Tamar Szabó Gendler (born December 20, 1965) is an American philosopher. She is the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Yale as well as the Vincent J. Scully Professor of Philosophy and a Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

. Her academic research focuses on issues in philosophical psychology,

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

, and areas related to

philosophical methodology In its most common sense, philosophical methodology is the field of inquiry studying the methods used to do philosophy. But the term can also refer to the methods themselves. It may be understood in a wide sense as the general study of principles ...

Biography

Education and employment

Gendler was born in 1965 in

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

to Mary and

Everett Gendler Everett Gendler (August 8, 1928 – April 1, 2022) was an American rabbi, known for his leadership of and involvement in progressive causes, including the civil rights movement, Jewish nonviolence, and the egalitarian Jewish Havurah movement. From ...

, a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

rabbi. She grew up in

Andover, Massachusetts Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was settled in 1642 and incorporated in 1646."Andover" in '' The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. An encyclopedia (American Engli ...

, where she attended the Andover public schools and then

Phillips Academy Andover ("Not for Self") la, Finis Origine Pendet ("The End Depends Upon the Beginning") Youth From Every Quarter Knowledge and Goodness , address = 180 Main Street , city = Andover , state = Ma ...

. As an undergraduate, she studied at

, where she was a championship debater in the

American Parliamentary Debate Association The American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA) is the oldest intercollegiate parliamentary debating association in the United States. APDA sponsors over 50 tournaments a year, all in a parliamentary format, as well as a national champion ...

and a member of

Manuscript Society Manuscript Society is a senior society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Toward the end of each academic year 16 rising seniors are inducted into the society, which meets twice weekly for dinner and discussion. Manuscript is reputedly ...

. She graduated summa cum laude in 1987 with Distinction in Humanities and Math & Philosophy. After graduating from college, she worked for several years as an assistant to Linda Darling-Hammond at the RAND Corporation's education policy division in Washington, DC. In 1996, she earned her philosophy Ph.D. at Harvard University, with

Robert Nozick Robert Nozick (; November 16, 1938 – January 23, 2002) was an American philosopher. He held the Joseph Pellegrino University Professorship at Harvard University,

Derek Parfit Derek Antony Parfit (; 11 December 1942 – 1 or 2 January 2017) was a British philosopher who specialised in personal identity, rationality, and ethics. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential moral philosophers of ...

and

Hilary Putnam Hilary Whitehall Putnam (; July 31, 1926 – March 13, 2016) was an American philosopher, mathematician, and computer scientist, and a major figure in analytic philosophy in the second half of the 20th century. He made significant contributions ...

as her advisors. Gendler taught philosophy at

(1996–97),

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

(1997–2003) and

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to ...

(2003–06), before returning to Yale in 2006 as Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Yale University Cognitive Science Program (2006–2010). On July 1, 2010, she became Chair of the Yale University Department of Philosophy, becoming the first woman to hold that position in the department's history and the first female graduate of

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

to chair a Yale Department. She held the position until 2013, when she was appointed as Deputy Provost for Humanities and Initiatives. Since July 2014, Gendler served as the inaugural Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Yale. Gendler is married to Zoltan Gendler Szabo, a philosopher and linguist who is also a professor at Yale University. They have two children.

Honors and professional accomplishments

Gendler has held Fellowships from the

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City in the United States, simply known as Mellon Foundation, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, and endowed with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pit ...

Fellowship Program in the Humanities, the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

, the American Council of Learned Societies/Ryskamp Fellowship Program, the Collegium Budapest Institute for Advanced Studies, and the Mellon New Directions Program. In 2012, she was appointed as the Vincent J. Scully

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professor ...

of Philosophy at Yale. In 2013, she was awarded the Yale College-Sidonie Miskimin Clauss '75 Prize for Excellence in Teaching in the Humanities. She is the author of ''Thought Experiments: On the Powers and Limits of Imaginary Cases'' (Routledge, 2000) and ''Intuition, Imagination and Philosophical Methodology'' (Oxford, 2010), and editor or co-editor of ''The Elements of Philosophy'' (Oxford 2008), ''Perceptual Experience'' (Oxford, 2006), ''Conceivability and Possibility'' (Oxford 2002). She is also co-editor of the journal ''Oxford Studies in Epistemology'' ''and The Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Methodology''. Her philosophical articles have appeared in journals such as the ''

Journal of Philosophy ''The Journal of Philosophy'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal on philosophy, founded in 1904 at Columbia University. Its stated purpose is "To publish philosophical articles of current interest and encourage the interchange of ideas, e ...

'', ''

Mind The mind is the set of faculties responsible for all mental phenomena. Often the term is also identified with the phenomena themselves. These faculties include thought, imagination, memory, will, and sensation. They are responsible for vario ...

'', '' Philosophical Perspectives'', '' Mind & Language'', ''

Midwest Studies in Philosophy ''Midwest Studies in Philosophy'' is an annual journal in the analytic tradition. It was established in 1976 by Peter French, Theodore Uehling, Jr., and Howard Wettstein at the University of Minnesota, and has been published without interruption s ...

'', ''

Philosophical Studies ''Philosophical Studies'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal for philosophy in the analytic tradition. The journal is devoted to the publication of papers in exclusively analytic philosophy and welcomes papers applying formal techniques to philo ...

'', and '' The Philosophical Quarterly''. Her 2008 essay "Alief and Belief" was selected by the ''Philosopher's Annual'' as one of the 10 best articles published in philosophy in 2008. She also lectures occasionally for non-professional audiences as a professor with

One Day University One Day University is an adult education program founded by Steven Schragis and John Galvin in 2006. The program's one-day sessions feature four or five lectures by leading American university professors. Originally based in the New York City area ...

and as a diavlogger on bloggingheads.tv where she run
The Mind Report
with her colleagues Laurie R. Santos, Paul Bloom and Joshua Knobe. She also serves on the Board of Advisors of the Marc Sanders Foundation, which awards prizes for outstanding work in philosophy. On September 3, 2013, Gendler delivered the Keynote address to Yale freshmen during the class of 2017 matriculation ceremony. Her topic was "Keeping inconsistency in your pockets." She is best known for her work on thought experiments,

imagination Imagination is the production or simulation of novel objects, sensations, and ideas in the mind without any immediate input of the senses. Stefan Szczelkun characterises it as the forming of experiences in one's mind, which can be re-creations o ...

—particularly on the phenomenon of

imaginative resistance Imagination is the production or simulation of novel objects, sensations, and ideas in the mind without any immediate input of the senses. Stefan Szczelkun characterises it as the forming of experiences in one's mind, which can be re-creations ...

—and for coining the term alief.

Bibliography

* ''The Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Methodology''. Co-edited by Tamar Szabo Gendler, Herman Cappelen, and John Hawthorne. NY/Oxford: Clarendon/Oxford University Press, 2016. * ''Intuition, Imagination and Philosophical Methodology: Selected Papers''. NY/Oxford: Clarendon/Oxford University Press, 2010. * ''The Elements of Philosophy: Readings from Past and Present''. Co-edited with Susanna Siegel and Steven M. Cahn, NY: Oxford, 2008. * ''Perceptual Experience''. Co-edited with an introduction by Tamar Szabó Gendler and John Hawthorne. NY/Oxford: Clarendon/Oxford University Press, 2006. * ''Conceivability and Possibility''. Co-edited with an introduction by Tamar Szabó Gendler and John Hawthorne. NY/Oxford: Clarendon/Oxford University Press, 2002. * ''Thought Experiment: On the Powers and Limits of Imaginary Cases''. NY: Routledge, 2000.

References

Sources

Tamar Szabó Gendler's website

''Yale Daily News'', "Professor goes back to school" (2009)

PhilPapers archive link to Gendler's professional papers

''Cornell Sun'', "Cornell Loses Philosophy Profs" (2006)

''Yale Daily News', "Philosophy Takes Steps to Rebuild" (2006)

External links

Tamar Szabó Gendler's website

Bloggingheads.tv: Paul Bloom & Tamar Szabó Gendler, Percontations: Beliefs, Aliefs, and Daydreams (May 31, 2009)

Keynote address to Yale freshmen during the class of 2017 matriculation ceremony

Faculty of Arts and Sciences - A Home for the Humanities
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gendler, Tamar 20th-century American philosophers 21st-century American philosophers Analytic philosophers American cognitive scientists Cornell University faculty Yale University faculty Philosophy academics Living people 1965 births Jewish philosophers American women philosophers American philosophy academics Jewish American academics Epistemologists Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Yale University alumni Phillips Academy alumni 20th-century American women scientists 21st-century American women scientists 21st-century American Jews