William J. Prior (1946-2026)

William J. Prior, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Santa Clara University, has died. The following obituary is by Elizabeth Radcliffe. William J. Prior (1946-2026) William J. Prior, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Santa Clara University, died on April 23rd, 2026, a few weeks short of his 80th birthday. Professor Prior is best known for his work on Socrates and Plato. Over the course of his career, Professor Prior published many articles and reviews, mainly in ancient Greek philosophy. He authored four books: Unity and Development in Plato’s Metaphysics (1985), Virtue and Knowledge (1991), Ancient Philosophy: A Beginner’s Guide (2016) and Socrates (2019). He edited two four-volume collections of articles on the philosophy of Socrates, Socrates: Critical Assessments, published in 1996 and 2018 by Routledge. The publisher calls these volumes “a collection of some of the most significant scholarship published on the philosophy of Socrates in the last half century.” Professor Prior,…