Stephen Yablo is a Canadian-born American philosopher. He is David W. Skinner Professor of Philosophy at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

(MIT), and taught previously at the

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. He specializes in the

philosophy of logic Philosophy of logic is the area of philosophy that studies the scope and nature of logic. It investigates the philosophical problems raised by logic, such as the presuppositions often implicitly at work in theories of logic and in their applicatio ...

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 ad ...

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 ...

philosophy of language In analytic philosophy, philosophy of language investigates the nature of language and the relations between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of meaning, intentionality, reference, the ...

, and

philosophy of mathematics The philosophy of mathematics is the branch of philosophy that studies the assumptions, foundations, and implications of mathematics. It aims to understand the nature and methods of mathematics, and find out the place of mathematics in peopl ...

Biography

He was born in Toronto, on 30 September 1957, to a Polish father Saul Yablo and Romanian-Canadian mother Gloria Yablo (née Herman), both Jewish. He is married to fellow MIT philosopher

Sally Haslanger Sally Haslanger () is an American philosopher and professor. She is the Ford Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She held the 2015 Spinoza Chair of Philosophy at t ...

. His Ph.D. is from

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, where he worked with Donald Davidson and George Myro. In 2012, he was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, ...

Philosophical work

In 1993, he published a short paper showing that a liar-like paradox can be generated without

self-reference Self-reference occurs in natural or formal languages when a sentence, idea or formula refers to itself. The reference may be expressed either directly—through some intermediate sentence or formula—or by means of some encoding. In philos ...

. He has published a number of influential papers in philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, and metaphysics, and gave the

John Locke Lectures The John Locke Lectures are a series of annual lectures in philosophy given at the University of Oxford. Named for British philosopher John Locke, the Locke Lectures are the world's most prestigious lectures in philosophy, and are among the wor ...

at Oxford in 2012, which formed the basis for his book ''Aboutness'', which one reviewer described as "an important and far-reaching book that philosophers will be discussing for a long time."

Books

*''Thoughts (Philosophical Papers, volume 1)'' (Oxford University Press, 2009) *''Things (Philosophical Papers, volume 2)'' (Oxford University Press, 2010) *''Aboutness'' (Princeton University Press, 2014).

References

External links

"Paradox Without Self-Reference"
- ''Analysis'', vol. 53 (1993), pp. 251–52
"Mental Causation"
- ''The Philosophical Review'', vol. 101, issue 2 (1992), pp. 245–280
"Go Figure: A Path Through Fictionalism"Interview
at 3:AM Magazine
Interview
at ''What is it like to be a philosopher''? Analytic philosophers American logicians Philosophers of mathematics Philosophers of mind Philosophers of language Living people Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences University of Michigan faculty Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-philosopher-stub