David B. Malament (born 21 December 1947) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

philosopher of science A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

, specializing in the

philosophy of physics In philosophy, philosophy of physics deals with conceptual and interpretational issues in modern physics, many of which overlap with research done by certain kinds of theoretical physicists. Philosophy of physics can be broadly divided into thr ...

Biography

Malament attended

Stuyvesant High School Stuyvesant High School (pronounced ), commonly referred to among its students as Stuy (pronounced ), is a State school, public university-preparatory school, college-preparatory, Specialized high schools in New York City, specialized high school ...

and received a

B.A. 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 ...

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

1968 at

Columbia College, Columbia University Columbia College is the oldest undergraduate college of Columbia University, situated on the university's main campus in Morningside Heights in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded by the Church of England in 1754 as King' ...

, and Ph.D. in philosophy 1975 at

Rockefeller University The Rockefeller University is a private biomedical research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medical sciences and provides doctoral and postdoctoral education. It is classif ...

. After teaching for nearly a quarter-century at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, Malament left to become Distinguished Professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

, where he is now emeritus. His book ''Topics in the Foundations of General Relativity and Newtonian Gravitation Theory'' (Chicago, 2012) was awarded the 2014

Lakatos Award The Lakatos Award is given annually for an outstanding contribution to the philosophy of science, widely interpreted. The contribution must be in the form of a monograph, co-authored or single-authored, and published in English during the previo ...

. Malament's work focuses the conceptual foundations of the

special Special or specials may refer to: Policing * Specials, Ulster Special Constabulary, the Northern Ireland police force * Specials, Special Constable, an auxiliary, volunteer, or temporary; police worker or police officer Literature * ''Specia ...

and

general A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...

theories of relativity. Regarding whether

simultaneity Simultaneity may refer to: * Relativity of simultaneity, a concept in special relativity. * Simultaneity (music), more than one complete musical texture occurring at the same time, rather than in succession * Simultaneity, a concept in Endogeneit ...

special relativity In physics, the special theory of relativity, or special relativity for short, is a scientific theory regarding the relationship between space and time. In Albert Einstein's original treatment, the theory is based on two postulates: # The laws o ...

, the Einstein synchronisation is conventional, Malament argues against conventionalism and is regarded by some as having refuted

Adolf Grünbaum Adolf Grünbaum (; May 15, 1923 – November 15, 2018) was a German-American philosopher of science and a critic of psychoanalysis, as well as Karl Popper's philosophy of science. He was the first Andrew Mellon Professor of Philosophy at the Unive ...

's argument for conventionalism. Grünbaum, as well as

Sahotra Sarkar Sahotra Sarkar (born 1962) is an Indian-American professor at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the philosophy of biology. Education and career Sarkar is originally from India where he lived in Darjeeling until 1975. He earned ...

and

John Stachel John Stachel (; born 29 March 1928) is an American physicist and philosopher of science. Biography Stachel earned his PhD at Stevens Institute of Technology in Physics about a topic in General relativity in 1958. After holding different teaching p ...

, don't agree, whereas Robert Rynasiewicz sides with Malament. During the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

Malament was a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...

to the draft, spending time in jail for refusing induction into the military. He published an article on the subject of selective conscientious objection in an early issue of the journal ''

Philosophy and Public Affairs ''Philosophy & Public Affairs'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by John Wiley & Sons. It publishes philosophical articles on legal, social, and political issues. The journal was established in 1972 under the sponsorship of ...

''.

References

External links

*
Malament's homepage at UCI

Articles available at the philsci server
{{DEFAULTSORT:Malament, David 1947 births Living people 20th-century American philosophers 21st-century American philosophers University of California, Irvine faculty 21st-century American physicists American conscientious objectors Philosophers of physics Columbia College (New York) alumni