Tom Rockmore (1942-2026)

Tom Rockmore, professor emeritus of philosophy at Peking University and distinguished professor emeritus at Duquesne University, has died. (The following memorial notice was written by Gabriel Gottlieb.) Tom Rockmore, professor emeritus at Peking University, passed away on August 6th. He was known for his work on German Idealism, where he emphasized its constructivist methods in epistemology. Tom’s dissertation, Man as Activity in Fichte and Marx, defended in 1973 at Vanderbilt University, was advised by John Lachs. Tom expanded his work on Fichte and Marx in his pioneering book Fichte, Marx, and the German Philosophical Tradition, published in 1980. As a prolific author (publishing more than 25 books), Tom wrote on a variety of philosophical topics, including ancient philosophy, Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Lukács and the Frankfurt School, phenomenology, Heidegger’s Nazism, Hegel and analytic philosophy, aesthetics, and constructivist epistemology, often exploring topics years prior to their…