Lynne Baker, a former Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst died late last month at her home in Amherst. She was 73 years old and had suffered from heart disease.
Dr. Baker began her academic career at what is now Mary Baldwin University in Staunton, Virginia. She then spent 13 years on the faculty at Middlebury College in Vermont before joining the faculty at the University of Massachusetts in 1989. She was promoted to Distinguished Professor in 2005 and retired in 2013.
Professor Baker was the author of several books including The Metaphysics of Everyday Life: An Essay in Practical Realism (Cambridge University Press, 2007) and Naturalism and the First-Person Perspective (Oxford University Press, 2013).
A native of Atlanta, Dr. Baker held a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.