Juliet Floyd is professor of philosophy at
Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...
.
Her strongest research interests lie in early
analytic philosophy
Analytic philosophy is a branch and tradition of philosophy using analysis, popular in the Western world and particularly the Anglosphere, which began around the turn of the 20th century in the contemporary era in the United Kingdom, United Sta ...
(on which she has edited a volume) and she has used early analytic philosophy as a lens to examine a diverse array of topics.
Education and career
Floyd received a bachelor's degree in philosophy from
Wellesley College
Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...
in 1982, and went on to study at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, being awarded a doctorate in philosophy in 1990.
After receiving her doctorate, she accepted an appointment as assistant professor of philosophy at the
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...
.
[ She spent a term as a visiting assistant professor of philosophy at ]Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...
in 1995, before accepting a permanent associate professorship of philosophy there in 1996.[ In 2003 she received cross-appointments in the Institute of Editorial Studies, the Institute for the Philosophy of Religion, and the Department of Philosophy.][ She was promoted to full professor of philosophy in 2006.][ Floyd has also spent time as a visiting professor of philosophy at the ]University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...
, Pantheon-Sorbonne University, and the Michel de Montaigne University Bordeaux 3
Bordeaux Montaigne University (French: ''Université Bordeaux Montaigne''; formerly ''Université Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux 3'') is a public university in Pessac, France, approximately 8 kilometres (5 miles) southwest of the city centre of Bo ...
.[
Floyd became an associate senior editor of the ]Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''SEP'') combines an online encyclopedia of philosophy with peer-reviewed publication of original papers in philosophy, freely accessible to Internet users. It is maintained by Stanford University. Eac ...
on topics related to twentieth-century philosophy in 2012, joined the editorial board (for topics related to early analytic philosophy) of the ''Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie
''Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie'' (English: ''Archive for the History of Philosophy'') is a peer-reviewed academic journal of philosophy, publishing in German, English, French, and Italian. It focuses on the history of philosophy.
S ...
'' in 2011, and became an associate editor of the '' Journal for the History of Early Analytical Philosophy'' in 2011.[ She has also served on the editorial board of the '']Nordic Wittgenstein Review
Nordic most commonly refers to:
* Nordic countries, written in plural as Nordics, the northwestern European countries, including Scandinavia, Fennoscandia and the List of islands in the Atlantic Ocean#North, North Atlantic
* Scandinavia, a cultura ...
'' from 2011 to 2013, and on the editorial board (for topics related to early analytic philosophy) of the ''Journal of the History of Philosophy
The ''Journal of the History of Philosophy'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal. It was established in 1963 after the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association passed a motion to this effect in 1957. The journal is publi ...
'' from 2008 to 2010.[
Besides for her academic and editorial appointments, she also served as a fellow of Lichtenberg-Kolleg Institute of Advanced Study, Georg August Universität, Göttingen, in 2009–2010, received a Berlin Prize Fellowship from the ]American Academy in Berlin
The American Academy in Berlin is a private, independent, nonpartisan research and cultural institution in Berlin dedicated to sustaining and enhancing the long-term intellectual, cultural, and political ties between the United States and Germany ...
in 2008, a Fulbright Senior Research Award in 2003–2004, and has also held a number of other fellowships.[
]
Research areas
Floyd's research has generally centered around twentieth-century philosophy, especially the early development of analytic philosophy
Analytic philosophy is a branch and tradition of philosophy using analysis, popular in the Western world and particularly the Anglosphere, which began around the turn of the 20th century in the contemporary era in the United Kingdom, United Sta ...
. Significant focuses of her research have included comparative analyses of differing accounts of the nature of objectivity and reason, issues of rule-following and skepticism
Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the pe ...
, as well as the limitations of formal logic, analysis, and mathematics. She has written significantly on the ideas of Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is considere ...
and Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and ...
, and has also made significant forays in to the philosophy of logic
Philosophy of logic is the area of philosophy that studies the scope and nature of logic. It investigates the philosophical problems raised by logic, such as the presuppositions often implicitly at work in theories of logic and in their application ...
, the philosophy of mathematics
The philosophy of mathematics is the branch of philosophy that studies the assumptions, foundations, and implications of mathematics. It aims to understand the nature and methods of mathematics, and find out the place of mathematics in people's ...
and the philosophy of language
In analytic philosophy, philosophy of language investigates the nature of language and the relations between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of meaning, intentionality, reference, ...
.[
Floyd (in conjunction with ]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 ...
) has suggested a novel reading of Wittgenstein's 'notorious paragraph' that dealt with Gödel's first incompleteness theorem (found in Wittgenstein's '' Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics'',) positing that Wittgenstein's understanding of the meaning of Gödel's first theorem was far greater than has been commonly viewed, although this reading has been criticized. Floyd and Putnam have also more generally defended Wittgenstein's ''Remarks'' as demonstrating a significantly greater understanding of mathematics than he is generally credited with.
Publications
Floyd has written a large number of peer-reviewed papers, and has served as editor for several series, primarily about analytic philosophy.[ She has served as the editor of one volume, ''Future Pasts: The Analytic Tradition in Twentieth Century Philosophy'', a collection of essays all related to ]Burton Dreben
Burton Spencer Dreben (September 27, 1927 – July 11, 1999) was an American philosopher specializing in mathematical logic. A Harvard graduate who taught at his alma mater for most of his career (where he retired as Edgar Pierce Professor of ...
's belief that analytic philosophy was a failed effort to bring to philosophy the level of clarity offered by science, and his further belief that it was most important because of its failure to do so. In 2013 she was working on a manuscript that explores the significance of the interactions between Wittgenstein, Turing and Gödel, and was also co-editing a pending volume of essays on the philosophical importance of Turing.[
]
References
External links
Juliet Floyd on PhilPapers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Floyd, Juliet
Living people
Analytic philosophers
Wittgensteinian philosophers
American women philosophers
20th-century American philosophers
21st-century American philosophers
Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
Wellesley College alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American women