Dear Colleagues, Friends, and Alumni,

It is with a heavy heart that we share the sad news that Dan Breazeale passed away on December 30, 2023.

Dan first came to the department as an assistant professor in 1971, after completing his PhD at Yale University. He was an internationally recognized scholar who specialized in German Philosophy from Kant to Nietzsche, with a research focus on post-Kantian Idealism and the philosophy of J. G. Fichte. He was the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including 6 National Endowment for the Humanities grants and 2 Humboldt Research fellowships. He was named University of Kentucky Research Professor in 1991-1992, University of Kentucky Distinguished Professor in Arts and Sciences in 2005-2006, and University of Kentucky Provost's Distinguished Service Professor in 2013. He was the philosophy department chair from 1998-2002 and 2007-2009. In addition to his research, Dan was also an influential teacher and mentor, advising numerous undergraduate and graduate students, and chairing 17 PhD dissertations during his 48-year career at UK.

He officially retired from the department and became Professor Emeritus in 2019; nonetheless, he enthusiastically continued his research - including being part of our Speakers' Colloquia in 2022-2023, where gave his talk "Construction in Intuition: A Method of the Jena Wissenschaftslehre" in December 2022.

He is survived by his wife, Viv, their two daughters, Nicole and Rebecca, and 5 grandchildren. He will be greatly missed.

If you would like to share some words of remembrance, or write something to honor the significance of his work and scholarship, please email Prof. Meg Wallace (meg.wallace@uky.edu). 

Dan's Obituary can be found here. A Celebration of Life for Dan will be held Saturday January 20th from 10am - 11:30am in Lexington, KY, at the Bolivar Art Gallery at the UK School of Art and Visual Studies at 236 Bolivar St.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks you to consider a donation to WUKY, his local NPR affiliate, that provided the backdrop to each of his workspaces for decades. May they keep spreading knowledge.

With much love and respect,

The University of Kentucky Philosophy Department