Paul Horwich
Encyclopedia
Paul Horwich is a British
analytic philosopher
at New York University
, whose work includes writings on causality
, the philosophy of language (especially truth
, and meaning) and Wittgenstein's later philosophy. Horwich earned his PhD from Cornell University
; his thesis advisor was Richard Boyd
(title of the doctoral thesis: The Metric and Topology of Time). He has previously taught at MIT, University College London
, and CUNY Graduate Center
.
The work for which he is best known, Truth (1990), presented a detailed defence of the minimalistic variant of the deflationary theory of truth
. 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 and a unified explanation of temporally asymmetric phenomena.
In the context of philosophical speculations about time travel
, Horwich coined the term autoinfanticide to describe a scenario, depicting a variant of the grandfather paradox
, in which a person goes back in time and deliberately or inadvertently kills his or her infant self, although he malformed the word as "autofanticide".
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
analytic philosopher
Analytic philosophy
Analytic philosophy is a generic term for a style of philosophy that came to dominate English-speaking countries in the 20th century...
at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, whose work includes writings on causality
Causality
Causality is the relationship between an event and a second event , where the second event is understood as a consequence of the first....
, the philosophy of language (especially truth
Truth
Truth has a variety of meanings, such as the state of being in accord with fact or reality. It can also mean having fidelity to an original or to a standard or ideal. In a common usage, it also means constancy or sincerity in action or character...
, and meaning) and Wittgenstein's later philosophy. Horwich earned his PhD from Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
; his thesis advisor was Richard Boyd
Richard Boyd
Richard Newell Boyd is an American philosopher who has spent most of his career at Cornell University, though he also taught briefly at Harvard University, the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the University of California, Berkeley...
(title of the doctoral thesis: The Metric and Topology of Time). He has previously taught at MIT, University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
, and CUNY Graduate Center
CUNY Graduate Center
The Graduate Center of the City University of New York brings together graduate education, advanced research, and public programming to midtown Manhattan hosting 4,600 students, 33 doctoral programs, 7 master's programs, and 30 research centers and institutes...
.
The work for which he is best known, Truth (1990), presented a detailed defence of the minimalistic variant of the deflationary theory of truth
Deflationary theory of truth
A deflationary theory of truth is one of a family of theories which all have in common the claim that assertions that predicate truth of a statement do not attribute a property called truth to such a statement.-Redundancy theory:...
. 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 and a unified explanation of temporally asymmetric phenomena.
In the context of philosophical speculations about time travel
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
, Horwich coined the term autoinfanticide to describe a scenario, depicting a variant of the grandfather paradox
Grandfather paradox
The grandfather paradox is a proposed paradox of time travel first described by the science fiction writer René Barjavel in his 1943 book Le Voyageur Imprudent . The paradox is this: suppose a man traveled back in time and killed his biological grandfather before the latter met the traveler's...
, in which a person goes back in time and deliberately or inadvertently kills his or her infant self, although he malformed the word as "autofanticide".
Books
- Probability and Evidence (1982)
- Asymmetries in Time (1987)
- Truth (1990; 2nd edn. 1998)
- Meaning (1998)
- From a Deflationary Point of View (2004)
- Reflections on Meaning (2005)
- Truth-Meaning-Reality (2010)