Stephen Law (born 1960) is an English philosopher. He is currently Director of the Certificate in Higher and Education and Director of Philosophy at The Department of Continuing Education, University of Oxford. Law was previously Reader in Philosophy and Head of Department of Philosophy at

Heythrop College, University of London Heythrop College, University of London, was a constituent college of the University of London between 1971 and 2018, last located in Kensington Square, London. It comprised the university's specialist faculties of philosophy and theology with soc ...

, until its closure in June 2018. He also edits the philosophical journal ''

Think In their most common sense, the terms thought and thinking refer to conscious cognitive processes that can happen independently of sensory stimulation. Their most paradigmatic forms are judging, reasoning, concept formation, problem solving, an ...

'', which is sponsored by the

Royal Institute of Philosophy The Royal Institute of Philosophy, founded in 1925, is a charity organisation that offers lectures and conferences on philosophical topics. The Institute is "dedicated to the advancement of philosophy in all its forms, in order to access the wid ...

and published by the Cambridge University Press. He is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts and Commerce and in 2008 became the provost of the Centre for Inquiry UK.

Life

Law was born 12 December 1960 in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, England, and attended

Long Road Sixth Form College Long Road Sixth Form College (LRSFC) is a public sector co-educational sixth form college in Cambridge, England. It is situated on Long Road, from which it draws its name, and is located next to the Cambridge Bio-Medical Campus which encompasse ...

in Cambridge. However, having been "asked to leave", he began his working life as a

postman A mail carrier, mailman, mailwoman, postal carrier, postman, postwoman, or letter carrier (in American English), sometimes colloquially known as a postie (in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom), is an employee of a post ...

. At 24 he successfully managed to persuade City University in London to accept him for the BSc in philosophy, despite his lack of A levels. There he managed to achieve a

first-class honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...

, allowing him to move on to

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

Oxford 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 the ...

, to read for a

BPhil Bachelor of Philosophy (BPhil, BPh, or PhB; la, Baccalaureus Philosophiae or ) is the title of an academic degree that usually involves considerable research, either through a thesis or supervised research projects. Unlike many other bachelor's ...

in philosophy. He was also for three years a junior research fellow at

The Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its pred ...

, where he obtained a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

in philosophy. Law lives in

, England, with his wife and two daughters.

Philosophy

Law has published both a variety of academic papers and more popular, introductory books (including three children's philosophy books). Law has debated many

Christian apologists Christian apologetics ( grc, ἀπολογία, "verbal defense, speech in defense") is a branch of Christian theology that defends Christianity. Christian apologetics has taken many forms over the centuries, starting with Paul the Apostle in ...

and

theologians Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the s ...

. He developed the

Evil God Challenge The evil God challenge is a philosophical thought experiment. The challenge is to explain why an all-good God should be more likely than an all-evil God. Those who advance this challenge assert that, unless there is a satisfactory answer to the c ...

thought experiment.

Works

*''The Philosophy Files 1'' (2000) *''The Philosophy Files 2'' (2006) (formerly called The Outer Limits) *''The Outer Limits: More Mysteries from the Philosophy Files'' (2003) *''

The Philosophy Gym ''The Philosophy Gym: 25 Short Adventures in Thinking'' is a book by Stephen Law. It is an introduction to philosophical thinking aimed at adults. It covers twenty-five philosophical questions, chosen for their relevance to today's society. The bo ...

'' (2003) *''The Xmas Files'' (2003) *''The War For Children's Minds'' (2006) *''Philosophy (Eyewitness Companion Guides)'' (2007) translated also into Hungarian (Filozófia, 2008) *''The Great Philosophers'' (2008) *''Israel, Palestine and Terror'' (2008) *''Really, Really Big Questions'' (2009) *''A Very Short Introduction to Humanism'' (2011) *''Believing Bullshit: How Not to Get Sucked into an Intellectual Black Hole'' (2011) Prometheus Books: New York.

References

External links

Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Law, Stephen 1960 births Living people Academics of Heythrop College Analytic philosophers English humanists English philosophers English sceptics Philosophy academics Philosophy journal editors