University Times

Long-time philosophy department faculty member Michael Perloff died at his home Nov. 19, 2010, following a stroke. He was 72.

A native of New York City, Perloff earned a PhD at Pitt in 1974. He then taught at the University of Illinois-Chicago before returning to Pitt as a part-time instructor in 1985. He became a full-time lecturer here in 1989 and at the time of his death was serving in that capacity, as well as being assistant chair and undergraduate adviser in the Department of Philosophy.

Co-workers remembered Perloff as a pleasant colleague and a favorite teacher among undergraduates, having found his niche teaching elementary logic and introductory philosophy courses.

Nuel Belnap, A.R. Anderson Distinguished Professor in the philosophy department and a Perloff collaborator, said, “Mickey was assistant chair for a long time and he was the most un-officious official I’ve ever known. He was just a very sweet man. He seemed to do everything for everybody in the department — faculty, staff and students.”

Perloff was co-author, with Belnap and former Pitt visiting faculty member Ming Xu, of “Facing the Future: Agents and Choices in Our Indeterministic World.”

“We had a wonderful time, a lot of fun working on that book,” Belnap said. “It’s about agents in action, and we looked around for classical novels to use as examples, such as ‘The Three Musketeers’ and ‘Moby Dick.’”

Perloff’s work in the logic of agents adopted a modal approach to agency, with agents represented in a branching-tree structure. His theory assumed that actions are founded on choices made by agents who face an open future replete with real possibilities, some of which are realized by agents making choices. Central to the theory is that choices and the actions they ground are indeterministic.

Perloff published articles in Theoria, Synthese, the American Philosophical Quarterly, Studia Logica and the Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence.

His most recent article, “Future Contingencies and the Battle Tomorrow,” written with Belnap, is forthcoming in the Review of Metaphysics.

Perloff is survived by a niece and several cousins.

Donations may be made in Perloff’s name to Bethlehem Haven, 1410 Fifth Ave., Pittsburgh 15219.

The philosophy department is planning a yet-unscheduled memorial service in the spring term.

—Peter Hart