York Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Samuel Mallin, died on Friday, Aug. 2, of lung cancer, at the age of 72.
Professor Mallin received his PhD from the University of Toronto in 1974 and was the author of two books, Merleau-Ponty’s Philosophy (Yale, 1979) and Art, Line, Thought (Springer, 1995).
His “body-hermeneutic method” of doing phenomenology was influential among visual artists and musicians as well as philosophers. A witness to Professor Mallin’s impact on philosophers and artists alike was a two-day conference titled “Body Philosophy and Art: Developing Sam Mallin’s Thinking,” staged at Founders College in April 2011. The conference brought together, in dialogue, former students and colleagues from both these, and other, too-often discrete fields.
Professor Mallin joined the philosophy department in the Atkinson Faculty of Liberal & Professional Studies in 1969 and remained there until he retired in 2006, serving for many years as chair of the department and coordinator of the Modes of Reasoning course. He was a great champion of general education at York and in particular of Modes of Reasoning, developing a unique way of teaching critical reading, thinking and writing from which many generations of York students have profited.
A private memorial service is being planned.