Daniel N. Robinson

Daniel N. Robinson
Born March 9, 1937
Residence Middletown, Maryland, United States
Citizenship United States
Fields Philosophy of Mind
Philosophy of Psychology
Philosophy of Law
History of Psychology
Institutions University of Oxford
Georgetown University
Alma mater B.A. Colgate University
Ph.D. City University of New York (Neuropsychology)
Notable awards

Lifetime Achievement Award (American Psychological Association, Division of the History of Psychology)

Distinguished Contribution Award (American Psychological Association, Division of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology),Distinguished Alumni Award (2009), Graduate Center, City Univ. New York <http://www.gc.cuny.edu/News/Commencements/Detail?id=5442>

Joseph Gittler Award (American Psychological Association

Daniel N. Robinson (born March 9, 1937) is a philosopher who is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Georgetown University and a Fellow of the Faculty of Philosophy, Oxford University.

Career

Robinson has published in a wide variety of subjects, including moral philosophy, the philosophy of psychology, legal philosophy, the philosophy of the mind, intellectual history, legal history, and the history of psychology. He has held academic positions at Amherst College, Georgetown University, Princeton University, and Columbia University. In addition, he served as the principal consultant to PBS and the BBC for their award-winning series "The Brain" and "The Mind". He is on the Board of Consulting Scholars of Princeton University's James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions[1] and is a Senior Fellow of BYU's Wheatley Institution.[2] In 2011 he received the Gittler Award[3] from the American Psychological Association for significant contributions to the philosophical foundations of Psychology.

Primary Interests

Robinson’s interests range over the brain sciences, philosophy, law and intellectual history. Several of his works are illustrative of these interests. Regarded as a classic in its field, his An Intellectual History of Psychology[4] was praised by Ernest Hilgard for its “…development of ideas as they provide alternative perspectives on the nature of mind…The reader is carried along on a genuine intellectual adventure."[5] Robinson’s enduring interest in Aristotle’s thought is summarized in Aristotle’s Psychology,[6] which Deborah Modrak described as “Easy to read and informative” predicting that it would “no doubt prompt readers to reflect on the relevance of Aristotle’s work to modern psychology…” (International Studies in Philosophy, Volume 23, Issue 3, 1991; pp. 142–143). In this connection, Robinson was among the small group assembled by Martin Seligman in 1999 to develop the framework for Positive Psychology.[7]

In Wild Beasts and Idle Humours,[8] Robinson offers a treatise on the relationship between science and jurisprudence as this developed from ancient to contemporary times. Michael Perlin describes the book as “truly unique. It synthesizes material that I do not believe has ever been considered in this context, and links up the historical past with contemporaneous values and politics. Robinson effortlessly weaves religious history, literary history, medical history, and political history, and demonstrates how the insanity defense cannot be fully understood without consideration of all these sources.” Robert Kinscherff states that it “…reads like the inner workings of a fascinating and disciplined narrative mind.”[9]

Robinson’s major work in moral philosophy is Praise and Blame: Moral Realism and Its Application.[10] Reviewing the book in Review of Metaphysics, Jude P. Dougherty writes, “The richness of this work cannot be comprehended in one reading. Whether the reader agrees or not with the author, one has much to learn from the profundity of Robinson's insight into the framing of moral judgment”. (Rev. Metaphys., 2003, vol. 56, 899-900.)

Central to Robinson’s concerns are the conceptual and philosophical foundations of psychology and related subjects. Of Robinson’s Philosophy of Psychology,[11] William Dray wrote that “this highly readable book squarely addresses fundamental metaphysical, epistemological and methodological problems…His clear and informed treatment…offers salutary challenge to much conventional wisdom on the nature and prospects of psychological science.[12]”

Selected Published Works

Books
Articles

See also

References

  1. ↑ "James Madison Program". [http://web.princeton.edu/sites/jmadison/people/society.html''.
  2. ↑ "Wheatley Fellows". http://wheatley.byu.edu/about/fellows/''.
  3. ↑ "Gittler Award Past Recipients". http://www.apa.org/apf/funding/gittler.aspx''.
  4. ↑ Robinson, Daniel N. (1995). An intellectual history of psychology (3rd ed. ed.). Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0299148440.
  5. ↑ "University of Wisconsin Press". http://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/0136.htm''.
  6. ↑ Robinson, Daniel N. (1999). Aristotle's psychology. [S.l.]: Joe Christensen Inc. ISBN 096720660X.
  7. ↑ "UPenn Center for Positive Psychology". http://www.ppc.sas.upenn.edu/posclinpsychchap.htm''.
  8. ↑ Robinson, Daniel N. (1998). Wild beasts & idle humours : the insanity defense from antiquity to the present (1st Harvard University Press pbk. ed. ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674952901.
  9. ↑ "Harvard Press". http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674952904&content=reviews''.
  10. ↑ Robinson, Daniel N. (2002). Praise and blame : moral realism and its application. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691057249.
  11. ↑ Robinson, Daniel N. (1985). Philosophy of psychology. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 023105923X.
  12. ↑ http://books.google.com/books?id=KJBMlurP9P0C&pg=PA177&lpg=PA177&dq=daniel+robinson+philosophy+of+psychology+william+dray&source=bl&ots=cXKnSoinHe&sig=DJuuiS2e3T_HfN86lGE6hslfG68&hl=en&sa=X&ei=NnbDU5L_D4SgyATRw4HgDg&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=daniel%20robinson%20philosophy%20of%20psychology%20william%20dray&f=false''. Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links