Edward Jonathan Lowe (; 24 March 1950 – 5 January 2014), usually cited as E. J. Lowe but known personally as Jonathan Lowe, was a British

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

and academic. He was Professor of Philosophy at

Durham University Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charte ...

Biography

Lowe was born in

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidsto ...

, England. His secondary education was at Bushey Grammar School, and he subsequently studied at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, 1968–72 (BA in History, 1st Class), and the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, 1972–75 (BPhil and DPhil in Philosophy).

Philosophical work

Lowe was one of the leading philosophers of his generation. He mainly researched and published in

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of consci ...

philosophy of mind Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that studies the ontology and nature of the mind and its relationship with the body. The mind–body problem is a paradigmatic issue in philosophy of mind, although a number of other issues are addr ...

philosophical logic Understood in a narrow sense, philosophical logic is the area of logic that studies the application of logical methods to philosophical problems, often in the form of extended logical systems like modal logic. Some theorists conceive philosophical ...

, and the history of early modern philosophy. He supervised many PhD students, working on a wide variety of topics. One of his contributions was a sophisticated defense of dualistic interactionism in the philosophy of mind. This is the view that the mind and the brain are distinct substances, and that facts about each are "causally relevant" to the other.

Publications

* ''Kinds of Being: A Study of Individuation, Identity and the Logic of Sortal Terms'' (Oxford: Blackwell, 1989) * ''Locke on Human Understanding'' (London: Routledge, 1995) * ''Subjects of Experience'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996) * ''The Possibility of Metaphysics'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998) * ''An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000) * ''A Survey of Metaphysics'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002) * ''Locke'' (London, New York: Routledge: 2005) * ''The Four-Category Ontology: A Metaphysical Foundation for Natural Science'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) * ''Personal Agency'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007) * ''More Kinds of Being: A Further Study of Individuation, Identity, and the Logic of Sortal Terms'' (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009) * ''Forms of Thought: A Study in Philosophical Logic'' (Cambridge University Press, 2013) He also published over 200 articles, including in the leading journals in the field, such as '' The Journal of Philosophy'', ''

Mind The mind is the set of faculties responsible for all mental phenomena. Often the term is also identified with the phenomena themselves. These faculties include thought, imagination, memory, will, and sensation. They are responsible for var ...

'', and ''

Noûs ''Noûs'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal on philosophy published by Wiley-Blackwell. It was established in 1967 by Hector-Neri Castañeda and is currently edited by Ernest Sosa (Rutgers University). The journal is accompanied by t ...

''.

References

External links

E.J. Lowe
, article in the

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy The ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''IEP'') is a scholarly online encyclopedia, dealing with philosophy, philosophical topics, and philosophers. The IEP combines open access publication with peer reviewed publication of original pap ...

by J.T.M. Miller outlining central parts of Lowe's philosophy, especially his metaphysics, ontology, and philosophy of mind.
Metaphysical foundations for science
" interviewed by Richard Marshall at 3:AM Magazine, 18 March 2013.
Recent Advances in Metaphysics
, Lowe's keynote address, about his four-category ontology, at th
International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information systems
17-19 October 2001, Ogunquit, Maine. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lowe, Jonathan 1950 births 2014 deaths 21st-century British philosophers Academics of Durham University Alumni of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford British logicians Metaphysicians People from Dover, Kent Philosophers of mind Scholars of modern philosophy