Richard Newell Boyd (May 19, 1942 – February 20, 2021) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

, who spent most of his career teaching

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

where he was Susan Linn Sage Professor of Philosophy and Humane Letters Emeritus. He specialized in

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Epi ...

, the

philosophy of science Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ultim ...

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...

, and

mind The mind is the set of faculties responsible for all mental phenomena. Often the term is also identified with the phenomena themselves. These faculties include thought, imagination, memory, will, and sensation. They are responsible for various m ...

Education and career

Boyd became interested in the

during his undergraduate studies for a mathematics major at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

for which he was awarded an S.B. in 1963. He then, at the same institution and under the directorship of Richard Cartwright, went on to earn his Ph.D in 1970 with a doctoral thesis on

mathematical logic Mathematical logic is the study of formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory. Research in mathematical logic commonly addresses the mathematical properties of forma ...

titled ''A Recursion-Theoretic Characterization of the Ramified Analytical Hierarchy''. (He would also co-author, with Gustav Hensel and

Hilary Putnam Hilary Whitehall Putnam (; July 31, 1926 – March 13, 2016) was an American philosopher, mathematician, and computer scientist, and a major figure in analytic philosophy in the second half of the 20th century. He made significant contributions ...

, a 1969 paper by this title.) After teaching at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

, the

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, and the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

, Boyd taught, from 1972, at the Sage School of Philosophy at

. In 1981 he was appointed as the Susan Linn Sage Professor of Philosophy there, a position he retained until his retirement, as professor emeritus, in 2017. Boyd held visiting positions at Claremont-McKenna College (2012), the

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury ( mi, Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was ...

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

, New Zealand (2016), and the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

, Victoria, Australia. And, after his retirement from Cornell, he also taught at

Lewis & Clark College Lewis & Clark College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Originally chartered in 1867 as the Albany Collegiate Institute in Albany, Oregon, the college was relocated to Portland in 1938 and in 1942 adopted the name Lewis & C ...

Philosophical work

Boyd was best known for his arguments in favor of

scientific realism Scientific realism is the view that the universe described by science is real regardless of how it may be interpreted. Within philosophy of science, this view is often an answer to the question "how is the success of science to be explained?" T ...

and

moral realism Moral realism (also ethical realism) is the position that ethical sentences express propositions that refer to objective features of the world (that is, features independent of subjective opinion), some of which may be true to the extent that the ...

. In the case of scientific realism, Boyd was a defender of what is called "the miracle argument" according to which if successful scientific theories "were far from the truth...the fact that they are so successful would be miraculous. And given the choice between a straightforward explanation of success and a miraculous explanation, clearly one should prefer the non-miraculous explanation, viz. that our best theories are approximately true." In the case of moral realism, he was a key figure in the

meta-ethical In metaphilosophy and ethics, meta-ethics is the study of the nature, scope, and meaning of moral judgment. It is one of the three branches of ethics generally studied by philosophers, the others being normative ethics (questions of how one ought ...

school known as " Cornell Realism." On this view, a moral property like "goodness is a complex natural property that is not directly observable, but nonetheless has a robust causal profile.... 'Goodness' is not synonymous with any simpler set of more directly observable claims. Instead, 'goodness' describes the functionally complex natural property that is the effect of certain characteristic causes, and the cause of certain characteristic effects." Boyd, along with Hilary Putnam and

Jerry Fodor Jerry Alan Fodor (; April 22, 1935 – November 29, 2017) was an American philosopher and the author of many crucial works in the fields of philosophy of mind and cognitive science. His writings in these fields laid the groundwork for the modul ...

, was also influential in the development of an

anti-reductionist Antireductionism is the position in science and metaphysics that stands in contrast to reductionism (anti-holism) by advocating that not all properties of a system can be explained in terms of its constituent parts and their interactions. General ...

form of

materialism Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds matter to be the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materialis ...

in the

philosophy of mind Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that studies the ontology and nature of the mind and its relationship with the body. The mind–body problem is a paradigmatic issue in philosophy of mind, although a number of other issues are add ...

. In this view, although all individual psychological states and

processes A process is a series or set of activities that interact to produce a result; it may occur once-only or be recurrent or periodic. Things called a process include: Business and management *Business process, activities that produce a specific se ...

are entirely constituted by physical entities, the "explanations, natural kinds, and properties in psychology do not reduce to counterparts in more basic sciences, such as neurophysiology or physics." The American philosopher Jason Josephson Storm has adapted Boyd's account of biological natural kinds, which is focused on "homeostatic property-clusters," to develop an account of social kinds. Drawing on

process philosophy Process philosophy, also ontology of becoming, or processism, is an approach to philosophy that identifies processes, changes, or shifting relationships as the only true elements of the ordinary, everyday real world. In opposition to the classi ...

, Storm argues that social kinds are studied by the

human sciences Human science (or human sciences in the plural), also known as humanistic social science and moral science (or moral sciences), studies the philosophical, biological, social, and cultural aspects of human life. Human science aims to expand our u ...

and are more fluid and interdependent than classical natural kinds, while showing broad structural similarities to biological natural kinds as described by Boyd.

Select works

More complete publication details at Boyd's

PhilPapers PhilPapers is an interactive academic database of Academic journal, journal articles in philosophy. It is maintained by the Centre for Digital Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario, and as of 2022, it has "394,867 registered users, incl ...

br>listing
copies of further papers at his homepage'
Selected Publications

Select papers and book chapters

"Determinism, Laws and Predictability in Principle,"
''

Philosophy of Science Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ultim ...

'' (1972).
"Scientific Realism and Naturalistic Epistemology,"

PSA PSA, PsA, Psa, or psa may refer to: Biology and medicine * Posterior spinal artery * Primary systemic amyloidosis, a disease caused by the accumulation of abnormal proteins * Prostate-specific antigen, an enzyme used as a blood tracer for pros ...

80, vol. 2 (1980).
"What Materialism Does Not Imply,"
in ''Readings in the Philosophy of Psychology Volume I'', ed. N.J. Block (1981).
"On the Current Status of the Issue of Scientific Realism,"
''

Erkenntnis ''Erkenntnis'' is a journal of philosophy that publishes papers in analytic philosophy. Its name is derived from the German word " Erkenntnis", meaning "knowledge, recognition". The journal was also linked to organisation of conferences, such as th ...

'' (1983).
"Observations, Explanatory Power and Simplicity,"
in ''Experiment and Observation in Modern Science'', ed. Achinstein and Hannaway (1984).
"Lex Orandi est Lex Credendi,"
in ''Images of Science: Scientific Realism Versus Constructive Empiricism'', ed. Churchland and Hooker (1984).
"The Logician's Dilemma: Deductive Logic, Inductive Inference and Logical Empiricism,''"''
''Erkenntnis'' (1985).
"How to be a Moral Realist,"
in ''Essays on Moral Realism'', ed. Sayre McCord (1988).
"Constructivism, Realism, and Philosophical Method,"
in J. Earman, ed.
Inference, Explanation, and Other Philosophical Frustrations
'.

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by facul ...

(1992).
"Metaphor and Theory Change,"
in ''Metaphor and Thought'', ed. Ortony (1993)

Edited books

Boyd, Richard; Gasper, Philip; Trout, J. D. (1991).
The Philosophy of Science
'.

MIT Press The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962. History The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publ ...

. .*to which Boyd also contributed three chapters; a
Introductory Essay"On the Current Status of Scientific Realism"
an
"Observations, Explanatory Power, and Simplicity: Toward a Non-Humean Account"
/ref>

Notes

External links

"Objective Truth"
Boyd on The Philosophers Zone podcast with host Alan Saunders (2008)
"Evolutionary theory as methodological anesthesia"
(2011) video/podcast of 'Debating Darwin: evolutionary psychology" lecture for UCTV.
"Is Evolutionary Psychology Misleading Us?"
(2012) video of lecture for the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum of

Claremont McKenna College Claremont McKenna College (CMC) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It has a curricular emphasis on government, economics, public affairs, finance, and international relations. CMC is a member of the Claremont Colleges c ...

.
"Richard Boyd: Reconciling Realism and Neo-Kantian Social Constructivism"
video of Science - Big Questions Revisited lecture for the Symposium on Occasion of the Farewell of

Paul Hoyningen-Huene Paul Hoyningen-Huene (born July 31, 1946 in Pfronten, West Germany) is a German philosopher who specializes in general philosophy of science and research ethics. He is best known for his Neo-Kantian interpretation of Thomas S. Kuhn's ideas. Hoyninge ...

from

Hannover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

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