Jonathan Westphal
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Jonathan Westphal (born 1951) is a philosopher working on 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 ...
,
metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of ...
,
philosophy of science Philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. Amongst its central questions are the difference between science and non-science, the reliability of scientific theories, ...
,
logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...
and
philosophy of language Philosophy of language refers to the philosophical study of the nature of language. It investigates the relationship between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of Meaning (philosophy), me ...
and
aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...
. He was a pioneer in the philosophy of color. More recently he has become interested in issues in the
philosophy of time Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, value, mind, and language. It is a rational and critical inquiry that reflects on ...
, and in the understanding of human freedom. In the
history of philosophy The history of philosophy is the systematic study of the development of philosophical thought. It focuses on philosophy as rational inquiry based on argumentation, but some theorists also include myth, religious traditions, and proverbial lor ...
, he has worked mostly on
Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. From 1929 to 1947, Witt ...
and
Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (or Leibnitz; – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat who is credited, alongside Sir Isaac Newton, with the creation of calculus in addition to many ...
. He lives in
Eastbourne, East Sussex Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. It is also a non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, bor ...
, and works as a private tutor in philosophy. Westphal received his BA from
Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...
in 1973, where he was offered tutorials by G.E.L. Owen as a Junior. He received an MA from the
University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...
in 1975, and the PhD from the
University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...
1981, where he studied with
David Wiggins David Wiggins (born 1933) is an English moral philosopher, metaphysician, and philosophical logician working especially on identity and issues in meta-ethics. Biography David Wiggins was born on 8 March 1933 in London, the son of Norman an ...
. He has taught at the
University of Hawaii A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
, the
University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...
,
Idaho State University Idaho State University (ISU) is a Public university, public research university in Pocatello, Idaho, United States. Founded in 1901 as the Academy of Idaho, Idaho State offers more than 250 programs at its main campus in Pocatello and locations ...
,
Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zepha ...
,
Hampshire College Hampshire College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was opened in 1970 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges ...
and at other colleges and universities in the UK and the US. He has been an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow,
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation () is a foundation that promotes international academic cooperation between scientists and scholars from Germany and abroad. Established by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, it is funded by t ...
, at the
University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...
; he is a Fellow of
Berkeley College (Yale University) Berkeley College is a residential colleges of Yale University, residential college at Yale University, opened in 1934. The eighth of Yale's 14 residential colleges, it was named in honor of Bishop George Berkeley (1685–1753), dean of Derry and la ...
, and a Permanent Member of the Senior Common Room at
University College, Oxford University College, formally The Master and Fellows of the College of the Great Hall of the University commonly called University College in the University of Oxford and colloquially referred to as "Univ", is a Colleges of the University of Oxf ...
.


Published works

Among Westphal's one hundred or so publications are: * 1987
Colour: Some Philosophical Problems from Wittgenstein
'. * 1991 ''Colour: a Philosophical Introduction'', (Oxford: Blackwell, 1991, 2nd ed) . In this work as in its 1987 predecessor Westphal subjects some of the statements in Wittgenstein's ''Remarks on Colour'' ("the puzzle propositions") to a detailed examination drawing on philosophy, phenomenology, psychology and physics. Rejecting Wittgenstein's grammatical explanation of colours, as well as the physicalists' reduction of colours to light emissions of specific wavelengths, Westphal argues that the puzzle propositions are analytic and that the relevant definitions are to be given in terms of phenomenalistically interpreted absorption spectra. According to WorldCat, the book is in 224 libraries * 1998 ''Philosophical Propositions: An Introduction to Philosophy'' (London: Routledge, 1998). 169 pp. . According to
WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...
, the book is held in 1206 libraries In this work Westphal presents an introduction to key philosophical problems in chapters titled: The Nature of a Philosophical Problem; Basic Concepts of Logic and Philosophy; the Problem of Evil; the Existence of God; Reality; Certainty; Time; Personal Identity; the Mind-Body Problem; Freewill and Determinism; the Meaning of Life? *“Leibniz and the Lucky Proof”, in The History of Necessity, ed. Max Cresswell et. al., Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2015. * 2005 "Conflicting Appearances, Necessity and the Irreducibility of Propositions About Colours", ''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society'' 105 (2):219-235. Reviewing the argument from 'conflicting appearances' for the view that nothing has any one colour, Westphal takes further a well-known criticism of the argument made by Austin and Burnyeat. He aIso undertakes the task of positive construction, offering a theory of what it is that all things coloured a particular colour have in common, and he argues that the resulting "color phenomenalism", rather than physicalism, is required to give a satisfactory account of the necessity of Wittgenstein's 'puzzle propositions' about colour. *

(15 pages). Propositional variables ''p'', ''q'', etc., are the unit vectors in a vector space, and various logical relations are represented, e.g. duality is the sliding of a vector through the origin, which produces De Morgan's Theorems. * 2006 "The Future and the Truth-Value Links: A Common Sense View", ''Analysis'' 66 (289):1–9. This article is about the ancient problem of the truth of propositions about the future, or future contingents. Westphal argues that propositions about the future are true not because anything is now the case but because something ''will be'' the case. The problem is a confusion about tenses. * 2008 ""My Body", "my X" and "I"" ''American Philosophical Quarterly'', 45 (3):187-197. Sometimes 'My body is ''F'' follows from 'I am ''F'', for example when ''F'' is "hot", but sometimes not, for example when ''F'' is "rich". Westphal offers a theory of the logical relations between "mind", "body", and "I" which gives a complete symmetry between mind and body. * 2011 "Silhouettes Are Shadows", ''Acta Analytica'' 26 2:187-197. Here a solution is proposed to Sorensen’s problem about the eclipse of Near and Far. Since a silhouette is a shadow, what is seen is the silhouette or shadow of Far, into which Near has disappeared, as a smaller object might. Shadows are seen because the surface in shadow fails to reflect light. *2005, “Leibniz and the Lucky Proof”, in ''The History of Necessity'', ed. Max Cresswell et. al., Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. *2016 ''The Mind-Body Problem'', (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2016) argues for a neutral monist solution to the mind-body problem, and claims that in the past neutral monists have paid almost no attention to the causal relations between mind and body. *2020 "Leibniz’s Proof of the Principle of Sufficient Reason from Considerations concerning Necessary and Sufficient Conditions”, ''Studia Leibnitiana'', 229-241. *2022 "Elements of the Philosophy of 'Right'", ''Philosophical Investigations'': 1-8. The argument of the paper is that there are four main senses of ''right''. The two ethical ones ("according with a rule" and "appropriate") apply in exactly the same sense to ethical and non-ethical applications. "The right tool", for example, is one that does its job in the context of a set of requirements, and in so doing is the appropriate tool.


Family and personal life

Jonathan Westphal is the youngest son of
Ernst Oswald Johannes Westphal Ernst Oswald Johannes Gotthard Gotthilf Westphal (Khalavha in Venda, South Africa, 1919 - Bredasdorp near Cape Town, South Africa, 27 November 1990) was a South African linguistics, linguist and an expert in Bantu languages, Bantu and Khoisan lan ...
. Jonathan's great-grandfather and his great-grandmother, Gotthilf Ernst Westphal and his wife Wilhelmine, were teachers and mentors to the teenage
Sol Plaatje Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje (9 October 1876 – 19 June 1932) was a South African intellectual, journalist, linguist, politician, translator and writer. Plaatje was a founding member and first General Secretary of the South African Native Natio ...
, a student at their Mission Station in Pniel. Plaatje was a founder and the first General Secretary of the ANC. Jonathan Westphal is married to Stephanie Rosett, from New York City, and they have four children.


References


External links


Jonathan Westphal at Amherst College
{{DEFAULTSORT:Westphal, Jonathan Living people Hampshire College faculty Harvard College alumni Alumni of the University of London Alumni of the University of Sussex 1951 births