IN MEMORIAM
LOUIS H. MACKEY
Louis H. Mackey (September 24, 1926 - March 25,
2004) was for some thirty-five years a beloved professor in the Department
of Philosophy at The University of Texas at Austin, and at his death,
he was professor emeritus in that department. He was born in Sidney,
Ohio, the only child of Louis and Clara Mackey, received his B.A.
from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, and pursued graduate
studies in philosophy first at Duke University and then at Yale
University. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1954
for a dissertation on the Danish existentialist philosopher Søren
Kierkegaard, "The Nature and the End of the Ethical Life according
to Kierkegaard." He became an assistant professor in the philosophy
department at Yale, then joined the faculty of Rice University
in 1959, and came to The University of Texas at Austin in 1967.
At both Rice and UT, as earlier at Yale, he was known for his
challenging, engaging, and excellent teaching. In the course of
the longest part of his career as a teacher, at UT, Mackey won
several teaching awards, including the prestigious Harry Ransom
Award for Teaching Excellence in 1987. Many of his students report
that Mackey had been the most profound and profoundly formative
professor of their entire careers. One student describes his lectures
as "architectural masterpieces"; another observes that
Mackey approached each philosopher he taught as if "from the
inside."
His books and articles reflected subtle intellect, wit, vision,
and passionate engagement. His book, Kierkegaard:A
Kind of Poet, quickly became a classic. Mackey not only clarified
and defended that passionate and difficult philosopher but introduced
a radically literary approach to philosophical interpretation.
Fifteen years later, in a new book on Kierkegaard and under the
influence of the new theories of literary interpretation, he published Points
of View, in which he effectively deconstructed his own earlier
views. He also wrote and lectured widely on Saint Augustine and
Medieval Philosophy, and he became a recognized literary critic,
writing extensively on literary theory and on literature, including,
especially, the works of Gilbert Sorrentino and Thomas Pynchon.
Mackey loved music and was an accomplished amateur singer (and
sometime director) of madrigal, oratorio, cantata, and liturgical
chant, and his artistic talents extended to occasional acting in
theater, television, and film. Cinema audiences in Austin know
him in particular for his roles in Richard Linklater's films "Slacker" and "Waking
Life." He was a faithful member of the Anglican Communion
and attended All Saints Episcopal Church in Austin, where he frequently
served as lay reader. A week before his death, he was discussing
the popular Christian thinker C.S. Lewis with his son Jacob, a
Ph.D. student in classics at Princeton. Speaking of himself, the
father observed that, unlike C.S. Lewis, he had never felt that
he had any easily formulable, final answers. As his son remembers
it, Mackey then went on: "I only know one thing: that in the
Credo, there is a change in the verb at the end. The creed begins
with the verb credo, 'I believe,' proceeds to list the matters
of fact, as it were, of faith, but at the very end the verb changes
to one of hope. I look with hope for the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come."
Louis is survived by his first wife, Caroll Brandt, and their
sons, Stephen and Thomas Mackey, and by his second wife, Linda
Mackey, and their children, Jacob and Dr. Eva Mackey.
<signed>
Larry R. Faulkner, President
The University of Texas at Austin
<signed>
Sue Alexander Greninger, Secretary
The General Faculty
This memorial resolution was prepared by a special committee consisting of
Professors Robert C. Solomon (chair), Alexander P. D. Mourelatos, and Kathleen
M. Higgins.
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