Lawrence Sklar
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| Born |
25 June 1938 Baltimore, Maryland |
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| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western Philosophy |
| School | Analytic |
| Main interests | Philosophy of physics |
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Influenced by
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Lawrence Sklar (born 25 June 1938) is an American philosopher. He is the Carl G. Hempel and William K. Frankena Distinguished University Professor at the University of Michigan. He specialises in the Philosophy of Physics, approaching a wide range of issues from a position best described as highly sceptical of many of the metaphysical conclusions commonly drawn in the physical sciences. He advocates the 'MIMO' (metaphysics in, metaphysics out) principle, claiming that much of the metaphysical content of interpreted theories in the special sciences arises from metaphysical assumptions made during their formulation.
Education and career
Professor Sklar was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1938 and educated at Oberlin College (B.A., 1954-1958) and Princeton University (M.A., Ph.D., 1959–1964). He worked at Swarthmore College from 1962-1966, firstly as an instructor and then as an assistant professor, after which he worked at Princeton University until 1968. Since 1968, he has worked at The University of Michigan, where he is now a 'Distinguished University Professor'.
He has held visiting professorships at The University of Illinois (1963), The University of Pennsylvania (1968), Harvard University (1970), UCLA (1973) and Wayne State University (1977).
Awards
- Sigma Xi
- Phi Beta Kappa, 1957
- Woodrow Wilson Fellowship at Princeton University, 1959–60
- National Science Foundation Cooperative Fellowship, 1962-3
- American Council of Learned Societies Study Fellowship, held at Oxford University, 1965–66
- John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, 1974-5
- Franklin J. Matchette Prize - Awarded by the American Philosophical Association to Space, Time, and Spacetime as outstanding philosophical book of 1973 and 1974
- National Science Foundation Research Grants, 1977–78, 1979–80, 1982, 1984–85, 1986–87, 1988–89, 1998–2001, 2002–03
- National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 1995–96
- Lakatos Award - Awarded to Physics and Chance as outstanding book in the philosophy of science for 1995
- Physics and Chance selected by Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries as Outstanding Academic Book in philosophy of science for 1995
- Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- John Locke Lectureship in Philosophy, 1998, Oxford University
- Visiting Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford, 1998
- President, American Philosophical Association, Central Division, 2000–01
- President, Philosophy of Science Association, 2007–08
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