Stephen Cade Hetherington (born 1959) is an Australian analytic philosopher specialising 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. Episte ...

and, to a lesser extent,

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 ...

, an

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 ...

professor in the School of Humanities and Languages at the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

, a prolific author, and one of the longest-serving editors-in-chief of the '' Australasian Journal of Philosophy''.

Family

Early life

The son of the Australian artist,

caricaturist A caricaturist is an artist who specializes in drawing caricatures. List of caricaturists * Abed Abdi (born 1942) * Al Hirschfeld (1903–2003) * Alex Gard (1900–1948) * Alexander Saroukhan (1898–1977) * Alfred Grévin (1827–1892) * Alf ...

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...

ist, and

puppeteer A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object, called a puppet, to create the illusion that the puppet is alive. The puppet is often shaped like a human, animal, or legendary creature. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from ...

, Norman Frederick Hetherington (1921–2010), and Margaret "Peggy" Hetherington (1923–2022), née Owrid, née Purnell, Stephen Cade Hetherington was born at Sydney in 1959. He grew up in

Mosman, New South Wales Mosman is a suburb on the Lower North Shore region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Mosman is located 8 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local governm ...

, where his father's puppetry collection and workshop were located in the basement beneath the family residence.

Marriage

He married the artist Parveen Kaur Seehra in 1990.

Education

He attended the opportunity classes (years 5 and 6) at Neutral Bay Public School and, then, attended the academically selective

Fort Street High School Fort Street High School (FSHS) is a Education in Australia#Government schools, government-funded Mixed-sex school, co-educational Selective school (New South Wales), academically selective secondary school, secondary day school, located in Petersh ...

in Sydney (as had his father, Norman). He received his tertiary education from the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

, from New College at 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 ...

, and from the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...

. *

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

(B.A.) ( Honours Class I), 1981. *

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

, New College: Bachelor of Philosophy (B.Phil.), 1983. *

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

(M.A.), 1986. *

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

(Ph.D.), 1987.

Puppeteer

In the four years (1977 to 1980) that he studied at the University of Sydney, Hetherington not only operated marionettes part-time in his father's special, highly successful dental health programme for children ("Smiley's Good Teeth Puppet Theatre"),See: Woolley, J.M., "Changing Oral Hygiene Attitudes and Habits", ''International Dental Journal'', Vol. 30, No. 3, (September 1980), pp. 249–256. but also spoke to the children before and after each show. His part in this programme ceased when he went to Oxford to continue his studies.

Author

His first four publications were written while he was still a student; the first two (Hetherington, 1983a; 1984a), written as an undergraduate student, were derived from papers written for his Honours-year coursework at the University of Sydney, and the other two (Hetherington, 1984b; 1988) were written as a post-graduate student during his time at the University of Pittsburgh. He became a well-respected, prolific author in a wide range of philosophical domains, especially epistemology:

Academic

He commenced his academic career in 1987, as an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State College ...

; and in 1990 he transferred to the philosophy department of the

where he remained until his retirement in mid-2021.

Editor-in-chief

From December 2013 until March 2022 he was the editor-in-chief of the Australasian Journal of Philosophy, a prestigious English-language philosophy journal continuously published since 1923. He is also the editor-in-chief of the

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

''Elements in Epistemology'' series and the

Bloomsbury Publishing Bloomsbury Publishing plc is a British worldwide publishing house of fiction and non-fiction. It is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index. Bloomsbury's head office is located in Bloomsbury, an area of the London Borough of Camden. It has a U ...

''Critical Introductions to Contemporary Epistemology'' series.

Awards

In 2011 he was elected a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA).

Notes

References

* Hetherington, S.C. (1983a), "Tooley's Theory of Laws of Nature", ''Canadian Journal of Philosophy'', Vol.13, No.1, (January 1983), pp. 101–106. * Hetherington, S.C. (1983b), ''Epistemic Foundationalism'', B.Phil. dissertation, University of Oxford
SOLO catalogue entry
* Hetherington, S.C. (1984a), "Parsons and Possible Objects", ''Australasian Journal of Philosophy'', Vol.62, No.3, (September 1984), pp. 246–254. * Hetherington, S.C. (1984b), "A Note on Inherence", ''Ancient Philosophy'', Vol.4, No.2, (October 1984), pp. 218–223. * Hetherington, S.C. (1987), ''Narcissistic Epistemology'', Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pittsburgh
PittCat catalogue entry
* Hetherington, S.C. (1988), "More on Possible Objects", ''Australasian Journal of Philosophy'', Vol.66, No.1, (March 1988), pp. 96–100.

External links

Stephen Hetherington's personal web-site -- includes details of most of his published works.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hetherington, Stephen 1959 births Living people Australian puppeteers 20th-century Australian philosophers 21st-century Australian philosophers Analytic philosophers Epistemologists Metaphysicians University of Sydney alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford Alumni of New College, Oxford University of Pittsburgh alumni West Virginia University faculty Academic staff of the University of New South Wales Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities People educated at Fort Street High School