Ian Charles Jarvie (born 8 July 1937) is a philosopher trained in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, long resident in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Jarvie was educated at Dover Grammar School for Boys from 1948 to 1955. He studied at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

under Karl Popper where he gained his B.Sc. (Econ.) and Ph.D. (1955-1962). Between 1960 and 1962 he was a Philosophy tutor at the London School of Economics, before accepting lectureships in Hong Kong and at the University of York, Ontario. Jarvie is a member of the Royal Society of Canada and managing editor of the journal ''Philosophy of the Social Sciences''. The

philosophy of social science The philosophy of social science is the study of the logic, methods, and foundations of social sciences (psychology, cultural anthropology, sociology, etc...). Philosophers of social science are concerned with the differences and similarities be ...

and the

movie industry The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post ...

are two of his main topics of research. He is a professor at

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

. Jarvie's philosophical temperament is influenced by his former teacher, Karl Popper. Other influences include:

David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; 7 May 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) – 25 August 1776) Cranston, Maurice, and Thomas Edmund Jessop. 2020 999br>David Hume" ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 18 May 2020. was a Scottish Enlightenment phil ...

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...

, and

Ernest Gellner Ernest André Gellner FRAI (9 December 1925 – 5 November 1995) was a British- Czech philosopher and social anthropologist described by ''The Daily Telegraph'', when he died, as one of the world's most vigorous intellectuals, and by ''The ...

. Further, Jarvie's philosophical method owes a debt to training in social anthropology. In this vein, he has published anthropological work on the cargo cults of the South Pacific and has contributed anthropological studies on the media. His adherence to functionalism in the study of the social differs from that of Durkheim (and his followers) in holding that knowledge and ideas must be presented as causal variables. Further, Jarvie contends, it must be the case that a functionalist framework with an active role for explanatory ideas requires a conception of rationality towards ideas. Politically, Jarvie is a liberal.

Major works

* * * * * * * The social philosophy of

- co-edited with

John A. Hall John A. Hall (born 1949) is the James McGill Emeritus Professor of Comparative Historical Sociology at McGill University, Montreal. He is the author or editor of over 30 books. Education and Previous Posts Hall graduated from the Oxford Univ ...

Online papers

Index to Online Publications

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jarvie, Ian 1937 births Living people Alumni of the London School of Economics Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada York University faculty Philosophers of social science