Jay Rosenberg

Who was Jay Rosenberg?

Jay Frank Rosenberg was a Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was a student of Wilfrid Sellars and established his reputation with ten books and over 80 articles in metaphysics, epistemology, the philosophy of language, and the history of philosophy. His most commercially successful work, The Practice of Philosophy: A Handbook for Beginners, is a standard text in introductory philosophy courses, and has been translated into German.

Rosenberg's first publication, which he wrote as an undergraduate at Reed College, was The Impoverished Students' Book of Cookery, Drinkery, and Housekeepery!. That delightful little book has been republished and is available from the Reed College bookstore. Also while at Reed, Rosenberg is believed to have contributed to the design of the game Empire, which he was a keen observer of, though he never played.

Rosenberg won about $50,000 on the television game show Jeopardy! in 1985 and returned for the program's Ultimate Tournament of Champions.