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Daniel Kahneman (1934–2024)

Daniel Kahneman was born in Tel Aviv in British-administered Mandatory Palestine in 1934. Daniel and his parents, who were Lithuanian Jews, were living in Paris at the time of its occupation by Nazi Germany from 1940. Throughout the occupation and World War II, the family was able to remain in France but were under constant threat. Kahneman relocated to Palestine in 1948, the same year as the creation of the state of Israel.

Kahneman studied psychology and mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1954, the same year he began his military service. Kahneman worked in the psychology department of the Israeli Defense Forces before going to the United States in 1958 to study for a PhD in psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. After receiving his degree at UC, Berkeley, Kahneman began a long and eventful career as a teacher and scientific researcher that would keep him busy all traveling around the world for several decades. Starting as a lecturer at the Hebrew University, by 1965 he was working as a visiting scientist at the University of Michigan, followed by visits at Harvard and Cambridge—all the while publishing works that increased in influence and reputation.

In 1971, Kahneman and Amos Tversky—who had originally met while they were serving in the Israeli army—began publishing results from their collaborative research, which had started in 1969. Throughout the 1970s, Kahneman and Tversky published papers and articles about what would ultimately be known as prospect theory, the focus of Thinking, Fast and Slow, which Kahneman would publish to wide acclaim in 2011, 15 years after Tversky’s death. The collaboration of the two men is further discussed in the context essay A Collaboration Between Differing Types. 

Kahneman’s base was at Hebrew University where he was a professor until 1978 before moving to the University of British Columbia until 1986. He then returned to UC, Berkeley from 1986 to 1994. After that he was affiliated with Princeton University, and he also retained a connection to Hebrew University as a fellow.

Kahneman was married twice, first to Irah Kahneman, a social researcher with whom he had two children. Kahneman and his second wife, cognitive psychologist Anne Treisman, were married from 1978 until her death in 2018. Starting in 2020, Kahneman lived with Barbara Tversky, the widow of his frequent collaborator Amos Tversky. Daniel Kahneman in 2024 at the age of 90.

Next section Context: A Collaboration Between Differing Types

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