Adam Morton (1945 – 2020) was a Canadian

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

. Morton's work focused on how we understand one another's behaviour in everyday life, with an emphasis on the role mutual intelligibility plays in cooperative activity. He also wrote on

ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...

decision-making In psychology, decision-making (also spelled decision making and decisionmaking) is regarded as the Cognition, cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be ...

philosophy of language Philosophy of language refers to the philosophical study of the nature of language. It investigates the relationship between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of Meaning (philosophy), me ...

and

epistemology Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowle ...

. His later work concerned our vocabulary for evaluating and monitoring our thinking. Morton was Professor of Philosophy from 1980 to 2000 at the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

in the UK and finished his academic career at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

. He was president of the

Aristotelian Society The Aristotelian Society for the Systematic Study of Philosophy, more generally known as the Aristotelian Society, is a philosophical society in London. History Aristotelian Society was founded at a meeting on 19 April 1880, at 17 Bloomsbury Squar ...

during 1998–1999 and in 2006 was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; , SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bilingual council of distinguishe ...

Works

Morton authored ''Frames of Mind: Constraints on the Common Sense Conception of the Mental'' (1980), ''Disasters and Dilemmas: Strategies for Real-life Decision Making'' (1990), ''The Importance of Being Understood: Folk Psychology as Ethics'' (2002), ''On Evil'' (2005), ''Bounded Thinking: Intellectual Virtues for Limited Agents'' (2012), ''Emotion and Imagination'' (2013), and two textbooks, ''A Guide Through the Theory of Knowledge'' (2002) and ''Philosophy in Practice'' (2003). Along with Stephen P. Stich, he co-edited ''Benacerraf and His Critics'' (1997).

References

External links

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Key Philosophers in Conversation: Adam Morton (1999)
1945 births 20th-century Canadian philosophers 21st-century Canadian philosophers Academics of the University of Bristol Canadian expatriate academics in the United Kingdom Canadian people of Armenian descent Canadian epistemologists Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada 2020 deaths McGill University alumni Philosophers of language Philosophers of mathematics Canadian philosophers of mind Presidents of the Aristotelian Society Princeton University alumni Princeton University faculty Academic staff of the University of Alberta University of Oklahoma faculty Academic staff of the University of Ottawa Presidents of the Canadian Philosophical Association {{Canada-philosopher-stub