Peter Murray Simons, (born 23 March 1950) is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

retired philosopher and academic. From 2009 to 2016, he was

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 ...

Moral Philosophy Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns ...

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

; he is now

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

. He is known for his work with

Kevin Mulligan __NOTOC__ Kevin Mulligan (born 23 June 1951) is a British philosopher, working on ontology, the philosophy of mind, and Austrian philosophy. He is currently Honorary Professor at the University of Geneva, Full Professor at the University of It ...

and Barry Smith on

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 ...

and the history of Austrian philosophy. Since 2018 he is visiting professor at the

University of Italian Switzerland A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

Biography

Simons studied at the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univ ...

, and has held teaching posts at the

University of Bolton , established = 2004 – gained University Status 1982 – Bolton Institute of Higher Education , type = Public , endowment = £160,000 (2009) , administrative_staff = 700+ , chancellor ...

, from which he holds an honorary doctorate, the

University of Salzburg The University of Salzburg (german: Universität Salzburg), also known as the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (''Paris-Lodron-Universität Salzburg'', PLUS), is an Austrian public university in Salzburg municipality, Salzburg state, named af ...

, where he is Honorary Professor of Philosophy, and the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

. He has been President of the

European Society for Analytic Philosophy The European Society for Analytic Philosophy (ESAP) is a philosophical organization founded by Kevin Mulligan, Barry Smith, Peter Simons, Pierre Jacob, Diego Marconi, Francois Recanati, Marco Santambrogio, Andreas Kemmerling and Pascal Engel in ...

and is current director of the Franz Brentano Foundation. His research interests include

and

ontology In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exi ...

, the history of logic, the history of Central European Philosophy, particularly in Austria and Poland in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the application of metaphysics to engineering and other non-philosophical disciplines. He is the author or co-author of five books and over 290 articles.

Awards

* FBA: Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars spa ...

(elected July 2004) * Member of

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...

(elected 2006) * Member of the Royal Irish Academy (elected 2013) * Foreign Member of the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society o ...

(elected 2018)

Publications

* ''Parts. A Study In Ontology'', Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987. * ''Philosophy and Logic in Central Europe from Bolzano to Tarski. Selected Essays'', Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1992.

References

External links

Website of the Department of Philosophy at Trinity CollegePersonal webpageWebsite of the European Society for Analytic Philosophy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simons, Peter 1950 births Living people 20th-century British philosophers 21st-century British philosophers Fellows of the British Academy Alumni of the University of Manchester Academics of Trinity College Dublin Academics of the University of Bolton Members of Academia Europaea University of Salzburg alumni Metaphysicians Ontologists Analytic philosophers