Susanne Bobzien
Encyclopedia
Susanne Bobzien is a German-born philosopher, who currently holds the position of Senior Research Scholar in Philosophy at Yale University. Her areas of specialization include philosophy of logic and language, determinism and freedom, and ancient philosophy.
, Germany in 1960.
She graduated in 1985 with an M.A. (Magister Artium) at Bonn University,
and in 1993 with a doctorate in philosophy (D.Phil) at Oxford University.
She was appointed to a senior professorship in philosophy at Yale in 2001 and held this position from 2002 to 2010.
From 1993-2002 she had a tenured position at Oxford University.
From 1990-2002, she was Fellow and Praelector in Philosophy at The Queen's College, where she was the first woman to be appointed a tutorial fellow.
Before that she was Tutorial Fellow in Philosophy at Balliol College.
Among her awards are a British Academy Research Readership (2000–2002), and a Fellowship of the National Endowment for the Humanities (2008-9).
Bobzien has published several books and numerous articles in leading academic journals and collections.
It explores in depth the views of the Stoics on causality, fate, the modalities, divination, rational agency, the non-futility of action, moral responsibility and the formation of character.
In this book and in her articles "The Inadvertent Conception and Late Birth of the Free-Will Problem" and "Did Epicurus discover the Free-Will Problem?" Bobzien argues that the problem of determinism and free-will, as conceived in contemporary philosophy, was not considered by Aristotle, Epicurus or the Stoics, as was previously thought, but only in the 2nd century CE and as the result of a conflation of Stoic and Aristotelian theory.
Kant: Bobzien's "Die Kategorien der Freiheit bei Kant" (The Categories of Freedom in Kant) has been described as an article "that has long been the starting point for any German reader seeking to deepen his understanding of the second chapter of [the Analytic of Kant's Critique of Practical Reason]."
It differentiates the main functions of Kant's Categories of Freedom: as conditions of the possibility for actions (i) to be free, (ii) to be comprehensible as free and (iii) to be morally evaluated.
is the first monograph on Stoic modal logic.
It presents a detailed picture of the Stoic theory of modality.
In her paper "Stoic Syllogistic" Bobzien sets out the evidence for Stoic syllogistic. She argues that Stoic syllogistic should not be assimilated to standard propositional calculus, but rather treated as a distinct system which bears important similarities to relevance logic.
Deduction: Bobzien's paper "The Development of Modus Ponens in Antiquity" traces the earliest development of the most basic principle of deduction, i.e. modus ponens (or Law of Detachment).
and has provided arguments for the existence of higher-order vagueness.
Education
Bobzien was born in HamburgHamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, Germany in 1960.
She graduated in 1985 with an M.A. (Magister Artium) at Bonn University,
and in 1993 with a doctorate in philosophy (D.Phil) at Oxford University.
Academic career
Bobzien currently holds the position of Senior Research Scholar in Philosophy at Yale University.She was appointed to a senior professorship in philosophy at Yale in 2001 and held this position from 2002 to 2010.
From 1993-2002 she had a tenured position at Oxford University.
From 1990-2002, she was Fellow and Praelector in Philosophy at The Queen's College, where she was the first woman to be appointed a tutorial fellow.
Before that she was Tutorial Fellow in Philosophy at Balliol College.
Among her awards are a British Academy Research Readership (2000–2002), and a Fellowship of the National Endowment for the Humanities (2008-9).
Bobzien has published several books and numerous articles in leading academic journals and collections.
Determinism and Freedom
Ancient philosophy: Bobzien's major work Determinism and Freedom in Stoic Philosophy is the first-full scale modern study of the Stoic theory of determinism;It explores in depth the views of the Stoics on causality, fate, the modalities, divination, rational agency, the non-futility of action, moral responsibility and the formation of character.
In this book and in her articles "The Inadvertent Conception and Late Birth of the Free-Will Problem" and "Did Epicurus discover the Free-Will Problem?" Bobzien argues that the problem of determinism and free-will, as conceived in contemporary philosophy, was not considered by Aristotle, Epicurus or the Stoics, as was previously thought, but only in the 2nd century CE and as the result of a conflation of Stoic and Aristotelian theory.
Kant: Bobzien's "Die Kategorien der Freiheit bei Kant" (The Categories of Freedom in Kant) has been described as an article "that has long been the starting point for any German reader seeking to deepen his understanding of the second chapter of [the Analytic of Kant's Critique of Practical Reason]."
It differentiates the main functions of Kant's Categories of Freedom: as conditions of the possibility for actions (i) to be free, (ii) to be comprehensible as free and (iii) to be morally evaluated.
Ancient Logic
Stoic Logic: Bobzien's book "Die stoische Modallogik"is the first monograph on Stoic modal logic.
It presents a detailed picture of the Stoic theory of modality.
In her paper "Stoic Syllogistic" Bobzien sets out the evidence for Stoic syllogistic. She argues that Stoic syllogistic should not be assimilated to standard propositional calculus, but rather treated as a distinct system which bears important similarities to relevance logic.
Deduction: Bobzien's paper "The Development of Modus Ponens in Antiquity" traces the earliest development of the most basic principle of deduction, i.e. modus ponens (or Law of Detachment).
Vagueness
Bobzien has proposed a logic of higher-order vagueness that avoids both the higher-order vagueness paradoxes and sharp boundaries of the borderline zone,and has provided arguments for the existence of higher-order vagueness.
Determinism and Freedom
- Determinism and Freedom in Stoic Philosophy (Oxford 1998).
- The Inadvertent Conception and Late Birth of the Free-Will Problem (Phronesis 43, 1998).
- Did Epicurus Discover the Free-Will Problem? (Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 19, 2000).
- Die Kategorien der Freiheit bei Kant (in Kant: Analysen-Probleme-Kritik vol. 1, Würzburg 1988).
Ancient Logic
- Die stoische Modallogik (Würzburg 1986).
- Stoic Syllogistic (Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 14, 1996).
- The Development of Modus Ponens in Antiquity (Phronesis 47, 2002).
Vagueness
- Higher-order Vagueness, Radical Unclarity, and Absolute Agnosticism (Philosophers' Imprint 10, 2010).
- In Defense of True Higher-Order Vagueness, Synthese 180, 2011.