Scott Robert Sehon (born 1963) is an American

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 ...

and a professor of philosophy at

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint eng ...

. His primary work is in the fields of

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 ...

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

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 ...

, philosophy of action, and the

free will Free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded. Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgements which apply only to ac ...

debate. He is the author of ''Teleological Realism: Mind, Agency and Explanation'' (

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 ...

University Press, 2005) in which he takes a controversial, non-causalist view of action explanation as well as ''Free Will and Action Explanation: a Non-Causal, Compatibilist Account'' (

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

, 2016). Sehon has also published in the area of

philosophy of religion Philosophy of religion is "the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious traditions". Philosophical discussions on such topics date from ancient times, and appear in the earliest known texts concerning p ...

, with a particular focus on

the problem of evil The problem of evil is the question of how to reconcile the existence of evil and suffering with an omnipotent, omnibenevolent, and omniscient God.The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,The Problem of Evil, Michael TooleyThe Internet Encycloped ...

and whether or not religious faith is a necessary foundation for morality. In his later work, he has criticized " anti anti-communism" and American conservative arguments against

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes th ...

.Scott Sehon
"Two Problems with the Nonaggression Principle."

Mises Institute Ludwig von Mises Institute for Austrian Economics, or Mises Institute, is a libertarian nonprofit think tank headquartered in Auburn, Alabama, United States. It is named after the Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973). I ...

, March 4, 2021. Sehon received his B.A. in philosophy from

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 ...

, where he worked with Warren D. Goldfarb, and earned a Ph.D. in philosophy at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

, where he worked with Mark Johnston and

Harry Frankfurt Harry Gordon Frankfurt (born May 29, 1929) is an American philosopher. He is professor emeritus of philosophy at Princeton University, where he taught from 1990 until 2002. Frankfurt has also taught at Yale University, Rockefeller University, and ...

. His thesis was titled: "Action Explanation and the Nature of Mental States."

Bibliography

Books *''Free Will and Action Explanation: a Non-Causal, Compatibilist Account'' (Oxford University Press, 2016)
Teleological Realism: Mind, Agency and Explanation
(MIT University Press, 2005) Articles *“Davidson’s Challenge to the Non-Causalist”, with Guido Löhrer, ''American Philosophical Quarterly'' Vol. 53, no. 1 (2016): 85-96.
Action Explanation and The Free Will Debate: How Incompatibilist Arguments Go Wrong
''Philosophical Issues'', Vol.22, No. 1 (2012): 351-368. *A Flawed Conception of Determinism in the Consequence Argument. ''Analysis'' Vol. 71, No. 1 (2011):30-38. *Teleology and Degrees of Freedom

Volume 17:1 (2008): 123-144 *An Argument Against the Causal Theory of Action Explanation, ''Philosophy and Phenomenological Research'', 60:1(2000): 67-85 *Connectionism and the Causal Theory of Action Explanation, ''Philosophical Psychology'', 11:4(1998): 511-531 *Natural-Kind Terms and the Status of Folk Psychology, ''American Philosophical Quarterly'', 34:3(1997): 333-344 *Deviant Causal Chains and the Irreducibility of Teleological Explanation, ''Pacific Philosophical Quarterly'' 78:2 (1997): 195-213 *Teleology and the Nature of Mental States, ''American Philosophical Quarterly'', 31 (1994): 63-72
Dementors, Horcruxes, and Immortality: The Soul in Harry Potter
” in ''Harry Potter and Philosophy: Hogwarts for Muggles'', William Irwin and Gregory Bassham, eds. Wiley (2010). * “Teleological Explanation,” i
''Blackwell Companion to Philosophy of Action''
Timothy O’Connor and Constantine Sandis, eds. Blackwell. (2010).

References

External links

*Scott Sehon'
faculty web page
*Works b
Scott Sehon at Philpapers.org
*Review of ''Teleological Realism'' i
Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
*Review of ''Teleological Realism'' i
Metapsychology Online Book Reviews
*Megan Day and Micah Uetricht,
What Democratic Socialists Should Think About Anti-Communism
" '' Jacobin Magazine'', September 27, 2020.
Audio Interview with Scott Sehon
o
Common Sense Atheism.com
*What Does it Mean to be Good? Two Scholars, Christian and Secular, Share Their Views
The Veritas Forum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sehon, Scott 20th-century American philosophers Action theorists Analytic philosophers 1963 births Living people Princeton University alumni Harvard University alumni Bowdoin College faculty