Richard E. Flathman, political theorist, died at 81

  Dead Famous

Richard E. Flathman, born on August 6, 1934 in Saint Paul, Minnesota and died September 6, 2015, he was the George Armstrong Kelly Professor of Political Science, Emeritus, at Johns Hopkins University.

Richard is known for having pioneered, with Brian Barry, David Braybrooke, Felix Oppenheim, and Abraham Kaplan, the application of analytic philosophy to political science.

He was a leading advocate of liberalism and a champion of individuality.

Richard defended a conception of social freedom according to which it is “negative, situated, and elemental.”

He received his PhD from Berkeley in 1962.

Richard has been a professor at Johns Hopkins since 1975, and was chair of his department from 1979 to 1985.

Prior to joining Hopkins, he taught at the Universities of Washington and Chicago, and at Reed College.

With his colleague and interlocutor Richard . Connolly, Flathman founded what is sometimes called the “Hopkins School” of political theory.

Richard E. Flathman died at age 81.