Nelson Pike

UCI Professor Emeritus of Philosophy Nelson Pike passed away on January 24, 2010.

Professor Pike was a highly influential philosopher of religion, author of God and Timelessness (1970), Mystic Union: An Essay in the Phenomenology of Mysticism (1994), and numerous articles including “Divine Omniscience and Voluntary Action” (1965), which was itself the theme of an article in a journal on re-reading classic articles (*). Pike also edited two widely read editions, one on Hume’s Dialogues on Natural Religion and a collection on God and Evil.

Nelson Pike was born on December 26, 1930. He earned an M.A. at the University of Michigan and his Ph.D. from Harvard. After teaching briefly at UCLA and Brown, he taught at Cornell from 1960-1968. He taught at UC Irvine from 1968 until his retirement in 1991. Professor Pike was a famously charismatic teacher, widely admired by students at all levels, winning teaching awards at Cornell and at UCI. He directed numerous doctoral dissertations at Irvine. He was indeed an active and engaging colleague, chairing the Philosophy Department for two periods, and leaving the Department all the better for his multi-dimensional contributions.

David Woodruff Smith, Professor
Department of Philosophy, UC Irvine

*Engaging with Pike: God, Freedom, and Time
John Martin Fischer, Patrick Todd, and Neal Tognazzini
Re-reading of Nelson Pike, ‘Divine Omniscience and Voluntary Action’, Philosophical Review 74 (1) (1965): 27-46.