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"The noted philosopher and Santayana scholar Irving Singer, author of the magisterial three-volume work The Nature of Love, died on February 1, 2015, aged 89. Singer was born in Brooklyn on December 24, 1925, and served in World War II. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard in 1948, under the G.I. Bill. The following year he wed Josephine Fisk, an opera singer with whom he had four children. They spent a year at Oxford (1949-1950), during which time Singer read The Last Puritan and in 1950 took a trip to Italy to meet its author. This is related in detail in the delightful article 'A Pilgrimage to Santayana,' which can be found in Singer’s 2000 book George Santayana, Literary Philosopher, an essential work for anyone interested in the life and thought of Santayana. Graduating with a PhD in philosophy from Harvard in 1952, Singer taught at Harvard, Cornell, the University of Michigan, and Johns Hopkins before joining MIT in 1958, where he was to remain for over half a century, retiring from there in 2013. Over his long and distinguished career, Singer wrote numerous articles and 21 books, devoted to such diverse topics as aesthetics, creativity, film, literature, music, and moral philosophy. He combined the rigorous approach of analytic philosophy with the experimental technique of pragmatism. In addition to the Nature of Love trilogy, other titles include Modes of Creativity: Philosophical Perspectives; Mozart and Beethoven: The Concept of Love in Their Operas; Cinematic Mythmaking: Philosophy in Film; Ingmar Berman: Cinematic Philosopher; Santayana’s Aesthetics: A Critical Analysis, and the aforementioned George Santayana: Literary Philosopher. The MIT Press has honored his work by initiating 'The Irving Singer Library,' which has republished many of his books. At the time of his death, Singer was working on a manuscript entitled Creativity in the Brain. A more detailed description of Singer’s many works and awards can be found on the MIT website: http://web.mit/edu/philosophy/singer.html Singer was predeceased by his wife Josephine, who died in 2014. They had been wed for 65 years. He called her his semicollaborator, and joked that 'I write in bed, where I am comfortable, and dictate to my wife. She often disagrees with what I say, and we’ll discuss it, and sometimes I incorporate her ideas.'"

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