astronomy

Jonathan Lear

Jonathan Lear is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Jonathan Lear rather than just read about it. In short: Jonathan David Lear (October 9, 1948 – September 22, 2025) was an American philosopher and psychoanalyst. He was the John U.

Key takeaways

Jonathan Lear belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Jonathan Lear to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Jonathan Lear from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Jonathan David Lear (October 9, 1948 – September 22, 2025) was an American philosopher and psychoanalyst. He was the John U. Nef Distinguished Service Professor in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago and served as the Roman Family Director of the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society from 2014 to 2022.

Background and career Jonathan David Lear was born in New York City on October 9, 1948. His father and Norman Lear were first cousins. Lear was brought up in West Hartford, Connecticut. Lear earned his B.A. (cum laude) in history at Yale in 1970 and his B.A. in philosophy at Cambridge in 1973. He then received his Ph.D. in philosophy at Rockefeller University with a dissertation on Aristotle's logic directed by Saul Kripke. He also trained at the Western New England Institute for Psychoanalysis in 1995. He subsequently won the Gradiva Award from the National Association for Psychoanalysis three times for work that advances psychoanalysis. Before moving to Chicago permanently in 1996, Lear taught philosophy at Cambridge University (1979-1985), where he was a fellow and the director of studies in philosophy of Clare College. He also taught philosophy at Yale University and was chair of the department of philosophy (1978–79, 1985–1996). He is a member of the International Psychoanalytical Association. In 2009, he received the Mellon Distinguished Achievement Award in the Humanities. During his time as the Roman Family Director of the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society was able to work with the Apsáalooke Nation and the Field Museum of Natural History to sponsor the exhibit Apsáalooke Women and Warriors. In 2017, he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2019. Lear was first married to Cynthia Farrar, with whom he had a daughter before divorcing. In 2003, he married fellow academic Gabriel Richardson, with whom he had a son. Jonathan Lear died from stomach cancer at his home in Chicago on September 22, 2025, at the age of 76.

Philosophical work Lear's early work focused on formal logic and ancient Greek philosophy. Much of his work involves the intersection of psychoanalysis and philosophy. In addition to work involving Sigmund Freud, he also wrote widely on Aristotle, Plato, Immanuel Kant, Søren Kierkegaard and Ludwig Wittgenstein, focusing on ideas of the human psyche. His most recent work explores the ethical task of managing to live with the fears and anxieties of world-catastrophe. Lear argues that mourning is a central human practice through which we confront transience, reclaim meaning after loss, and shape how we live ethically in a finite world.

Awards and honors American Philosophical Society, Member (2019) American Academy of Arts and Science, Fellow (2017) Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Distinguished Achievement Award in the Humanities (2011–2014) Gradiva Award, National Association for Psychoanalysis Best Article on the Subject of Psychoanalysis (1995), "The shrink is in", The New Republic Best Psychoanalytic Book (1998), Open Minded: Working Out the Logic of the Soul Best Psychoanalytic Book (2000), Happiness, Death and the Remainder of Life John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship (1987–88) National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for Independent Study and Research (1984–85) The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, Harvard University (November, 2010) Cambridge University (November, 1999)

Works Aristotle and Logical Theory (1980) Aristotle: The Desire to Understand (1988) Love and Its Place in Nature (1990) Open Minded: Working Out the Logic of the Soul (1998) Happiness, Death, and the Remainder of Life (2000) Therapeutic Action: An Earnest Plea for Irony (2003) Freud (2005) Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation (2006) A Case for Irony (2011) Wisdom Won From Illness: Essays in Philosophy and Psychoanalysis (2017) The Idea of a Philosophical Anthropology: The Spinoza Lectures (2017) Imagining the End: Mourning and Ethical Life (2022)

See also American philosophy List of American philosophers

References

External links

Jonathan Lear at IMDb "Why Mourning Is Essential to Our Well-Being with Jonathan Lear", University of Chicago, (Ep. 108), 2 March 2023

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Jonathan Lear

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Jonathan Lear claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Jonathan Lear before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Jonathan Lear ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Jonathan Lear

In research: Jonathan Lear appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Jonathan Lear in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Jonathan Lear is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1948 births, 2025 deaths, 21st-century American philosophers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Jonathan Lear outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Jonathan Lear in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Jonathan Lear means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Jonathan Lear out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Jonathan Lear in simple terms?

Jonathan David Lear (October 9, 1948 – September 22, 2025) was an American philosopher and psychoanalyst. He was the John U.

Why does Jonathan Lear matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Jonathan Lear?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Jonathan Lear.