Simon Blackburn | |
|---|---|
 Blackburn in 2017 | |
| Born | (1944-07-12)12 July 1944 (age 80) Chipping Sodbury,Gloucestershire, England |
| Alma mater | |
| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Analytic philosophy |
| Institutions | |
| Academic advisors | Casimir Lewy |
| Doctoral students | |
Main interests | |
Notable ideas | Quasi-realism |
Simon Walter BlackburnFBA (born 12 July 1944) is an English philosopher known for his work inmetaethics, where he defendsquasi-realism, and in thephilosophy of language. More recently, he has gained a large general audience from his efforts to popularisephilosophy. He has appeared in multiple episodes of the documentary seriesCloser to Truth. During his long career, he has taught atOxford University,Cambridge University, andUniversity of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Blackburn was born on 12 July 1944 inChipping Sodbury, England. He attendedClifton College and went on to receive his bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1965 fromTrinity College, Cambridge. He obtained his doctorate in 1969 fromChurchill College, Cambridge.[1]
He retired as the professor of philosophy at theUniversity of Cambridge in 2011, but remains a distinguished research professor of philosophy at theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, teaching every fall semester. He is also aFellow ofTrinity College, Cambridge, and a member of the professoriate ofNew College of the Humanities.[2] He was previously a Fellow ofPembroke College, Oxford and has also taught full-time at the University of North Carolina as an Edna J. Koury Professor. He is a former president of theAristotelian Society, having served the 2009–2010 term. In 2004, he delivered theGifford Lectures onReason's Empire at theUniversity of Glasgow.[3] He was elected a Fellow of theBritish Academy in 2002[4] and a Foreign Honorary Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2008.[5]
He is a former editor of the journalMind.[6]
In philosophy, he is best known as the proponent ofquasi-realism inmeta-ethics[7] and as a defender of neo-Humean views on a variety of topics. "The quasi-realist is someone who endorses an anti-realist metaphysical stance but who seeks, through philosophical maneuvering, to earn the right for moral discourse to enjoy all the trappings of realist talk."[7]
In 2008The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, which was authored by Blackburn, was published.
In 2014 Blackburn publishedMirror, Mirror: The Uses and Abuses of Self-Love, focusing on different philosophical aspects of self-love, discussing modern forms and manifestations of pride, amour-propre, integrity or self-esteem through various philosophical frameworks and ideas.[8]
He makes occasional appearances in the British media, such as onBBC Radio 4'sThe Moral Maze.
He is a patron ofHumanists UK (formerly the British Humanist Association), and when asked to define his atheism, he said he prefers the labelinfidel overatheist:
Being an infidel, that is, just having no faith, I do not have to prove anything. I have no faith in the Loch Ness Monster, but do not go about trying to prove that it does not exist, although there are certainly overwhelming arguments that it does not.[9]
He was one of 55 public figures to sign an open letter published inThe Guardian in September 2010, stating their opposition toPope Benedict XVI's state visit to the UK,[10] and has argued that "religionists" should have less influence in political affairs.[9]
He was one of 240 academics to sign a letter to the Equality and Human Rights Commission opposing 'radical gender orthodoxy', published in The Sunday Times.[11]
In a televised debate, Blackburn argued against the position of the author and podcasterSam Harris that morality can be derived straightforwardly from science.[12]
He was a slightly younger contemporary of Edward Craig as a Philosophy undergraduate at Trinity College (Cambridge), and he obtained his first position as a professional philosopher at Churchill College in 1967 when he became a Junior Research Fellow. Simon left Churchill for Oxford two years later.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
