Jonathan Schaffer
{{Short description|American philosopher}}
{{About||the computer scientist|Jonathan Schaeffer|the musician|Jon Schaffer}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| name = Jonathan Schaffer| birth_date =
| birth_place =
| death_date =
| death_place =
| education = Kenyon College (BA)
Rutgers University (PhD)
| era = Contemporary philosophy
| region = Western philosophy
| school_tradition = Analytic
| institutions = Rutgers University
| thesis_title = Causation and the Probabilities of Processes
| thesis_url =
| thesis_year = 1999
| doctoral_advisor = Brian P. McLaughlin
| academic_advisors = Barry Loewer, Tim Maudlin, David Lewis
| doctoral_students =
| notable_students =
| main_interests = Meta-ontology
| notable_ideas = Priority monism
| website = {{URL|https://jonathanschaffer.org/}}
}}
Jonathan Schaffer is an American philosopher specializing in metaphysics and also working in epistemology, mind, and language. He is best known for his work on grounding and his development of monism, and is also a notable proponent of contrastivism.
Career
Since earning his PhD from Rutgers University in 1999, Schaffer has published 73 papers.[http://www.jonathanschaffer.org/SchafferCV.pdf Schaffer's CV] He wrote his PhD thesis Causation and the Probabilities of Processes under Brian McLaughlin. In 2000, he accepted a position as assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in Amherst, Massachusetts, earning tenure by 2004. In that period he was awarded the Philosophy of Science Recent PhD Essay Contest in 2001, and the Young Epistemologist Prize in 2002.
In 2007, Schaffer accepted a permanent research position at the Australian National University, and was described as "one of philosophy's most creative and interesting younger figures".{{cite web|url=http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2007/03/jonathan_schaff.html |title=Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog: Jonathan Schaffer to ANU |publisher=Leiterreports.typepad.com |date=2007-03-26 |accessdate=2012-02-19}} He subsequently won awards for two papers published that year, the American Philosophical Association's 2008 Article Prize, for "Knowing the Answer" in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, and the Australasian Journal of Philosophy's 2008 Best Paper Award, for "From Nihilism to Monism".[http://rsss.anu.edu.au/jonathan.php Schaffer's Awards] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081021010512/http://rsss.anu.edu.au/jonathan.php |date=October 21, 2008 }}
In 2010, Schaffer accepted a permanent position at Rutgers University.{{cite web|url=http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/rutgers-raids-the-anu-schaffer-schellenberg-to-new-brunswick-in-2011.html |title=Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog: Rutgers Raids the ANU: Schaffer, Schellenberg to New Brunswick in 2011 |publisher=Leiterreports.typepad.com |date=2009-11-20 |accessdate=2012-02-19}} In 2014 he was awarded the Lebowitz Prize for excellence in philosophical thought by Phi Beta Kappa in conjunction with the American Philosophical Association.[http://philosophy.rutgers.edu/news/news News - Rutgers University] In 2015 he was promoted to Distinguished Professor, and from 2016-19 he had a Humboldt Prize.
Philosophical work
=Meta-ontology=
Schaffer advocates a neo-Aristotelian{{cite book |author=Jonathan Schaffer |author-link=Jonathan Schaffer |chapter=On What Grounds What Metametaphysics |title=Metametaphysics |chapter-url=http://www.jonathanschaffer.org/grounds.pdf |editor=Chalmers |editor2=Manley |editor3=Wasserman |isbn=978-0199546046 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2009 |pages=347–83 }} approach to meta-ontology in which composite objects, abstract objects, fictional characters, and many other philosophically contentious entities exist. Rather than debating such objects' existence, the primary role of metaphysics is to organize all existent entities into a hierarchical dependence structure. Within this structure, all existing things are classified as fundamental entities, derivative entities, or grounding relations.[http://www.jonathanschaffer.org/grounds.pdf "On What Grounds What"].
Fundamental entities (also called substances) have nothing ontologically prior to them upon which their existence depends. They are the most basic units of existence. derivative entities, on the other hand, depend upon other entities for their existence. Schaffer uses the holes in a block of Swiss Cheese as an example of a derivative entity, since the holes are ontologically dependent upon the cheese. A derivative entity may be grounded in either another derivative entity or in a substance. A grounding relation is a primitive relation of dependence that holds between a derivative entity and that entity's "grounds". Grounding relations are irreflexive, asymmetric, and transitive. This allows for chains of grounding. Schaffer asserts that all chains of grounding must terminate in a fundamental entity in his "well-foundedness" assumption. [https://read.dukeupress.edu/the-philosophical-review/article-abstract/119/1/31/2871/Monism-The-Priority-of-the-Whole?redirectedFrom=fulltext "Monism: The Priority of the Whole"]
=Priority monism=
Schaffer is perhaps most well-known for his arguments in favor of priority monism. Priority monism is a form of monism that claims that while very many entities exist, only one is fundamental. For Schaffer, this entity is the cosmos. Schaffer's position is motivated by his belief that the whole universe may be an entangled system and thus have properties that are not reducible to the universe's parts. "Monism: The Priority of the Whole" also contains his Argument from Gunk, according to which mereological atoms cannot be fundamental due to the possibility of infinitely divisible matter.
References
{{Reflist|25em}}
External links
- {{Google Scholar ID|id=HFejrgEAAAAJ}}
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Category:20th-century American philosophers
Category:21st-century American philosophers
Category:Rutgers University alumni
Category:Analytic philosophers
Category:American metaphysicians
Category:American philosophy academics
Category:Humboldt Research Award recipients
Category:Rutgers University faculty
Category:Kenyon College alumni
Category:American epistemologists