Lawrence Sklar (born June 25, 1938) is an American philosopher. He is the

Carl G. Hempel Carl Gustav "Peter" Hempel (January 8, 1905 – November 9, 1997) was a German writer, philosopher, logician, and epistemologist. He was a major figure in logical empiricism, a 20th-century movement in the philosophy of science. He is espec ...

and William K. Frankena Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at the

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

Education and career

Sklar was born in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, in 1938 and educated at Oberlin College (B.A., 1954–1958) and

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

(M.A., Ph.D., 1959–1964) where he worked with Hilary Putnam. He worked at Swarthmore College from 1962 to 1966, first as an instructor and then as an assistant professor. He then worked as an assistant professor at

until 1968. Since 1968, he has been at the

, where he is now a Distinguished University Professor Emeritus. He has held visiting professorships at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

(1963), the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

(1968),

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

(1970),

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

(1973) and

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public research university in Detroit, Michigan. It is Michigan's third-largest university. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 350 programs to nearly 25,000 ...

(1977).

Philosophical work

He specializes 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 ...

, approaching a wide range of issues from a position best described as highly skeptical of many of the

metaphysical 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 ...

conclusions commonly drawn in the physical sciences. He advocates the 'MIMO' (metaphysics in, metaphysics out) principle, claiming that much of the metaphysical content of interpreted theories in the special sciences arises from metaphysical assumptions made during their formulation.

Personal life

While at Swarthmore, Sklar met and married Swarthmore undergraduate Elizabeth Sherr Sklar, who would later become an English professor at Wayne State University. Their daughter is mathematician

Jessica Sklar Jessica Katherine Sklar (born 1973) is a mathematician interested in abstract algebra, recreational mathematics, mathematics and art, and mathematics and popular culture. She is a professor of mathematics at Pacific Lutheran University, and forme ...

Awards and honors

Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is a highly prestigious, non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a small group of graduate students in 1886 ...

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

, 1957 * ''Physics and Chance'' selected by Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries as Outstanding Academic Book in philosophy of science for 1995 * Fellow,

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, a ...

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 worl ...

hip in Philosophy, 1998, Oxford University * President, American Philosophical Association, Central Division, 2000–01 * President,

Philosophy of Science Association The Philosophy of Science Association (PSA) is an international academic organization founded in 1933 that promotes research, teaching, and free discussion of issues in the philosophy of science from diverse standpoints. The PSA engages in activit ...

, 2007–08

Selected publications

* ''Space, Time and Spacetime'' (University of California Press, 1974) (awarded the Matchette Prize from the

American Philosophical Association The American Philosophical Association (APA) is the main professional organization for philosophers in the United States. Founded in 1900, its mission is to promote the exchange of ideas among philosophers, to encourage creative and scholarl ...

as the outstanding philosophical book for 1973–74) * ''Philosophy and Spacetime Physics'' (University of California Press, 1985) * ''Philosophy of Physics (Oxford University Press, 1992) * ''Physics and Chance: Philosophical Issues in the Foundations of Statistical Mechanics'' (Cambridge University Press, 1993) (awarded the

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 previ ...

in philosophy of science for 1995) * ''Theory and Truth: Philosophical Critique Within Foundational Science'' (Oxford University Press, 2000) (based on the

at Oxford) * ''Philosophy and the Foundations of Dynamics'' (Cambridge University Press, 2013)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sklar, Lawrence People from Baltimore 1938 births Living people 20th-century American philosophers Analytic philosophers 21st-century American philosophers Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Philosophers of physics Philosophers of time University of Michigan faculty Presidents of the American Philosophical Association Lakatos Award winners