Dagfinn Føllesdal (born 22 June 1932) is a Norwegian-American

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

. He is the

Clarence Irving Lewis Clarence Irving Lewis (April 12, 1883 – February 3, 1964) was an American academic philosopher. He is considered the progenitor of modern modal logic and the founder of conceptual pragmatism. First a noted logician, he later branched into epis ...

Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, and professor emeritus at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

Biography and career

Føllesdal was born in Askim. After earning his bachelor's and master's degrees at the

, he attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

and earned his Ph.D. in 1961 under

Willard Van Orman Quine Willard Van Orman Quine ( ; known to his friends as "Van"; June 25, 1908 – December 25, 2000) was an American philosopher and logician in the analytic tradition, recognized as "one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century" ...

. He taught at

from 1961 to 1964, and began teaching at

in 1968. In March of 2009, Føllesdal was appointed Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav by King Harald V of Norway, thanks to his work in philosophy, ethics, and bridging the divide between Anglo-American analytic philosophy and European continental philosophy. Føllesdal is a member of the Norwegian Academy for Language and Literature, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences () is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting nat ...

, and the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) 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, and other ...

. He resides at Tanum. He is a practicing

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

. He regularly participates in the sport of

Orienteering Orienteering is a group of sports that involve using a map and compass to navigation, navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain whilst moving at speed. Participants are given a topographical map, usually a specia ...

Philosophical work

Føllesdal has written extensively on topics relating to the

philosophy of language Philosophy of language refers to the philosophical study of the nature of language. It investigates the relationship between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of Meaning (philosophy), me ...

phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (Peirce), a branch of philosophy according to Charles Sanders Peirce (1839� ...

, existentialism, and

hermeneutics Hermeneutics () is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially the interpretation of biblical texts, wisdom literature, and philosophical texts. As necessary, hermeneutics may include the art of understanding and communication. ...

. He was a pupil of Quine and is among the leading experts on the indeterminacy of translation.

Bibliography

*''Referential Opacity and Modal logic.'' Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1966 *"Quine on Modality." ''Synthese'' (December 1968), 19(1-2):147-157. *"Husserl's Notion of Noema." ''Journal of Philosophy'' (October 1969), 66(20):680-687. *"Indeterminacy of Translation and Under-Determination of the Theory of Nature." ''Dialectica'' (1973), 27:289-301. *"Essentialism and Reference." In Lewis Hahn, ed., ''The Philosophy of W. V. Quine'', pp. 97–115. La Salle: Open Court, 1986. *"Indeterminacy and Mental States." In ''Perspectives on Quine.'' Oxford & Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell, 1990. *"In What Sense Is Language Public?" In Paolo Leonardi, ed., ''On Quine: New Essays.'' New York & Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. *"Absorbed Coping, Husserl and Heidegger." In Mark A. Wrathall and Jeff Malpas, eds., ''Heidegger, Authenticity, and Modernity: Essays in Honor of Hubert L. Dreyfus'', Volume 1, pp. 251–257. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2000.

References

External links

Stanford faculty profile

Interview with Dagfinn Føllesdal
by Øystein Linnebo and Einar Duenger Bøhn in ''Norsk Filosofisk Tidsskrift'' (01/2020; Vol. 55). (als
here

Interview with Dagfinn Føllesdal on some topics related to linguistics and communication
. The interview belongs to the series Multi-Media Encyclopaedia of Philosophical Sciences. *
An Interview with Dagfinn Føllesdal
' by Carl Korsnes for '' Filosofisk supplement'' 2/2015. (als
here

1932 births 20th-century Norwegian essayists 20th-century Norwegian philosophers 21st-century American essayists 21st-century Norwegian philosophers Analytic philosophers Catholic philosophers Existentialists Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Harvard University alumni Hermeneutists Living people Members of the Norwegian Academy Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Norwegian expatriates in the United States Norwegian logicians Phenomenologists Philosophers of language Philosophers of logic Philosophy writers University of Oslo alumni People from Askim {{Norway-philosopher-stub