Derek Parfit British philosopher dead at age of 74

Derek Parfit (11 December 1942 – 1 January 2017) was a British philosopher who specialised in problems of personal identity, rationality, ethics, and the relations among them.

His 1984 book Reasons and Persons (described by Alan Ryan in The Sunday Times as "something close to a work of genius") has been very influential. His last book, On What Matters (2011), was widely circulated and discussed for many years before its publication.

Parfit worked at Oxford University for all of his academic career, and was an Emeritus Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. He was also a visiting professor of philosophy at New York University, Harvard University, and Rutgers University, and was awarded the 2014 Rolf Schock Prize "for his groundbreaking contributions concerning personal identity, regard for future generations, and analysis of the structure of moral theories."[1]

Parfit was an experienced photographer and a poet. He was married to the philosopher Janet Radcliffe Richards.

News of Parfit's death was first reported among the philosophical community on 2 January 2017