Ronald Bon de Sousa Pernes ( ; born 1940) is a Swiss-born Canadian philosopher and academic. He is an

emeritus professor ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

at the Department of Philosophy of the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

, which he joined in 1966.

Biography

De Sousa possesses both UK and Canadian citizenship. Educated in Switzerland and England, he took his B.A. at New College,

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

in 1962, and his Ph.D. 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 1966. His thesis ''Categories, Translation, and Linguistic Theory'' was supervised by

Paul Benacerraf Paul Joseph Salomon Benacerraf (; 26 March 1930 – 13 January 2025) was 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 ...

. He is best known for his work in philosophy of emotions, and has also made contributions to

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 ...

and

philosophy of biology The philosophy of biology is a subfield of philosophy of science, which deals with epistemology, epistemological, metaphysics, metaphysical, and ethics, ethical issues in the biological and biomedical sciences. Although philosophers of science and ...

. He was elected a fellow of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; , SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bilingual council of distinguishe ...

in 2005.RSC Fellows search

. Retrieved October 4, 2016.

Books

* ''The Rationality of Emotion'' (1987) (German translation 1997; Chinese translation 2006) * ''Évolution et Rationalité'' (2004) *
Why think? Evolution and the Rational Mind
(2007) * ''Emotional Truth'' (2011) * ''Love: A Very Short Introduction'' (2015)

References

1940 births Living people 20th-century Canadian philosophers 21st-century Canadian philosophers Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Academic staff of the University of Toronto Alumni of New College, Oxford Princeton University alumni British expatriates in Switzerland British emigrants to Canada British expatriates in the United States Presidents of the Canadian Philosophical Association {{Canada-academic-bio-stub