Alan R. Baker is a professor of Philosophy in

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a private liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeducational colleges in the United States. It was established as ...

(

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

, United States), specializing in the

philosophy of mathematics The philosophy of mathematics is the branch of philosophy that studies the assumptions, foundations, and implications of mathematics. It aims to understand the nature and methods of mathematics, and find out the place of mathematics in peopl ...

and 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 ulti ...

. He is also a former U.S.

shogi , also known as Japanese chess, is a strategy board game for two players. It is one of the most popular board games in Japan and is in the same family of games as Western chess, '' chaturanga, Xiangqi'', Indian chess, and '' janggi''. ''Shōg ...

champion.

Academic career

Baker did his undergraduate studies at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, earning a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in philosophy with

first class honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variat ...

in 1991. He then moved to the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territor ...

for graduate school, earning a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in 1995 and a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

in 1999, both in philosophy from

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 n ...

. His doctoral supervisors were

Paul Benacerraf Paul Joseph Salomon Benacerraf (; born 26 March 1931) is a French-born American philosopher working in the field of the philosophy of mathematics who taught at Princeton University his entire career, from 1960 until his retirement in 2007. He wa ...

and Gideon Rosen. After working as an assistant professor at

Xavier University Xavier University ( ) is a private Jesuit university in Cincinnati and Evanston (Cincinnati), Ohio. It is the sixth-oldest Catholic and fourth-oldest Jesuit university in the United States. Xavier has an undergraduate enrollment of 4,860 stud ...

, he moved to Swarthmore in 2003.Curriculum vitae (October 2012)
, retrieved 2014-04-08. Philosophically, Baker is a mathematical realist who has used examples from

evolutionary biology Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes (natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth. It is also defined as the study of the history of life fo ...

to show the necessity of mathematics in scientific reasoning. In 2005 ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' published an excerpt from the exam from his ''“Introduction to Metaphysics and Epistemology”'' course in its ''“pop quiz”'' column.

Shogi

In 2005, Baker founded a shogi club at Swarthmore College, outside

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, which is one of only two college-based shogi clubs in the United States. The other club is

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 ...

Shogi Club, which was founded in August 2017. Baker is also a former U.S. shogi champion, having won the 13th U.S. Shogi Championship in 2008.. his ELO rating of 2107 placed him in 20th place on the Federation of European Shogi Associations (FESA) bi-annual rating list.Alan Baker: FESA profile
/ref> Tournament results: * 2008: Winner, 13th U.S.

Shogi , also known as Japanese chess, is a strategy board game for two players. It is one of the most popular board games in Japan and is in the same family of games as Western chess, '' chaturanga, Xiangqi'', Indian chess, and '' janggi''. ''Shōg ...

Championship. * 2008: 3rd place, Individual Tournament, 4th International Shogi Forum ( Tendō). * 2009: 2nd place, British Open Shogi Championship. * 2014: Winner, Group B Individual Tournament, 6th International Shogi Forum ( Shizuoka)6th International Shogi Forum, Shizuoka
/ref>

References

21st-century American philosophers Philosophers from Pennsylvania American shogi players Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Philosophers of mathematics Philosophers of science Philosophical realism Swarthmore College faculty {{US-philosopher-stub