Peter Lipton (October 9, 1954 – November 25, 2007) was the
Hans Rausing
Hans Anders Rausing, KBE (25 March 1926 – 30 August 2019) was a Swedish industrialist and philanthropist based in the United Kingdom. He made his fortune from his co-inheritance of Tetra Pak, a company founded by his father Ruben Rausing, and ...
Professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...
and Head of the Department of
History and Philosophy of Science
The history and philosophy of science (HPS) is an academic discipline that encompasses the philosophy of science and the history of science. Although many scholars in the field are trained primarily as either historians or as philosophers, there ...
at
Cambridge University
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...
, and a fellow of
King's College, until his unexpected death in November 2007. According to his obituary on the Cambridge web site, he was "recognized as one of the leading
philosophers of science
Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ultim ...
and
epistemologists
Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics.
Episte ...
in the world."
Career
Lipton was an undergraduate at
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the col ...
and a graduate student at
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...
. Before coming to Cambridge, he taught at
Clark University
Clark University is a private research university in Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1887 with a large endowment from its namesake Jonas Gilman Clark, a prominent businessman, Clark was one of the first modern research universities in the ...
and
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was kill ...
. He was a member of the
Nuffield Council on
Bioethics
Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biology, m ...
and chaired the working party that produced ''Pharmacogenetics: Ethical Issues''. He was also on the
AskPhilosophers panel. In 2004, Lipton had the honour of being the
Medawar Prize Lecturer of the
Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
.
Lipton's research interests focused on the philosophy of science, including topics such as
explanation
An explanation is a set of statements usually constructed to describe a set of facts which clarifies the causes, context, and consequences of those facts. It may establish rules or laws, and may clarify the existing rules or laws in relatio ...
,
inference,
testing
An examination (exam or evaluation) or test is an educational assessment intended to measure a test-taker's knowledge, skill, aptitude, physical fitness, or classification in many other topics (e.g., beliefs). A test may be administered verba ...
,
theory change
A paradigm shift, a concept brought into the common lexicon by the American physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn, is a fundamental change in the basic concepts and experimental practices of a scientific discipline. Even though Kuhn restricted ...
,
laws of nature, and
scientific realism
Scientific realism is the view that the universe described by science is real regardless of how it may be interpreted.
Within philosophy of science, this view is often an answer to the question "how is the success of science to be explained?" Th ...
. Lipton's research in philosophy of science led him to do work in other related areas of philosophy; in
epistemology
Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics.
Epis ...
, Lipton also investigated the philosophy of
induction
Induction, Inducible or Inductive may refer to:
Biology and medicine
* Labor induction (birth/pregnancy)
* Induction chemotherapy, in medicine
* Induced stem cells, stem cells derived from somatic, reproductive, pluripotent or other cell t ...
and
testimony
In law and in religion, testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter.
Etymology
The words "testimony" and "testify" both derive from the Latin word ''testis'', referring to the notion of a disinterested third-party witness.
...
. Likewise in
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 add ...
Lipton researched notions of
mental content
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 vario ...
and the
mind-body problem.
He was a member of the
Nuffield Council on Bioethics
The Nuffield Council on Bioethics is a UK-based independent charitable body, which examines and reports on bioethical issues raised by new advances in biological and medical research. Established in 1991, the Council is funded by the Nuffield Fo ...
(2003–2007).
Personal life
Lipton lived with his wife Diana and two sons Jonah and Jacob. He was a self-confessed "religious atheist" and "
progressive Jew"; he held that he could follow the customs and culture of a Jewish lifestyle, and use the teachings of
Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in t ...
to help him tackle moral problems in life, without simultaneously believing in the
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 conscio ...
of such a religion (such as the existence of
God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
).
On 25 November 2007, Lipton suffered a fatal
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...
after playing a game of
squash
Squash may refer to:
Sports
* Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets
* Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling
* Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...
. He was succeeded in his capacity as Head of Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...
by Professor
John Forrester.
Selected publications
* "Wouldn't It Be Lovely: Explanation and Scientific Realism", ''Metascience'' 14, 3 (2006) 331-361. (Review Symposium on the second edition of Inference to the Best Explanation, with
James Ladyman, Igor Douven and
Bas van Fraassen
Bastiaan Cornelis van Fraassen (; born 1941) is a Dutch-American philosopher noted for his contributions to philosophy of science, epistemology and formal logic. He is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at San Francisco State University an ...
.)
* "Science and Religion: The Immersion Solution", in Andrew Moore & Michael Scott (eds) ''Realism and Religion: Philosophical and Theological Perspectives'' (Ashgate, forthcoming).
* "Waiting for Hume", in Marina Frasca-Spada & P.J.E. Kail (eds) ''Impressions of Hume'', Oxford University Press, 2005, 59-76.
* "The Truth about Science", ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'' B 360 (2005), 1259-1269.
* "Testing Hypotheses: Prediction and Prejudice", ''Science'' 307 (14 January 2005), 219-221.
* ''Inference to the Best Explanation'', Routledge, 1991; expanded second edition, 2004. .
* "Epistemic Options", ''Philosophical Studies'' 121 (2004) 147-158.
* "What Good is an Explanation?", in G. Hon & S. Rackover (eds.), ''Explanation: Theoretical Approaches'', Kluwer, 2001, 43-59. Reprinted in J. Cornwell (ed.) Understanding Explanation, Oxford University Press, 2004, 1-22.
* "Genetic and Generic Determinism: A New Threat to Free Will?", in D. Rees and S. Rose (eds.) ''Perils and Prospects of the New Brain Sciences'' (CUP, 2004).
* "The Reach of the Law", ''Philosophical Books'', 43, 4, October 2002, 254-260.
* "Quests of a Realist", ''Metascience'', 10, 3 (2001), 347-353.
* "The History of Empiricism", ''International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioural Sciences'', Pergamon, 2001, 4481-4485.
* "Is Explanation a Guide to Inference?", in G. Hon and S. Rackover (eds.), ''Explanation: Theoretical Approaches'', Kluwer, 2001, 93-120.
* "Inference to the Best Explanation", in W.H. Newton-Smith (ed.), ''A Companion to the Philosophy of Science'', Blackwell, 2000, 184-193.
* "Tracking Track Records", ''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society'', Supplementary Volume LXXIV (2000), 179-205.
* "The Epistemology of Testimony", ''Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science'' 29A (1998), 1-31.
* "All Else Being Equal", ''Philosophy'' 74 (1999), 155-168.
* "Binding the Mind", in J. Cornwell (ed.), ''Consciousness and Human Identity'', Oxford University Press, 1998, 212-224.
* "Cambridge Contributions to the Philosophy of Science", in S. Ormrod (ed.), ''Cambridge Contributions'', Cambridge University Press, 1998, 122-142.
* "Is the Best Good Enough?", ''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society'' XCIII (1993), 89-104; reprinted in D. Papineau (ed.), Philosophy of Science, Oxford Readings in Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 1996.
* "Popper and Reliabilism", in A. O"Hear (ed.), ''Karl Popper: Philosophy and Problems'', Royal Institute of Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, 1995, 31-43.
* "Making a Difference", ''Philosophica'', Vol. 51, No. 1, 1993, 39-54. Reprinted in Revue Roumaine de Philosophie, 38, 3.4, 1994, 291-303.
* "Contrastive Explanation", in D. Knowles (ed.), ''Explanation and its Limits'', Cambridge University Press, 1990, 247-266; reprinted in D. Ruben (ed.), Explanation, Oxford Readings in Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 1993.
* "Causation Outside the Law", in H. Gross & T.R. Harrison (eds.), ''Jurisprudence: Cambridge Essays'', Oxford University Press, 1992, 127-148.
References
External links
Obituaryon the University of Cambridge site
Obituary in ''The Telegraph'', 17 December 2007Obituary in ''The Times'', 4 January 2008 rchived_by_Wayback_Machine.html" ;"title="Wayback_Machine.html" ;"title="rchived by Wayback Machine">rchived by Wayback Machine">Wayback_Machine.html" ;"title="rchived by Wayback Machine">rchived by Wayback Machine
Obituary in ''The Independent'', 9 January 2008
Nuffield BioethicsAskPhilosophers ForumPeter Lipton Polish Language
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lipton, Peter
1954 births
2007 deaths
20th-century American philosophers
21st-century American philosophers
Jewish American atheists
20th-century American Jews
American atheists
Epistemologists
Jewish philosophers
Philosophers of mind
Philosophers of science
Wesleyan University alumni
21st-century American Jews