Richard Taylor (November 5, 1919 – October 30, 2003), born in Charlotte, Michigan, was an
American philosopher renowned for his dry wit and his contributions to
metaphysics. He was also an internationally known
beekeeper. Taylor took his PhD at
Brown University, where his supervisor was
Roderick Chisholm. He taught at Brown University,
Columbia and the
University of Rochester, and had visiting appointments at about a dozen other institutions. His best-known book was
Metaphysics (1963). Other works included
Action and Purpose (1966),
Good and Evil (1970) and
Virtue Ethics (1991). Professor Taylor was also the editor of
The Will to Live: Selected Writings of Arthur Schopenhauer. He was an enthusiastic advocate of
virtue ethics. He also wrote influential papers on the
meaning of life, which, like
Albert Camus, he explored through an examination of the myth of
Sisyphus.