Carl Cohen, Ph.D Obituary – Detroit News

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Carl Cohen, Ph.D and professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan, admired and loved by thousands of students and colleagues during his 62 years on the Michigan faculty, died on August 26, 2023 at the age of 92. His tenure at Michigan was one of the longest in the history of the university.
Carl joined the University of Michigan faculty in 1955, after completing his Ph.D at UCLA. He was one of the planners and founding members of the UM Residential College in 1967, a unit within the larger university designed to maintain the spirit of cooperative study. He was the founder, and for ten years Director, of the Program in Human Values in Medicine at the UM Medical School. He served as Chairman of the UM Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs (SACUA), and on the Executive Committee of the College of LS&A.
Born in Brooklyn on April 30, 1931, Cohen moved from New York to Miami, Florida at the age of 12 and attended school there. In 1947 he won a Coca-Cola scholarship to the University of Miami, where he participated actively in its national championship debate team. He graduated summa cum laude in 1951, going on to a Master’s degree at the University of Illinois in 1952, and to the University of California Los Angeles where he received his Ph.D. in philosophy in 1955. In the fall of 1955 he began his career at University of Michigan, retiring only after suffering a stroke in 2017. He taught many classes in the UM Residential College, Department of Philosophy, and elsewhere throughout his tenure; even in treatment for that stroke, his doctors, nurses, and physical therapists turned out to include multiple of his former students.
For many years, Cohen was a member of the National Board of Directors of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and participated as Chair of its Michigan affiliate from 1971-1974. Cohen believed that even the most terrible positions people may hold must not be silenced. He was also an active member of the labor panel of the American Arbitration Association, and he served as a consultant to the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. Senate, the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Humanities Center, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. During sabbaticals and leaves Cohen served as visiting professor of philosophy at universities around the world, including the National University of Singapore, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, universities in Cuzco and Trujillo in Peru (where he taught in Spanish), Hong Kong University, and the universities of Otago and Victoria in New Zealand.
Cohen’s ten books, translated into many languages, include: Democracy (1972); Civil Disobedience: Conscience, Tactics and the Law (1971); Naked Racial Preference (1997); Four Systems (1982); Communism, Fascism and Democracy: The Theoretical Foundations (3rd ed., 1997), A Conflict of Principles: The Battle over Affirmative Action at the University of Michigan (2014), and, most recently, Both Wrong and Bad (2018). He is coauthor of The Animal Rights Debate (with Tom Regan, 2001), Affirmative Action and Racial Preference (with James Sterba, 2003), and the most widely used textbook in logic around the globe, Introduction to Logic, (with Irving Copi) whose 15th edition was published in 2016 (with Victor Rodych).
Cohen also published scores of essays on contemporary philosophical controversies, e.g.: abortion, freedom of speech, conscientious objection, college admission, human subject use, genetic engineering, organ transplantation, and the use of animals in biomedical research, in various periodicals including: The Nation, The Civil Liberties Review, The New York Times, The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, The Journal of the American Medical Association, The Texas Law Review, The Yale Review, The Michigan Review, Ethics, and The New England Journal of Medicine. Cohen’s books and articles contributed to the history of American philosophy – and to the personal opinions of many people.
Traveling widely, Carl would often hike solo on remote islands – in Scandinavia (Aland in Finland and Laeso in Denmark), in Britain (Sark, the Isle of Mull and the Isle of Man), in the Mediterranean (Sardinia and Crete), in Japan (Shodoshima), in the South Atlantic (Dominica), and many others, often making lifelong friends during his solo travels who he would return to visit often. Rarely saying no to an adventure, he also (for instance) hiked Angel’s Landing at Zion National Park and all the way down the Grand Canyon at the age of 77, and took a train through the Canadian Rockies and a boat down the Danube river at the age of 91.
Chess was one of the passions of Cohen’s early life; he ceased to play competitively when his teaching career began, though he remained a lifelong member of the US Chess Federation. He was a low-brow astronomer, taking pleasure in the identification, by name, of scores of stars visible to the naked eye in the night sky and teaching the same to his children (and anyone who would listen). A passion that never faded for him was his love of dogs. Former students, now themselves retired, recall with delight the West Highland White Terrier, Hamish, who accompanied him to class for 16 years. There was never a day when the loyalty of his dogs, and his loyalty to them, did not mark the hours. Cohen is mourned by three faithful friends, Argos, a mix of Cairn Terrier and Poodle, Oskar (named for Oskar Schindler), a Berniedoodle, and the dog he described as the sweetest companion of his life, a Labradoodle named from Lamentations: Chadesh Yameinu KeKedem, renew our days as of old.
Cohen’s first marriage to Muriel Milkove was happy, but ended with her death from cancer in 1987. His second marriage, to Jan Schlain, ended in 1999. He is survived by his two children from his second marriage, Jaclyn Cohen and Noah Cohen, his nephews and nieces and their spouses: Matthew Graff (Leslie Lawther), David Graff (Lori Keros-Graff), Miriam Graf (Melvin Graf), Ron Bloom, 7 great-nieces-and-nephews, 4 great-great-nieces and nephews, and many close friends.
Carl’s impact on the field of contemporary philosophy, as a teacher, and as a parent and uncle will be felt for decades to come. Alongside his notable intellectual and worldly accomplishments, Carl’s exuberant, energetically warm, generous, sometimes provocative, and highly engaged spirit is legendary among all he encountered.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the ACLU (https://www.aclu.org/action/), the University of Michigan Musical Society (https://ums.org/), or the Residential College (https://lsa.umich.edu/rc/alumni-friends/giving-opportunities.html).
A funeral service will be held at Beth Israel Congregation in Ann Arbor on Monday, Aug 28 at 1PM. Shiva will be held Monday through Wednesday.
Posted online on August 27, 2023
Published in The Detroit News, Detroit Free Press

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