Australian philosophy refers to thephilosophical tradition of the people ofAustralia and of its citizens abroad. Academic philosophy has been mostly pursued in universities (and sometimes seminaries). It has been broadly in the tradition of Anglo-Americananalytic philosophy, but has also had representatives of a diverse range of other schools, such asidealism,Catholic neo-scholasticism,Marxism, andcontinental,feminist andAsian philosophy.
Australian indigenous traditions attribute moral authority outside the individual toThe Dreaming, which is bound up with the relation of human society to land.[1]
The earliest academic philosophers in Australia were appointed in the late nineteenth century.[2] Then and in the early twentieth century, most were like their European contemporariesidealists.[3][4][5] They includedSir Francis Anderson, professor of philosophy atSydney University from 1890 to 1921,W. R. Boyce Gibson in Melbourne, and (to a degree)Sir William Mitchell in Adelaide.[6][7]
Francis Anderson established theAustralasian Journal of Psychology and Philosophy in 1923. From 1947 it bifurcated and the philosophy part has been published as theAustralasian Journal of Philosophy.[8]
Sydney philosophy was dominated in the mid-twentieth century by the Scottish immigrantJohn Anderson,Challis Professor of Philosophy at Sydney University from 1927 to 1958. He developed a completerealist philosophy that contrasted with thelinguistic philosophy then developing in other parts of the English-speaking world.[3]: ch1-2 [9][10] His controversial atheism and his view that there was no such thing asmoral obligation attracted condemnation, and through his students had an influence on theSydney Push and otherlibertarian currents of the 1960s.[3]: ch8
Philosophy atMelbourne University was more diverse than in Sydney but in the mid-twentieth century heavily influenced byWittgenstein.[3]: ch7 [11] Prominent Melbourne Wittgensteinians included George Paul and Douglas Gasking.[12]
Australian philosophers have typically taken arealist view of entities mentioned in science, such asforces,causes,minds andproperties oruniversals (as opposed to considering them mere mental entities or ways of speaking orsocial constructions). Partly through the influence of John Anderson, realism has been stronger in Australia than in comparable countries such as the US and UK.[13][3]: 323–9
D. M. Armstrong's 1978Universals and Scientific Realism defended realism about universals, arguing that, for example, the property of being blue must be a reality common to all blue things.[14]Graham Nerlich argued inThe Shape of Space (1976) that space is not merely relational properties of distance but a real entity in itself.
In thephilosophy of mathematics, Australian realisms include thePlatonism ofMark Colyvan and theAristotelian realism of the "Sydney School".
Australian materialism, orthe identity theory of mind was developed byU.T. Place andJ.J.C. Smart in Adelaide in the 1950s. In contrast todualist theories holding that the mind is a separate substance, and to the then popularbehaviorism that held that there was nothing to the mental beyond observable behaviours, materialism regarded the mind as just brain processes. The classic statement of the view came inD.M. Armstrong's 1968 book,A Materialist Theory of the Mind.[15][3]: 180–3
Australians have also been prominent among critics of materialism.Frank Jackson's influential thought experiment"What Mary knew" imagines a scientist who, restricted to seeing black and white, studies colour vision; she later comes to see blue, giving her experience of colour beyond knowing physical facts about it. Therefore, Jackson concluded, there was more to the mental than just the physical (but he later rejected the argument).[16]David Chalmers argues that materialism has failed to make progress on thehard problem of consciousness: how to give an account ofqualia or felt experience in purely physical terms.[3]: 184–8
In more recent work,Peter Godfrey-Smith in his 2016 bookOther Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness inquires into the extent and origins of consciousness in species very unlike humans.
In his 1977 bookEthics: Inventing Right and Wrong John Anderson's studentJohn Mackie defended an "error theory" of morality, holding that the idea of moral obligation was a mistake.
Peter Singer's 1975 bookAnimal Liberation was influential in moves against eating and experimenting on animals. His views on bioethics, including the permissibility of killing even non-disabled babies, have attracted controversy and protests.[3]: 413–24
Many Australian philosophers defended more traditional andobjectivist theories of morality, including Catholicscholastic philosophers,[3]: ch4 Raimond Gaita,John Finnis andJenny Teichman.[3]: 402–8
TraditionalThomism dominated Catholic seminary education up to the 1960s and was also taught to the laity by such teachers asAustin Woodbury[3]: ch4
John Anderson's promotion of atheism was continued byJohn Mackie in his 1981 book,The Miracle of Theism. More recently,Graham Oppy has defended atheism in a series of books such asAtheism: The Basics (2018).
Some Australian philosophers have developed non-standard views of God, such asSamuel Alexander inSpace, Time and Deity (1920) andPeter Forrest inDevelopmental Theism (2007).[17]
The philosophy of religion journalSophia, founded byMax Charlesworth in Melbourne in 1962, has published widely on Eastern as well as Western approaches to religion.
John Passmore's 1974 book,Man's Responsibility for Nature argued for a "shallow" view of environmental responsibility, involving no radical changes to a traditional scientific viewpoint and ethical frameworks. On the other hand,Richard Sylvan andVal Plumwood were early leaders in moves towardsdeep ecology, which attributed anintrinsic value to nature, independent of human concerns.[3]: ch13 [18]
