Paul Gordon Horwich (born 1947) is a British

analytic philosopher Analytic philosophy is a broad movement within Western philosophy, especially English-speaking world, anglophone philosophy, focused on analysis as a philosophical method; clarity of prose; rigor in arguments; and making use of formal logic, mat ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

, noted for his contributions to

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, ...

philosophy of physics In philosophy, the philosophy of physics deals with conceptual and interpretational issues in physics, many of which overlap with research done by certain kinds of theoretical physicists. Historically, philosophers of physics have engaged with ...

, the philosophy of language (especially

truth Truth or verity is the Property (philosophy), property of being in accord with fact or reality.Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionarytruth, 2005 In everyday language, it is typically ascribed to things that aim to represent reality or otherwise cor ...

and meaning) and the interpretation of

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 ...

's later philosophy.

Education and career

Horwich read Physics at Oxford, graduating in 1968, and earned his PhD in Philosophy from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

in 1975 with a thesis on ''The Metric and Topology of Time'', under the direction of

Richard Boyd Richard Newell Boyd (May 19, 1942 – February 20, 2021) was an American philosopher, who spent most of his career teaching philosophy at Cornell University where he was Susan Linn Sage Professor of Philosophy and Humane Letters. He specialized ...

. He began his academic career at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

, where he taught from 1973 until 1994, when he took up a post at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

. He returned to the U.S. in 2000, to take up a chair at the

CUNY Graduate Center The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and postgraduate university in New York City. Formed in 1961 as Division of Graduate Studies at City University ...

. He moved to

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a non-denominational all-male institutio ...

in 2005.

Philosophical work

In ''Truth'' (1990), Horwich presented a detailed defence of the ''minimalist'' variant of the

deflationary theory of truth In philosophy and logic, a deflationary theory of truth (also semantic deflationism or simply deflationism) is one of a family of theories that all have in common the claim that assertions of predicate truth of a statement do not attribute a prop ...

. He is opposed to appealing to reference and truth to explicate meaning, and so has defended a naturalistic use theory of meaning in his book ''Meaning''. Other concepts he has advanced are a probabilistic account of

scientific methodology Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

and a unified explanation of temporally asymmetric phenomena. In the context of philosophical speculations about

time travel Time travel is the hypothetical activity of traveling into the past or future. Time travel is a concept in philosophy and fiction, particularly science fiction. In fiction, time travel is typically achieved through the use of a device known a ...

, Horwich coined the term autofanticide for a variant of the

grandfather paradox A temporal paradox, time paradox, or time travel paradox, is a paradox, an apparent contradiction, or logical contradiction associated with the idea of time travel or other foreknowledge of the future. While the notion of time travel to the futu ...

, in which a person goes back in time and deliberately or inadvertently kills their infant self.

Books

* ''Probability and Evidence'' (Cambridge University Press, 1982) * ''Asymmetries in Time'' (MIT Press, Bradford Books, 1987) * ''Truth'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990; 2nd edn. 1998) * ''Meaning'' (Oxford University Press, 1998) * ''From a Deflationary Point of View'' (Oxford University Press, 2004)Review of "From a Deflationary Point of View"
accessed January 2011 * ''Reflections on Meaning'' (Oxford University Press, 2005) * ''Truth—Meaning—Reality'' (Oxford University Press, 2010) * ''Wittgenstein's Metaphilosophy'' (Oxford University Press, 2012)

References

Citations

Sources

External links

Interview at 3AM Magazine
21st-century British philosophers 1947 births Living people Cornell University alumni Academics of University College London British philosophers of language Analytic philosophers Philosophers of time British metaphysicians 20th-century American philosophers {{UK-philosopher-stub