John Martin Fischer (born December 26, 1952) is an American philosopher. He is Distinguished Professor of

Philosophy 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 ...

at the

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Riverside, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of Cali ...

and a leading contributor to the philosophy of

free will Free will is generally understood as the capacity or ability of people to (a) choice, choose between different possible courses of Action (philosophy), action, (b) exercise control over their actions in a way that is necessary for moral respon ...

and

moral responsibility In philosophy, moral responsibility is the status of morality, morally desert (philosophy), deserving praise, blame, reward (psychology), reward, or punishment for an act or omission in accordance with one's moral obligations. Deciding what (if ...

Education and career

Fischer received his undergraduate degree from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

and his Ph.D. from Cornell in 1982. He began his teaching career at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

, where he taught for almost a decade before joining the faculty at the University of California, Riverside. In 2017 he was appointed by the Regents of the University of California as one of 22 University Professors, the first and only philosopher since the inception of this program. In June 2011, Fischer was elected vice-president of the Pacific Division of the

American Philosophical Association The American Philosophical Association (APA) is the main professional organization for philosophers in the United States. Founded in 1900, its mission is to promote the exchange of ideas among philosophers, to encourage creative and scholarl ...

and became president of the Pacific Division in 2013. In 2024, he was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

Philosophical work

While Fischer's work centers primarily on

and

, where he is particularly noted as a proponent of semi-compatibilism (the idea that regardless of whether free will and

determinism Determinism is the Metaphysics, metaphysical view that all events within the universe (or multiverse) can occur only in one possible way. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have developed from diverse and sometimes ov ...

are compatible, moral responsibility and determinism are), he also has worked on the metaphysics of death and philosophy of religion and led a multi-year, multi-pronged research project on "immortality," funded in 2012 by the

John Templeton Foundation The John Templeton Foundation (Templeton Foundation) is a Philanthropy, philanthropic organization founded by John Templeton in 1987. Templeton became wealthy as a Contrarian investing, contrarian investor, and wanted to support progress in relig ...

Books

*''Moral Responsibility'' (editor) (Cornell University Press, 1986) *''God, Foreknowledge and Freedom'' (editor) (Stanford University Press, 1989) *''Perspectives on Moral Responsibility'' (co-editor with Ravizza) (Cornell University Press, 1993) *''The Metaphysics of Death'' (editor) (Stanford University Press, 1993) *''The Metaphysics of Free Will: An Essay on Control'' (Blackwell, 1994) *''Responsibility and Control: A Theory of Moral Responsibility'' (co-authored with Ravizza) (Cambridge University Press, 1998) *''My Way: Essays on Moral Responsibility'' (Oxford University Press, 2006) *''Our Stories: Essays on Life, Death, and Free Will'' (Oxford University Press, 2009) * * *

Media appearances and interviews

* *

References

External links