Fiona Cowie (August 21, 1963-December 9, 2018) was a professor of philosophy at
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...
. She specialized in the
philosophy of mind
Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of the mind and its relation to the Body (biology), body and the Reality, external world.
The mind–body problem is a paradigmatic issue in philosophy of mind, although a ...
,
of biology, and
of linguistics.
Life
Fiona Cowie was born in Sydney, Australia in 1963.
She gained her MA at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
in 1991,
and a PhD in philosophy, also at Princeton, in 1994.
She joined the philosophy faculty at
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...
in 1992.
She became a full professor there in 2010.
She specialized in the
philosophy of mind
Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of the mind and its relation to the Body (biology), body and the Reality, external world.
The mind–body problem is a paradigmatic issue in philosophy of mind, although a ...
,
of biology, and
of linguistics.
Awards and distinctions
Cowie's book ''What's Within? Nativism Reconsidered'' won the 1999 Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities.
The book argued that multiple features of the mind are learnt, not innate, opposing
Jerry Fodor
Jerry Alan Fodor ( ; April 22, 1935 – November 29, 2017) was an American philosopher and the author of works in the fields of philosophy of mind and cognitive science. His writings in these fields laid the groundwork for the modularity of min ...
's view.
Works
Books
*
Articles
The logical problem of language acquisition 1997
Mad dog nativism 1998
On Cussing in Church: In Defence of What's Within? 2001
Innateness and language 2008
Us, them, and it: Modules, genes, environments and evolution 2008
Why isn't Stich an eliminativist? 2009
Reviews
Ask Darwin's Grandma(review of ''Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food: Taming Our Primal Instincts'', 2000)
Of Theft and Honest Toil(review of ''Mind in Everyday Life and Cognitive Science'', 2001)
References
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category:1963 births
category:2018 deaths
Academics from Sydney
Australian philosophers