Paul Edward McLaughlin – 50th Reunion Essay
Paul Edward McLaughlin
Date of Death: 28-Mar-1986
(This obituary appeared in the Boston Globe on April 1, 1986.)
Paul Edward McLaughlin, 38, a scholar who devoted his life to history, especially the intellectual history of 20th-century philosophy, died Friday in San Francisco after an illness of several months. A longtime Cambridge, Massachusetts resident, he moved here in November.
Born in Fall River, Massachusetts, Mr. McLaughlin was the son of Frank J. and the late Helen (Cotter) McLaughlin. Educated in Warwick, Rhode Island public schools, he won history prizes and graduated with honors in 1969 from Yale University.
After military service, Mr. McLaughlin entered Harvard University to pursue graduate work. From 1974 to 1976, Mr. McLaughlin did primary research in Paris on his dissertation, “Alexander Kojeve and the Hegelian Revival in France Between the Wars,” with a Mme. Carriere Traveling Fellowship and a Harvard University Traveling Fellowship.
This work, completed in Cambridge in 1981, broke with Anglo-American historiographical tradition, which had regarded continental philosophy between Kant and Sartre as “largely terra incognita.” Mr. McLaughlin’s work established the logic and continuity of Hegel studies in France in the ’20s and ’30s as a critical element in development of existential Marxist philosophy and contemporary neo-Hegelian schools of thought. Harvard awarded him a PhD in 1982.
While writing his dissertation, Mr. McLaughlin also worked at WGBH-TV and at the Word Processing Center at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s School of Engineering.
In recent years, while continuing scholarly work, including studies of Sartre and of telecommunications theory, he was self-employed as a word-processor and text editor. With an intellect that was considered daunting, Mr. McLaughlin’s friends knew another side: a passionate fan of rock music and the Boston Celtics, an enthusiastic amateur artist and birdwatcher.
He leaves his father and stepmother, Frank J. and Florence (Hufnagel) McLaughlin of Warwick, Rhode Island; two brothers, Jeffrey F. of Cambridge and Jon B. McLaughlin of San Francisco; a sister, Donnell Lovell of Berkeley, Calif.; two nieces and a nephew.
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