Jaegwon Kim, a leading philosopher of mind and metaphysics and a former Roy Wood Selars Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at the University of Michigan, passed away on Wednesday, November 27th at the age of 85.  Kim was a Michigan Philosophy faculty member from 1967 to 1987, and served as Department Chair from 1979 to 1987.  He also taught at Swarthmore College, Cornell University, the University of Notre Dame, Johns Hopkins University, and Brown University, where he was Professor Emeritus at the time of his passing.

Kim was known for his highly influential work on the mind-body problem and mental causation, conducted in part during his time at Michigan.  He also made significant contributions to the fields of action theory, epistemology, and philosophy of science.  He authored the monographs Mind in a Physical World (1998) and Physicalism, or Something Near Enough (2005); the textbook Philosophy of Mind (1996); several essay collections; and dozens of widely-cited articles.  In 1988-89, Kim served as President of the Central Division of the American Philosophical Association, and was elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1991.

In addition to his scholarly accomplishments, Kim was a generous colleague, a caring mentor, and an exemplary Department Chair during his time at Michigan.  He will be remembered for his thoughtful and collaborative approach to department leadership, his careful judgment, and his pithy wit.