Biography:John Martin Fischer
John Martin Fischer | |
|---|---|
| Born | 26 December 1952 |
| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Analytic |
Main interests | Philosophy of action, free will, moral philosophy |
Notable ideas | Semicompatibilism |
Influences
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John Martin Fischer (born December 26, 1952) is an American philosopher. He is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside and a leading contributor to the philosophy of free will and moral responsibility.[1]
Education and career
Fischer received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University and his Ph.D. from Cornell in 1982.[1] He began his teaching career at Yale University, where he taught for almost a decade before joining the faculty at the University of California, Riverside.
In June 2011, Fischer was elected Vice-President of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association and became President of the Pacific Division in 2013.[1]
Philosophical work
While Fischer's work centers primarily on free will and moral responsibility, where he is particularly noted as a proponent of semi-compatibilism[2] (the idea that regardless of whether free will and determinism are compatible, moral responsibility and determinism are),[3] he also has worked on the metaphysics of death and philosophy of religion and led a multi-year, multi-pronged research project on "immortality," funded in 2012 by the John Templeton Foundation.[4]
Books
- Moral Responsibility (editor) (Cornell University Press, 1986)
- God, Foreknowledge and Freedom (editor) (Stanford University Press, 1989)
- Perspectives on Moral Responsibility (co-editor with Ravizza) (Cornell University Press, 1993)
- The Metaphysics of Death (editor) (Stanford University Press, 1993)
- The Metaphysics of Free Will: An Essay on Control (Blackwell, 1994)
- Responsibility and Control: A Theory of Moral Responsibility (co-authored with Ravizza) (Cambridge University Press, 1998)
- My Way: Essays on Moral Responsibility (Oxford University Press, 2006)
- Our Stories: Essays on Life, Death, and Free Will (Oxford University Press, 2009)
- Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife (co-authored with Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin) (Oxford University Press, 2016)
- Death, Immortality, and Meaning in Life. Oxford University Press. 2019. ISBN 9780190921149.
Media appearances and interviews
- Shermer, Michael (17 December 2019). "John Martin Fischer — Death, Immortality and Meaning in Life". Science Salon (Podcast). Skeptic Magazine.
See also
- American philosophy
- List of American philosophers
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "John M. Fischer". https://philosophy.ucr.edu/john-m-fischer/.
- ↑ "Semicompatibilism". http://www.informationphilosopher.com/freedom/semicompatibilism.html.
- ↑ Kane, R. (2005) A Contemporary Introduction to Free Will, New York: Oxford UP. ISBN:978-0-19-514970-8
- ↑ Radio, Southern California Public (20 June 2014). "Researchers ponder life after death in 'Immortality Project'". https://www.scpr.org/news/2014/06/20/44853/researchers-ponder-life-after-death-at-uc-riversid/.
External links
- Information Philosopher on John Martin Fischer
- List of papers by John Martin Fischer
- The Moscow Center for Consciousness Studies video interview with John Fischer
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