John Perry (philosopher)
Encyclopedia
John R. Perry is Henry Waldgrave Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University
. He has made significant contributions to areas of philosophy, including logic
, philosophy of language
, metaphysics
, and philosophy of mind
. He is known primarily for his work on situation semantics
(together with Jon Barwise
), reflexivity, indexicality
, and self-knowledge.
in 1964 and his Ph.D. in philosophy from Cornell University
in 1968. He was awarded the Jean Nicod Prize
in 1999. He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
.
Perry is currently Henry Waldgrave Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University
. In 2004, he became co-host, with Kenneth Taylor
, of Philosophy Talk
, the radio program that "questions everything... except your intelligence". He is also part of the Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI)—an independent research center founded in 1983.
, philosophy of language
, metaphysics
, and philosophy of mind
. However, Perry also produces non-technical work that reaches a wider audience, such as his humorous 1995 online essay "Structured Procrastination". Perry was awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in Literature for this essay in 2011. It states:
Perry's 1978 book A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality, deals with standard problems in the theory of personal identity in the form of a dialogue between a mortally wounded university professor, Gretchen Weirob, and her two friends, Sam Miller and Dave Cohen. The views represented include those of Bernard Williams
, John Locke
, and Derek Parfit
. The format of associating different philosophical positions with different characters in a dialogue recalls David Hume
's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
.
In logic, Perry and Jon Barwise
are known for discussion of the slingshot argument
, especially in their 1981 article "Semantic Innocence and Uncompromising Situations".
In his 2001 book Knowledge, Possibility and Consciousness, Perry argues for what he calls "antecedent physicalism", according to which physicalism
is antecedently taken to be a plausible and reasonable position, provided that there are no better rival theories. Thus, Perry defends a version of type physicalism
against three major philosophical arguments for dualism
: the zombie argument
, the knowledge argument
, and the modal argument
.
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
. He has made significant contributions to areas of philosophy, including logic
Logic
In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...
, philosophy of language
Philosophy of language
Philosophy of language is the reasoned inquiry into the nature, origins, and usage of language. As a topic, the philosophy of language for analytic philosophers is concerned with four central problems: the nature of meaning, language use, language cognition, and the relationship between language...
, metaphysics
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
, and philosophy of mind
Philosophy of mind
Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that studies the nature of the mind, mental events, mental functions, mental properties, consciousness and their relationship to the physical body, particularly the brain. The mind-body problem, i.e...
. He is known primarily for his work on situation semantics
Situation semantics
Situation semantics, pioneered by Jon Barwise and John Perry in the early 1980s, attempts to provide a solid theoretical foundation for reasoning about common-sense and real world situations, typically in the context of theoretical linguistics, philosophy, or applied natural language...
(together with Jon Barwise
Jon Barwise
Kenneth Jon Barwise was an American mathematician, philosopher and logician who proposed some fundamental revisions to the way that logic is understood and used....
), reflexivity, indexicality
Indexicality
In linguistics and in philosophy of language, an indexical behavior or utterance points to some state of affairs. For example, I refers to whoever is speaking; now refers to the time at which that word is uttered; and here refers to the place of utterance...
, and self-knowledge.
Biography
John Perry was born in Lincoln, Nebraska on the 16th of January, 1943. He received his B.A. in philosophy from Doane CollegeDoane College
Doane College is a private liberal arts college in Crete, Nebraska, United States, with additional campuses located in Lincoln and Grand Island.-History:...
in 1964 and his Ph.D. in philosophy from Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
in 1968. He was awarded the Jean Nicod Prize
Jean Nicod Prize
The Jean Nicod Prize is awarded annually in Paris to a leading philosopher of mind or philosophically-oriented cognitive scientist. The lectures are organized by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique as part of its effort to promote interdisciplinary research in cognitive science in...
in 1999. He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway.-History:The University of Oslo was established in 1811. The idea of a learned society in Christiania surfaced for the first time in 1841. The city of Throndhjem had no university, but had a learned...
.
Perry is currently Henry Waldgrave Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
. In 2004, he became co-host, with Kenneth Taylor
Kenneth Allen Taylor
Kenneth Allen Taylor is an American philosopher. He was the chair of the department of philosophy at Stanford University from 2001 to 2009. Professor Taylor specializes in philosophy of language and philosophy of mind. His interests include semantics, reference, naturalism, and relativism...
, of Philosophy Talk
Philosophy Talk
Philosophy Talk is a talk radio program co-hosted by John Perry and Ken Taylor, who are professors at Stanford University. The show is also available as a podcast, available for purchase. The program deals both with fundamental problems of philosophy and with the works of famous philosophers,...
, the radio program that "questions everything... except your intelligence". He is also part of the Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI)—an independent research center founded in 1983.
Work
Perry has made contributions to many areas of philosophy, including logicLogic
In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...
, philosophy of language
Philosophy of language
Philosophy of language is the reasoned inquiry into the nature, origins, and usage of language. As a topic, the philosophy of language for analytic philosophers is concerned with four central problems: the nature of meaning, language use, language cognition, and the relationship between language...
, metaphysics
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
, and philosophy of mind
Philosophy of mind
Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that studies the nature of the mind, mental events, mental functions, mental properties, consciousness and their relationship to the physical body, particularly the brain. The mind-body problem, i.e...
. However, Perry also produces non-technical work that reaches a wider audience, such as his humorous 1995 online essay "Structured Procrastination". Perry was awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in Literature for this essay in 2011. It states:
To be a high achiever, always work on something important, using it as a way to avoid doing something that's even more important.
Perry's 1978 book A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality, deals with standard problems in the theory of personal identity in the form of a dialogue between a mortally wounded university professor, Gretchen Weirob, and her two friends, Sam Miller and Dave Cohen. The views represented include those of Bernard Williams
Bernard Williams
Sir Bernard Arthur Owen Williams was an English moral philosopher, described by The Times as the most brilliant and most important British moral philosopher of his time. His publications include Problems of the Self , Moral Luck , Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy , and Truth and Truthfulness...
, John Locke
John Locke
John Locke FRS , widely known as the Father of Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social...
, and Derek Parfit
Derek Parfit
Derek Parfit is a British philosopher who specializes in problems of personal identity, rationality and ethics, and the relations between them. His 1984 book Reasons and Persons has been very influential...
. The format of associating different philosophical positions with different characters in a dialogue recalls David Hume
David Hume
David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He was one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment...
's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion is a philosophical work written by the Scottish philosopher David Hume. Through dialogue, three fictional characters named Demea, Philo, and Cleanthes debate the nature of God's existence...
.
In logic, Perry and Jon Barwise
Jon Barwise
Kenneth Jon Barwise was an American mathematician, philosopher and logician who proposed some fundamental revisions to the way that logic is understood and used....
are known for discussion of the slingshot argument
Slingshot argument
In logic, a slingshot argument is one of a group of arguments claiming to show that all true sentences stand for the same thing.This type of argument was dubbed the "slingshot" by philosophers Jon Barwise and John Perry due to its disarming simplicity. Versions of the slingshot argument have been...
, especially in their 1981 article "Semantic Innocence and Uncompromising Situations".
In his 2001 book Knowledge, Possibility and Consciousness, Perry argues for what he calls "antecedent physicalism", according to which physicalism
Physicalism
Physicalism is a philosophical position holding that everything which exists is no more extensive than its physical properties; that is, that there are no kinds of things other than physical things...
is antecedently taken to be a plausible and reasonable position, provided that there are no better rival theories. Thus, Perry defends a version of type physicalism
Type physicalism
Type physicalism is a physicalist theory, in philosophy of mind. It asserts that mental events can be grouped into types, and can then be correlated with types of physical events in the brain...
against three major philosophical arguments for dualism
Dualism (philosophy of mind)
In philosophy of mind, dualism is a set of views about the relationship between mind and matter, which begins with the claim that mental phenomena are, in some respects, non-physical....
: the zombie argument
Philosophical zombie
A philosophical zombie or p-zombie in the philosophy of mind and perception is a hypothetical being that is indistinguishable from a normal human being except in that it lacks conscious experience, qualia, or sentience...
, the knowledge argument
Mary's room
Mary's room is a philosophical thought experiment proposed by Frank Jackson in his article "Epiphenomenal Qualia" and extended in "What Mary Didn't Know"...
, and the modal argument
Saul Kripke
Saul Aaron Kripke is an American philosopher and logician. He is a professor emeritus at Princeton and teaches as a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the CUNY Graduate Center...
.
Books
- (1978) A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.
- (1983) Situations and Attitudes (with Jon Barwise). Cambridge, MA: Bradford Books/MIT Press. (Reprinted with a new introduction by CSLI Publications, 1999.)
- (1993) The Problem of the Essential Indexical and Other Essays. New York: Oxford University Press. (Enlarged edition, Stanford: CSLI Publications, 2000.)
- (1999) Dialogue on Good, Evil and the Existence of God. Cambridge/Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.
- (2001) Knowledge, Possibility and Consciousness. Cambridge, MA.: Bradford-MIT.
- (2001) Reference and Reflexivity. Stanford: CSLI Publications.
- (2002) Identity, Personal Identity and the Self, Selected Essays. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.
Articles
- (1972) "Can The Self Divide?". Journal of Philosophy, LXIX, no. 16, pp. 463 – 88.
- (1977) "Frege on Demonstratives". The Philosophical Review, Vol. 86, No. 4., pp. 474–497.
- (1979) "The Problem of the Essential Indexical". Noûs 13, no. 1: 3 – 21.
- (1980) "A Problem about Continued Belief". Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 61, no. 4, pp. 317 – 22.
- (1980) "Belief and Acceptance". Midwest Studies in Philosophy V, pp. 533 – 42.
- (1981) "Semantic Innocence and Uncompromising Situations" (with Jon Barwise). Midwest Studies in Philosophy VI, pp. 387 – 403.
- (1981) "Situations and Attitudes" (with Jon Barwise). Journal of Philosophy LXXVII, no. 1, pp. 668 – 91.
- (1986) "From Worlds to Situations". Journal of Philosophical Logic 15, pp. 83 – 107.
- (1986) "Thought Without Representation". Supplementary Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, vol. 60, pp. 263 – 83.
- (1988) "Cognitive Significance and New Theories of Reference". Noûs 2, no. 2, pp. 1 – 18.
- (1989) "The Prince and the Phonebooth: Reporting Puzzling Beliefs" (with Mark Crimmins). Journal of Philosophy, pp. 685 – 711.
- (1993) "Executions, Motivations and Accomplishments" (with David Israel and Syun Tutiya). The Philosophical Review, pp. 515 – 40.
- (1994) "Fodor and Lepore on Holism". Philosophical Studies, 73, pp. 123–138.
External links
- John Perry at CSLI - his official homepage at CSLI.