Frank Jackson | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Frank Cameron Jackson (1943-08-31)31 August 1943 (age 82) |
| Education | |
| Education | University of Melbourne (BA) La Trobe University (PhD) |
| Doctoral advisor | Brian Ellis[1] |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Analytic |
| Main interests | Philosophy of mind,epistemology,metaphysics, andmeta-ethics |
| Notable ideas | Mary's room |
Frank Cameron JacksonAO FASSA FAHAFBA (born 31 August 1943) is an Australiananalytic philosopher andEmeritus Professor in the School of Philosophy (Research School of Social Sciences) atAustralian National University (ANU) where he had spent most of the latter part of his career. His primary research interests includeepistemology,metaphysics,meta-ethics and thephilosophy of mind. In the latter field he is best known for the "Mary's room"knowledge argument, athought experiment that is one of the most discussed challenges tophysicalism.
Frank Cameron Jackson was born on 31 August 1943 in Melbourne, Australia.[2] His parents were both philosophers.[3] His mother Ann E. Jackson, who rose to the rank of senior tutor, taught philosophy at theUniversity of Melbourne from 1961 to 1984.[3] His atheistic father Allan Cameron Jackson (1911–1990)[4] had been a student ofLudwig Wittgenstein[5] (having gone toCambridge in 1946 forPh.D. studies).[3] F. C. Jackson, in interview withGraham Oppy, reports of his parents that; they were both "philosophers in the Old School, by which I mean the Wittgensteinian School. Philosophy was part of your life."[6]
Despite his self-reported enjoyment of the philosophical conversation of his household it was with view to becoming a mathematician that Jackson went to theUniversity of Melbourne to study maths and science.[6][7] And it was only in his final year of those studies that he chose to also take some philosophy which he found he better enjoyed and proved significantly more able.[6][7] He passed hisB.Sc. but went on to achieve Honours in aB.A. whose main subject was philosophy.[8][6][7] During his time at Melbourne he was a resident atTrinity College, a Clarke Scholar, and a member of the 2nd XVIII football team.[9]
Upon graduation from his second degree, Jackson taught at theUniversity of Adelaide for a year in 1967 and then went toLa Trobe University for a lectureship appointment.[10] Whilst there, Jackson published his first book (which was also his doctoral thesis) "Perception: A Representative Theory" (1977). The following year he succeeded his father to the chair of Philosophy atMonash University.[10]
In 1986, he joinedANU as Professor of Philosophy and Head of the Philosophy Program, within the Research School of Social Sciences. At ANU, he served as Director of the Institute of Advanced Studies (1998–2001), Deputy Vice-Chancellor – Research (2001), and Director of the Research School of Social Sciences (2004–7). Jackson was appointed as Distinguished Professor at ANU in 2003; he became an Emeritus Professor upon his retirement in 2014.[11] Latterly (2007–14) he had also been a regular visiting professor of philosophy atPrinceton University.[12]
Jackson was awarded theOrder of Australia in 2006 for service to philosophy andsocial sciences as anacademic,administrator, andresearcher. Jackson delivered theJohn Locke Lectures at theUniversity of Oxford in 1995. Notably, his father had also delivered the 1957–8 lectures, making them the first father–son pair to have done so.[13][3]
Jackson's philosophical research is broad, but focuses primarily on the areas ofphilosophy of mind,epistemology,metaphysics, andmeta-ethics.
In philosophy of mind, Jackson is known especially for theknowledge argument againstphysicalism—the view that the universe is entirely physical (i.e., the kinds of entities postulated in physics). Jackson motivates the knowledge argument by a famousthought experiment known asMary's room. In a much cited passage[14] he phrases the thought experiment as follows:
Mary is a brilliant scientist who is, for whatever reason, forced to investigate the world from a black and white room via a black and white television monitor. She specializes in the neurophysiology of vision and acquires, let us suppose, all the physical information there is to obtain about what goes on when we see ripe tomatoes, or the sky, and use terms like 'red', 'blue', and so on. She discovers, for example, just which wavelength combinations from the sky stimulate the retina, and exactly how this produces via the central nervous system the contraction of the vocal cords and expulsion of air from the lungs that results in the uttering of the sentence 'The sky is blue'. (…) What will happen when Mary is released from her black and white room or is given a color television monitor? Will she learn anything or not? It seems just obvious that she will learn something about the world and our visual experience of it. But then is it inescapable that her previous knowledge was incomplete. But she had all the physical information. Ergo there is more to have than that, and Physicalism is false.
— Jackson, Frank, “Epiphenomenal Qualia.” (1982)[15]
Jackson's thought experiment features in the 1996Channel 4 documentary "Brainspotting"[16] andDavid Lodge's novelThinks... (2001).[17]
Jackson used the knowledge argument, as well as other arguments, to establish a sort ofdualism, according to which certainmental states, especiallyqualitative ones, are non-physical. The view that Jackson urged was a modest version ofepiphenomenalism—the view that certain mental states are non-physical and, although caused to come into existence by physical events, do not then cause any changes in the physical world.
However, Jackson later rejected the knowledge argument,[18] as well as other arguments againstphysicalism:
Most contemporary philosophers given a choice between going with science and going with intuitions, go with science. Although I once dissented from the majority, I have capitulated and now see the interesting issue as being where the arguments from the intuitions against physicalism—the arguments that seem so compelling—go wrong.
— Jackson, Frank, "Mind and Illusion" (2003)[19]
Jackson argues that the intuition-driven arguments against physicalism (such asthe knowledge argument and thezombie argument) are ultimately misleading.
Jackson is also known for his defence of the centrality of conceptual analysis to philosophy; his approach, set out in his Locke Lectures and published as his 1998 book, is often referred to as theCanberra Plan.
Jackson was elected Fellow of theAustralian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA) in 1981[20] and of theAcademy of the Social Sciences in Australia (FASSA) in 1998.[21]
He was awarded theCentenary Medal in 2001[22] and appointed an Officer of theOrder of Australia (AO) in 2006.[23]
In 2003 he was appointed as Distinguished Professor at the Australian National University and Emeritus Professor in 2014. In November 2018 Jackson received the Peter Baume Award, which recognises substantial and significant achievement and merit.[24]
JACKSON, Frank Cameron, PH.D., F.A.H.A .; Australian professor of philosophy; b. 31 Aug. 1943, Melbourne; s. of Allan C. Jackson and Ann E. Jackson; m. Morag E. Fraser 1966
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