Harry Seton Deutsch died at his home in Normal, IL, on July 14, 2025. He is survived by his son, Max Deutsch, his daughter in-law, Ann Baldoni, and his grandkids, Jack and Sadie Deutsch. His beloved pug dogs, Mario, Champ, and Frankie, have been adopted by loving new families, as per Harry's last wishes.

Harry will be greatly missed by his family and friends. He was a brilliant scholar of philosophy and logic, had a keen sense of humor and the absurd, and was often affectionate and loyal towards those with whom he was close. He was passionate about his intellectual endeavors and about many other things besides, including poetry (a profound and lasting interest throughout his life), jazz, opera, boxing, Porsche sports cars, and Los Angeles, California and the Hollywood Hills (where he lived in several different periods of his life).

Harry was Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Illinois State University, where he spent the bulk of his career and inspired many students in further study in the discipline. He was a UCLA PhD whose work in philosophy is highly esteemed and has had a significant impact in several philosophical subfields. Before his death, he was at work on a comprehensive coauthored book about the work of the great philosopher/logician, Alonzo Church. Harry was lucid and able to discuss his ongoing projects until the very end of his life. His professional collaborators knew him as an extremely talented and knowledgeable interlocutor and all have expressed deep sadness about the loss to philosophy and philosophical logic that Harry's death represents. Harry's father, Robert (predeceased), was a professor of literature, and Harry's son, Max, is himself a professor of philosophy. Harry was justly proud of the Deutsch family's legacy of three generations of scholars.

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by The Pantagraph on Aug. 19, 2025.

Memories and Condolences
for Harry Deutsch

Sponsored by Beck Memorial Home.

2 Entries

Nathan Salmon

August 25, 2025

A sweet anecdote: On May 18-Bertrand Russell´s birthday-2005, Harry and I participated in a conference on Russell at McMaster University. McMaster University houses the Russell Archives, which include Russell's personal library. At one point, the conference participants were invited to peruse the archives. I found a number of historically important items, including Russell's copy, complete with his handwritten marginalia, of the first volume of Frege's /Basic Laws of Arithmetic/ (in German, which Russell understood). There was also a beautifully re-bound copy of Russell´s /The Principles of Mathematics/, which Russell had purchased from Wittgenstein, & which bore each of their signatures-as indicating the book´s ownership. (This time no marginalia.) Quite apart from, and pre-dating, his love of philosophical logic, Harry always had a very keen interest in literature and poetry. (He had been a literature major.) He spotted a copy of the poems of T. S. Eliot. Eliot had been a student of Russell's at Oxford, where the two together with Eliot's wife formed a close bond. Also, each of Eliot and Russell received a Nobel Prize in literature. Harry remarked that this very book token had unique value, because of the special relationship between Eliot and Russell--each of them undeniable heavyweights in the two worlds of letters that Harry most loved. I wondered out loud whether Eliot might have signed the copy. Harry pulled the book from the shelf and opened it to the inside cover. His jaw fell to the floor when we saw the handwritten inscription: To Bertie, Tom.
With great appreciation, so long my friend.

Nathan Salmon (Professor of the Graduate Division, UCSB)

August 23, 2025

Harry was the single most under-rated figure in analytic philosophy. He was my first serious teacher in philosophy when I was an undergraduate at UCLA, and he set me on my course as a philosopher. Harry was one of the best philosophical logicians I've known, and I've known most of the very best, some of them quite well. Certainly Harry's brilliance is unrecognized by numerous philosophers who erroneously see themselves as significantly more capable than him. I can't begin to imagine how frustrating this must have been for him.

Showing 1 - 2 of 2 results