helping students learn to embody in their work and thinking, in their lives, the hermeneutical imperative: do unto others what you want others to do unto you."