Memorial: Elliott Sober

I got to know Hugh in 1970-72 when I was a research student in working with Mary Hesse.  I was not expecting a member of  faculty to be friendly to me, a lowly student from a foreign land.  Still less did I expect Hugh to invite my wife Norma and me to his place for dinner.  Hugh, Norma, and I were theatre enthusiasts, so we went to plays together and traded tips on what we liked and did not. After those student days, I tried to see Hugh whenever I was in England. Our last conversation was in Fall, 2019.  Hugh was his usual self, personifying Van Fraassen’s quip that you can tell when a good philosophical discussion is underway – the discussants are laughing.  I learned a lot from Hugh’s prose, both the style and the substance.  His realism about metaphysics, his disinclination to talk about metaphilosophy, and his embrace of objective probability all had their impact.  I miss him.