Ping-ti Ho | 1917–2012

Ping-ti Ho, a prominent scholar of Chinese social and economic history, died June 7, 2012 at his home in southern California. He was 95.

Ho, the James Westfall Thompson Professor Emeritus of History and East Asian Languages and Civilizations, made his mark with two landmark studies of Chinese culture: The Ladder of Success in Imperial China: Aspects of Social Mobility, 1368–1911 and The Cradle of the East: An Inquiry into the Indigenous Origins of Techniques and Ideas of Neolithic and Early Historic China 5000-1000 B.C.  In the latter book, Ho argued that China’s early cultural achievements in areas such as agriculture, language, and metallurgy were developed with little outside influence from other cultures.

His other publications included Studies on the Population of China, 1368–1953 and China in Crisis, Vol. 1, as well as numerous publications in Chinese.

Ho was born in Tientsin, China, in 1917. He received his BA in 1938 from the National Tsinghua University before coming to the United States, where he earned his PhD from Columbia University in 1952. He began his career studying European history, before shifting his focus to the demographics and social history of imperial China and, later, to ancient Chinese culture.

Ho received numerous honors throughout his distinguished career. A member of the Academic Sinica and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he also served as president of the Association for Asian Studies and vice president of the National Association of Chinese Americans.

Ho received honorary degrees from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and from Lawrence and Denison Universities, as well as honorary membership in the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Ho retired from UChicago in 1986 and was a visiting professor at the University of California, Irvine, until 1990.

Ho continued his scholarly work throughout his active retirement; at the time of his death, he was at work on a new article on the work of the ancient philosopher Laozi.

Ho is survived by his two sons and was preceded in death by his wife, Ching-lo. A memorial service was held on June 29.

Read the University’s full obituary, a tribute on the Academia Sinica website, and other coverage.

Leonard Linsky | 1922–2012

Leonard Linsky, an emeritus professor in Philosophy, died August 27, 2012.  He was 89.

Linsky's landmark books—Referring (1967), Names and Descriptions (1977), and Oblique Contexts (1983)—were influential explorations of how names and descriptive expressions can be used to talk about real-world objects and phenomena, a central issue in the philosophy of language.

He edited the 1952 collection Semantics and the Philosophy of Language, an anthology that brought together seminal texts in the philosophy of language and helped “establish the canon in the field at mid-twentieth century,” said Michael Kremer, the Mary R. Morton Professor of Philosophy. Later in his career, Linsky delved more deeply into the history of modern logic and early analytic philosophy, with a particular focus on the work of Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, and Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Linsky was notable for his ability to clearly articulate the central issues at the heart of his field, according to his colleagues. While he would ultimately advance his own opinions, said William Tait, Professor Emeritus in Philosophy, “I always felt that the main thing for him was to clearly understand the issues. Talking with him was very therapeutic in this respect.” Tait edited Early Analytic Philosophy: Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein: Essays in Honor of Leonard Linsky, a collection that grew out of a 1992 conference on the occasion of Linsky's retirement.

Linsky received his BA, MA, and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. He taught at the University of Illinois prior to teaching at Chicago.

He is survived by his sons Bernard and Harry; granddaughters Andrea, Ruth, and Jean; niece Jessica Spanos; and his companion Alexandra Bellow. He was preceded in death by his wife Joan Linsky (née Gregg) in 2001. Donations in Linsky’s honor may be made to the Department of Philosophy, 1115 E. 58th Street, Chicago, IL 60637.

View the full obituary published by the University's News Office and visit the memorial page set up by the Department of Philosophy.