Eddy M. Zemach was born in Jerusalem in 1935. His mother, Helena, was a dentist as well as a poet, and his father, Shimon, was a dentist as well as a political figure. Eddy completed B.A. and M.A. degrees in both Hebrew literature and philosophy at the Hebrew university of Jerusalem. He studied for a doctoral degree in philosophy at Yale University. In 1965 he completed his dissertation on the boundaries of the aesthetic, supervised by Paul Weiss. Another of his teachers at Yale was Wilfrid Sellars, who influenced his philosophical views on mind and language. Aesthetics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of language formed the center of his philosophical interest, though this interest was extended to other philosophical areas, such as metaphysics and epistemology. Eddy published extensively in both philosophy and Hebrew literature, and also wrote many short stories (three collections of which have been published). He wrote some two hundred papers, and twelve scholarly books: Analytic Aesthetics. Daga, Tel Aviv, 1970 (in Hebrew). Aesthetics. Israeli Institute for Poetics and Semiotics, Tel Aviv, 1976 (in Hebrew). Real Beauty. Penn State Press, University Park, Pennsylvania, 1997. The Reality of Meaning and the Meaning of 'Reality'. BrownUniversity Press, London and Hanover, New Hampshire, 1992. Types: Essays in Metaphysics. E. J. Brill Publishers, Leiden, 1992. Mind and Right. MagnesPress, Jerusalem, 2001(in Hebrew). Four Poems by Bialik. Iyyunim, Jerusalem, 1961(in Hebrew). K'Shoresh Etz (on Ibn Gabirol's Poetry). Achshav, Jerusalem, 1962; expanded 2nd edition, Sifriyat Poalim, Tel Aviv, 1973 (in Hebrew). Halavie Hamistater (on Bialik). Kiryat Sefer, Jerusalem, 1966; expanded 2nd edition 1970; expanded 3rd edition 1976; expanded 4th edition 1988 (in Hebrew). Philosophia (2014) 42:871–888 DOI 10.1007/s11406-014-9549-3