Robert Greenberg

Robert Greenberg, beloved husband, devoted father, treasured grandfather, venerated professor, and distinguished scholar, died peacefully in his sleep on March 21, 2024 at the age of 89. Professor Greenberg taught philosophy to generations of students spanning more than 60 years, mostly at Brandeis University. A graduate of Reed College, he was a Fulbright Scholar at St. Andrew's and Oxford, and a Woodrow Wilson Scholar at the University of Chicago, where he earned his PhD. He is the author of Kant's Theory of A Priori Knowledge (2001), Real Existence, Ideal Necessity (2008), and The Bounds of Freedom: Kant's Causal Theory of Action (2016). He was prized as a teacher and admired as a thinker on Kant, metaphysics, and the history of philosophy. He was ahead of his time in prioritizing family above all else in a home that has been a warm, welcoming gathering place for family and friends across many decades. He enjoyed a splendid 60-year-long love affair with his wife, Maida Jablon Greenberg, whose own career as a psychoanalyst he supported by sharing the duties of shopping for groceries (always with an eye for a bargain), cooking family dinners, and taking care of children. Together they enjoyed travel, music, art, conversation, and family. His children Judith (Ira Joseph), David (Suzanne Nossel), and Jonathan (Megan Blumenreich) were showered with boundless love, admiration, and the sheer joy he took in being a present, engaged father. As a parent he fulfilled everything he had longed for having lost his own father to cancer at age 6. A star quarterback at Fairfax High School in L.A., he grew into lifelong swimmer and cyclist, a passionate Little League coach, and a devoted track meet, swim meet, and rugby match attendee. An intellectual powerhouse, his example led all three of his children to pursue PhDs and prolific careers in academia. Proudly liberal in his politics, he always sided with the underdog and bequeathed to all his descendants a concern for those less fortunate and a skepticism towards authority. He disdained cant and sloppy thinking but was open to learning and dialogue. To his grandchildren, Claire, Hank, Sasha, Maggie, Leo, and Liza, he was a source of love, enthusiasm, and support for every passion and pursuit and a joyful leader of bountiful family gatherings around the dinner table in Newton, MA and at the beach in Cape Cod. It is hard to imagine the family Thanksgiving or Passover table without his warm voice, crackling laugh, and bracing opinions. He will be remembered for his rigorous intellect, the pleasure he took in all aspects of life, and his broad smile and twinkling eyes.

Funeral services will be held at Plaza Jewish Community Chapel at 9:30 am, Monday morning (March 25), 630 Amsterdam Ave at 91st St., New York NY, and live-streamed at the chapel website. Burial will follow at Sharon Gardens, Kensico Cemetery, 273 Lakeview Avenue, Valhalla, NY. The family will sit shiva on: Monday afternoon, at the home of David Greenberg and Suzanne Nossel, 310 West 72nd St., #7AB, New York from 4.00 until 7:00 p.m.; Tuesday evening at the home of Judith Greenberg and Ira Joseph, 102 West 75th. St. #51, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.; and Friday afternoon at the home of Maida Greenberg, at 3:00 pm at 48 Ballard St., Newton, MA.