It is with great sadness that we report that Professor Maria Rosa Antognazza died on 28 March, after a short illness.
Professor Antognazza served as a member of the Executive Committee of The Royal Institute of Philosophy for the past six years. She was an extraordinary person: a brilliant and learned philosopher, skilled in stewardship, kind and principled. We going to miss her calm counsel, wise judgement, and clear sense of direction. She was an invaluable member of our Executive Committee. The institute relies on the hard work of its trustees, who receive no reward beyond being part of furthering our charitable ends. We are very grateful to have had the chance to work with her.
Professor Antognazza had particular expertise in the history of philosophy, especially Leibniz, and in epistemology and the philosophy of religion. In 2022, she was elected a member of the Academia Europaea. As well as being a trustee of The Royal Institute of Philosophy, she was Chair of the British Society for the History of Philosophy, and served as President of the British Society for the Philosophy of Religion from 2019-2022. Her publications included Leibniz on the Trinity and the Incarnation: Reason and Revelation in the Seventeenth Century (Yale University Press 2007); Leibniz: An Intellectual Biography (Cambridge University Press 2009; winner of the 2010 Pfizer Award); and Leibniz: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press 2016). She has a forthcoming book Thinking with Assent: Renewing a Traditional Account of Knowledge and Belief, with Oxford University Press.
Our thoughts are with her husband and children.