Alexander Rosenberg (who generally publishes as "Alex") is an American philosopher and novelist. He is the R. Taylor Cole Professor of Philosophy at

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

, well known for contributions to

philosophy of biology The philosophy of biology is a subfield of philosophy of science, which deals with epistemology, epistemological, metaphysics, metaphysical, and ethics, ethical issues in the biological and biomedical sciences. Although philosophers of science and ...

and

philosophy of economics Philosophy and economics studies topics such as public economics, behavioural economics, rationality, justice, history of economic thought, rational choice, the appraisal of economic outcomes, institutions and processes, the status of highly id ...

. Rosenberg describes himself as a "naturalist".

Education and career

Rosenberg graduated from

Stuyvesant High School Stuyvesant High School ( ) is a co-ed, State school, public, college-preparatory, Specialized high schools in New York City, specialized high school in Manhattan, New York City. The school, commonly called "Stuy" ( ) by its students, faculty, a ...

(along with

Richard Axel Richard Axel (born July 2, 1946) is an American molecular biologist and university professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Columbia University and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His work on the olfactory system won h ...

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita Bruce Bueno de Mesquita (; born November 24, 1946) is a political scientist, professor at New York University, and senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Biography Bueno de Mesquita graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1 ...

Ron Silver Ronald Arthur Silver (July 2, 1946 – March 15, 2009) was an American actor, director, producer, radio host, and activist. As an actor, he portrayed Henry Kissinger, Alan Dershowitz and Angelo Dundee. He was awarded a Tony in 1988 for Best ...

and

Allan Lichtman Allan Jay Lichtman () is an American historian who has taught at American University in Washington, D.C. since 1973. He is known for creating the Keys to the White House with Soviet seismologist Vladimir Keilis-Borok in 1981. The Keys to the ...

) in 1963 and from the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

in 1967. He received his Ph.D. from the

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

in 1971. His thesis advisor was

Peter Achinstein Peter Achinstein (born June 30, 1935) is an American philosopher of science at Johns Hopkins University. Biography Achinstein is the son of Betty (née Comras) and economist Asher Achinstein. He received his B.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard wit ...

. He has taught philosophy at

Dalhousie University Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia, Canada, with three campuses in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, a fourth in Bible Hill, Nova Scotia, Bible Hill, and a second medical school campus ...

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Riverside, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of Cali ...

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

and, since 2000, at

. He has been a visiting professor at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

, the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of C ...

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

, the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

and

Bristol University The University of Bristol is a public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Bristol, which had ...

. He was a

Guggenheim fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon individuals who have demonstrated d ...

in 1981, an

American Council of Learned Societies The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a private, nonprofit federation of 75 scholarly organizations in the humanities and related social sciences founded in 1919. It is best known for its fellowship competitions which provide a ra ...

fellow in 1983, won 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 previou ...

in 1993 and was the National

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

Romanell Lecturer in 2006. In 2006-2007 he was a fellow of the

National Humanities Center The National Humanities Center (NHC) is an independent institute for advanced study in the humanities located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, United States. The NHC operates as a privately incorporated nonprofit and is not part of any uni ...

. His graduate students have included

Samir Okasha Samir Okasha is a Professor of Philosophy of Science at University of Bristol. He is a winner of Lakatos Award for his book '' Evolution and the Levels of Selection''. He was appointed a Fellow of the British Academy The British Academy for ...

, Grant Ramsey, Frederic Bouchard, Rachel Powell, Nita A. Farahany and Marion Hourdequin. He has worked closely with

Lee McIntyre Lee Cameron McIntyre (born 1962) is an American author, researcher, and academic. He is a research fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University and an instructor in ethics at Harvard Extension School. He has p ...

. Rosenberg is married to

professor Martha Ellen Reeves. Rosenberg is an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

, and a metaphysical naturalist.

Philosophical work

Rosenberg's early work focused on the

philosophy of social science Philosophy of social science examines how social science integrates with other related scientific disciplines, which implies a rigorous, systematic endeavor to build and organize knowledge relevant to the interaction between individual people and ...

and especially the

. His doctoral dissertation, published as ''Microeconomic Laws'' in 1976, was the first treatment of the nature of economics by a contemporary philosopher of science. Over the period of the next decade he became increasingly skeptical about

neoclassical economics Neoclassical economics is an approach to economics in which the production, consumption, and valuation (pricing) of goods and services are observed as driven by the supply and demand model. According to this line of thought, the value of a go ...

as an empirical theory. He later shifted to work on issues in the

philosophy of science Philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. Amongst its central questions are the difference between science and non-science, the reliability of scientific theories, ...

that are raised by biology. He became especially interested in the relationship between molecular biology and other parts of biology. Rosenberg introduced the concept of

supervenience In philosophy, supervenience refers to a relation between sets of properties or sets of facts. X is said to ''supervene'' on Y if and only if some difference in Y is necessary for any difference in X to be possible. Examples of supervenience, i ...

to the treatment of intertheoretical relations in biology, soon after Donald Davidson began to exploit Richard Hare's notion in the philosophy of psychology. Rosenberg is among the few biologists and fewer philosophers of science who reject the consensus view that combines

physicalism In philosophy, physicalism is the view that "everything is physical", that there is "nothing over and above" the physical, or that everything supervenience, supervenes on the physical. It is opposed to idealism, according to which the world arises ...

with

antireductionism Antireductionism is the position in science and metaphysics that stands in contrast to reductionism (anti-holism) by advocating that not all properties of a system can be explained in terms of its constituent parts and their interactions. General ...

(see his 2010 on-line debate with

John Dupré John A. Dupré (; born 3 July 1952) is a British philosopher of science. He is the director of Egenis, the Centre for the Study of Life Sciences, and professor of philosophy at the University of Exeter. Dupré's chief work area lies in philosoph ...

at Philosophy TV). Rosenberg also coauthored an influential book on

David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist who was best known for his highly influential system of empiricism, philosophical scepticism and metaphysical naturalism. Beg ...

with

Tom Beauchamp Tom Lamar Beauchamp III (December 2, 1939 – February 19, 2025) was an American philosopher. He specialized in the work of David Hume, moral philosophy, bioethics, and animal ethics. Beauchamp was Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Georgetown ...

, ''Hume and the Problem of Causation'', arguing that Hume was not a skeptic about induction but an opponent of rationalist theories of inductive inference.

''The Atheist's Guide to Reality''

Alex Rosenberg has the opinion that existence of the self is "an illusion." In 2011 Rosenberg published a defense of what he called "

Scientism Scientism is the belief that science and the scientific method are the best or only way to render truth about the world and reality. While the term was defined originally to mean "methods and attitudes typical of or attributed to natural scientis ...

"—the claim that "the persistent questions" people ask about the nature of reality, the purpose of things, the foundations of value and morality, the way the mind works, the basis of personal identity, and the course of human history, could all be answered by the resources of science. This book was attacked on the front cover of

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' (often abbreviated as ''TNR'') is an American magazine focused on domestic politics, news, culture, and the arts from a left-wing perspective. It publishes ten print magazines a year and a daily online platform. ''The New Y ...

Leon Wieseltier Leon Wieseltier ( ; born June 14, 1952) is an American critic and magazine editor. From 1983 to 2014, he was the literary editor of ''The New Republic''. He was a contributing editor and critic at ''The Atlantic'' until 2017, when the magazine fi ...

as "The worst book of the year". Wieseltier's claim, in turn, was critiqued as exaggeration by

Philip Kitcher Philip Stuart Kitcher (born 20 February 1947) is a British philosopher who is the John Dewey Professor Emeritus of philosophy at Columbia University. He specialises in the philosophy of science, the philosophy of biology, the philosophy of mathe ...

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

. On February 1, 2013, Rosenberg debated

Christian apologist Christian apologetics (, "verbal defense, speech in defense") is a branch of Christian theology that defends Christianity. Christian apologetics have taken many forms over the centuries, starting with Paul the Apostle in the early church and Pa ...

William Lane Craig William Lane Craig (; born August 23, 1949) is an American Analytic philosophy, analytic philosopher, Christian apologetics, Christian apologist, author, and theologian. He is a professor of philosophy at Houston Christian University and at the T ...

on the question 'Is Faith in God Reasonable?' during which some of the arguments of the book were discussed. Rosenberg has contributed articles to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' Op/Ed series The Stone, on naturalism, science and the humanities, and meta-ethics, and the mind's powers to understand itself by introspection that arise from the views he advanced in ''The Atheist's Guide to Reality.''

''How History Gets Things Wrong: The Neuroscience of our Addiction to Stories''

In 2018 Rosenberg published ''How History Gets Things Wrong: The Neuroscience of our Addiction to Stories''. This work develops the

eliminative materialism Eliminative materialism (also called eliminativism) is a materialist position in the philosophy of mind that expresses the idea that the majority of mental states in folk psychology do not exist. Some supporters of eliminativism argue that ...

of ''The Atheist’s Guide to Reality'', applying it to the role ‘the theory of mind’ plays in history and other forms of story telling. Rosenberg argues that the work of

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

winners,

Eric Kandel Eric Richard Kandel (; born Erich Richard Kandel, November 7, 1929) is an Austrian-born American medical doctor who specialized in psychiatry, a neuroscientist and a professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the College of Physicians and Surgeo ...

, John O'Keefe and

May-Britt Moser May-Britt Moser (born 1963) is a Norwegian psychologist and neuroscientist, who is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). She and her former husband, Edvard Moser, shared half of ...

along with

Edvard Moser Edvard Ingjald Moser () is a Norwegian psychologist and neuroscientist, who is a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2014 with long-term col ...

reveals that the ‘‘theory of mind‘‘ employed in everyday life and narrative history has no basis in the organization of the brain. Evidence from evolutionary anthropology, child psychology, medical diagnosis and neural imaging reveals it is an innate or almost innate tool that arose in

Hominini The Hominini (hominins) form a Tribe (biology), taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae (hominines). They comprise two extant genera: ''Homo'' (humans) and ''Pan (genus), Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos), and in standard usage exclude the gen ...

evolution to foster collaboration among small numbers of individuals in immediate contact over the near future, but whose predictive weakness beyond this domain reveals its explanatory emptiness.

''Blunt Instrument: Why Economic Theory Can’t Get any Better…Why We Need It Anyway''

In 2025 Rosenberg published ''Blunt Instrument: Why Economic Theory Can’t Get any Better…Why We Need It Anyway''. Rosenberg describes the book as an outsider’s guide to economic theory, that enables non-economists to see why it cannot make predictions and why its explanations are all post-hoc. The book explains economic theory’s largely mathematical expression as the result of nineteenth century marginalist economists interest in formally proving

Adam Smith Adam Smith (baptised 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the field of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as the "father of economics"——— or ...

’s conjecture about the invisible hand in “The Wealth of Nations”, employing differential calculus, especially a simple version of the

Lagrangian Lagrangian may refer to: Mathematics * Lagrangian function, used to solve constrained minimization problems in optimization theory; see Lagrange multiplier ** Lagrangian relaxation, the method of approximating a difficult constrained problem with ...

. The complete absence of money from microeconomics is traced to its

rational choice theory Rational choice modeling refers to the use of decision theory (the theory of rational choice) as a set of guidelines to help understand economic and social behavior. The theory tries to approximate, predict, or mathematically model human behav ...

foundations, while

New Classical Macroeconomics New classical macroeconomics, sometimes simply called new classical economics, is a school of thought in macroeconomics that builds its analysis entirely on a neoclassical framework. Specifically, it emphasizes the importance of foundations bas ...

, and especially

Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium Dynamic stochastic general equilibrium modeling (abbreviated as DSGE, or DGE, or sometimes SDGE) is a macroeconomics, macroeconomic method which is often employed by monetary and fiscal authorities for policy analysis, explaining historical time-s ...

models are argued to consist in the result of

microeconomics Microeconomics is a branch of economics that studies the behavior of individuals and Theory of the firm, firms in making decisions regarding the allocation of scarcity, scarce resources and the interactions among these individuals and firms. M ...

-driven

thought experiment A thought experiment is an imaginary scenario that is meant to elucidate or test an argument or theory. It is often an experiment that would be hard, impossible, or unethical to actually perform. It can also be an abstract hypothetical that is ...

s about corrigible but correctable rational expectations. Rosenberg seeks to show that the pervasiveness of

market failure In neoclassical economics, market failure is a situation in which the allocation of goods and services by a free market is not Pareto efficient, often leading to a net loss of economic value.Paul Krugman and Robin Wells Krugman, Robin Wells (2006 ...

, particularly endemic to the inevitably monopsonistic

labor market Labour economics seeks to understand the functioning and dynamics of the Market (economics), markets for wage labour. Labour (human activity), Labour is a commodity that is supplied by labourers, usually in exchange for a wage paid by demanding ...

and the unavoidable

rent-seeking Rent-seeking is the act of growing one's existing wealth by manipulating the social or political environment without creating new wealth. Rent-seeking activities have negative effects on the rest of society. They result in reduced economic effi ...

of the

financial market A financial market is a market in which people trade financial securities and derivatives at low transaction costs. Some of the securities include stocks and bonds, raw materials and precious metals, which are known in the financial marke ...

requires the employment of

game theory Game theory is the study of mathematical models of strategic interactions. It has applications in many fields of social science, and is used extensively in economics, logic, systems science and computer science. Initially, game theory addressed ...

. He concludes by seeking to show that only game theory can solve the

incentive compatibility In game theory and economics, a mechanism is called incentive-compatible (IC) if every participant can achieve their own best outcome by reporting their true preferences. For example, there is incentive compatibility if high-risk clients are bette ...

problems modern civilization faces in dealing with rapacious economic greed.

Critical discussions of Rosenberg’s work

While attracting some interest for its arguments about the philosophy of mind, Rosenberg's critique of narrative history in ''How History Gets Things Wrong'' has attracted criticism in academic reviews. Reviewers including Alexandre Leskanich in ''

The English Historical Review ''The English Historical Review'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal that was established in 1886 and published by Oxford University Press (formerly by Longman). It publishes articles on all aspects of history – British, European, a ...

'', Jacob Ivey in ''

Philosophia ''philoSOPHIA: A Journal of Transcontinental Feminism'' is an international, interdisciplinary, biannual peer-reviewed academic journal covering feminist theory and continental philosophy. Published by SUNY Press, the journal was established by p ...

'', and Michael Douma in ''

Journal of Value Inquiry The ''Journal of Value Inquiry'' is a peer-reviewed philosophical journal focused on value studies. It was founded in 1967 by James Wilbur. The journal publishes essays, letters, book reviews, interviews, dialogues, reports, and news. According ...

'' faulted the book for failing to engage with literature in the

philosophy of history Philosophy of history is the philosophy, philosophical study of history and its academic discipline, discipline. The term was coined by the French philosopher Voltaire. In contemporary philosophy a distinction has developed between the ''specul ...

and

narratology Narratology is the study of narrative and narrative structure and the ways that these affect human perception. The term is an anglicisation of French ''narratologie'', coined by Tzvetan Todorov (''Grammaire du Décaméron'', 1969). Its theoretica ...

and for oversimplified treatment of historical examples. Ivey also argued that Rosenberg's call for a Darwinian approach to historical explanation failed to acknowledge the limitations of past attempts to apply this approach and the complicated relationship in practice between Darwinian and humanistic methods in history. Rosenberg's treatment of fitness as a supervenient property, which is an undefined concept in the theory of natural selection, is criticized by Brandon and Beatty. His original development of how the

of Mendelian concepts blocks traditional derivational reduction was examined critically by C. Kenneth Waters. His later account of reduction in developmental biology was criticized by

Günter Wagner Gunter or Günter may refer to: * Gunter rig, a type of sailing rig, especially in small boats * Gunter Annex, Alabama, a United States Air Force installation * Gunter, Texas, city in the United States * the former German name of the village of ...

Elliott Sober Elliott R. Sober (born 6 June 1948) is an American philosopher. He is noted for his work in philosophy of biology and general philosophy of science. Sober is Hans Reichenbach Professor and William F. Vilas Research Professor Emeritus in the Depar ...

's "Multiple realization arguments against reductionism" reflects a shift towards Rosenberg's critique of anti-reductionist arguments of Putnam's and Fodor's. Sober has also challenged Rosenberg's view that the principle of natural selection is the only biological law. The explanatory role of the principle of natural selection and the nature of evolutionary probabilities defended by Rosenberg were subject to counter arguments by Brandon and later by Denis Walsh. Rosenberg's account of the nature of

genetic drift Genetic drift, also known as random genetic drift, allelic drift or the Wright effect, is the change in the Allele frequency, frequency of an existing gene variant (allele) in a population due to random chance. Genetic drift may cause gene va ...

and the role of probability in the theory of natural selection draws on significant parallels between the principle of natural selection and the second law of thermodynamics. In the philosophy of social science, Rosenberg's more skeptical views about

were challenged first by Wade Hands, and later by Daniel Hausman in several books and articles. The

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

resulted in renewed attention to Rosenberg's skeptical views about

. Biologist

Richard Lewontin Richard Charles Lewontin (March 29, 1929 – July 4, 2021) was an American evolutionary biologist, mathematician, geneticist, and social commentator. A leader in developing the mathematical basis of population genetics and evolutionary theory, ...

and historian Joseph Fracchia express skepticism about Rosenberg's claim that functional explanations in social science require Darwinian underlying mechanisms.

Literary work

''The Girl From Krakow''

Rosenberg's 2015 novel, ''The Girl From Krakow'', Lake Union Publishing, is a narrative about a young woman named Rita Feuerstahl from 1935 to 1947, mainly focusing on her struggles to survive in Nazi-occupied Poland and later in Germany, under a false identity. A secondary plot involves her lover's experiences in France and Spain during its Civil War in the 1930s and then in Moscow during the war. Rosenberg has acknowledged that the novel is based on the wartime experiences of people he knew. He has also admitted the incongruity of writing a narrative, given his attack on the form in ''The Atheist’s Guide to Reality''. He has said that ''The Girl from Krakow'' began as an attempt to put some of the difficult arguments of ''The Atheist’s Guide to Reality'' into a form easier to grasp".Ognian Georgiev (August 8, 2015)
"Alex Rosenberg: ''The Girl from Krakow'' is based on people who survived the war"
''Land of Books''. ''The Girl From Krakow'' has been translated into Italian, Hungarian, Polish, Hebrew and Croatian.

''Autumn in Oxford''

In 2016 Rosenberg's second novel, ''Autumn in Oxford'', appeared, also published by Lake Union Publishing. An afterword identifies the large number of real persons—academics, civil rights advocates, military officers, politicians and intelligence agents from the 1940s and '50s who figure in the narrative.

''The Intrigues of Jennie Lee''

in 2020 Rosenberg's third novel was published by Top Hat Books. An afterword identities the large number of public figures from Great Britain in the '30s who figure in the novel, including Jennie Lee,

Aneurin Bevan Aneurin "Nye" Bevan Privy Council (United Kingdom), PC (; 15 November 1897 – 6 July 1960) was a Welsh Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician, noted for spearheading the creation of the British National Health Service during his t ...

Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was List of British royal consorts, Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of K ...

--the subsequent centenarian Queen Mother,

Lady Astor Nancy Witcher Astor, Viscountess Astor (19 May 1879 – 2 May 1964) was an American-born British politician who was the first woman seated as a Member of Parliament (MP), serving from 1919 to 1945. Astor was born in Danville, Virginia and rai ...

Ellen Wilkinson Ellen Cicely Wilkinson (8 October 1891 – 6 February 1947) was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who served as Secretary of State for Education, Minister of Education from July 1945 until her death. Earlier in her care ...

Ramsay MacDonald James Ramsay MacDonald (; 12 October 18669 November 1937) was a British statesman and politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The first two of his governments belonged to the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party, where he led ...

and

Oswald Mosley Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (16 November 1896 – 3 December 1980), was a British aristocrat and politician who rose to fame during the 1920s and 1930s when he, having become disillusioned with mainstream politics, turned to fascism. ...

''In the Shadows of Enigma''

Rosenberg's fourth historical novel, a sequel to “The Girl from Krakow”, was published in 2021, also by Top Hat Books. This novel offers an explanation of why the Western Allies—the US, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia—kept the breaking of the German

Enigma Enigma may refer to: *Riddle, someone or something that is mysterious or puzzling Biology *ENIGMA, a class of gene in the LIM domain Computing and technology * Enigma (company), a New York–based data-technology startup *Enigma machine, a famil ...

code secret for 30 years after the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Four characters from his earlier novel figure in the sequel, Rita Feuerstahl, her partner Gil Romero, her son Stefan and a former

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

detective still working for the

German Federal Republic BRD ( ; English: FRG/Federal Republic of Germany) is an unofficial abbreviation for the Federal Republic of Germany, informally known in English as West Germany until 1990, and just Germany since reunification. It was occasionally used in the Fede ...

, Otto Schulke.

Bibliography

* ''Microeconomic Laws: A Philosophical Analysis'' (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1976) * ''Sociobiology and the Preemption of Social Science'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980; Basil Blackwell, 1981) * ''Hume and the Problem of Causation'' (Oxford University Press, 1981) (with T.L. Beauchamp) * ''The Structure of Biological Science'' (Cambridge University Press, 1985) * ''Philosophy of Social Science'' (Clarendon Press, Oxford and Westview Press, 1988, fifth Edition, 2015), translation in Greek * ''Economics: Mathematical Politics or Science of Diminishing Returns?'' (University of Chicago Press, 1992) * ''Instrumental Biology, or the Disunity of Science'' (University of Chicago Press, 1994) * ''Darwinism in Philosophy, Social Science and Policy'' (Cambridge University Press, 2000) * ''Philosophy of Science: A Contemporary Approach'' (Routledge, 2000, third edition 2011), translations in Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese and Turkish. * ''Darwinian Reductionism or How to Stop Worrying and Love Molecular Biology'' (University of Chicago Press, 2006) * ''The Philosophy of Biology: A Contemporary Introduction'' (Routledge, 2007) (with Daniel McShea) * ''Philosophy of Biology: An Anthology'' (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009) (with Robert Arp) * ''The Atheist's Guide to Reality'' (W. W. Norton & Company, 2011) * ''The Girl From Krakow'' (Lake Union, 2015), translations in Polish, Italian, Hebrew, Hungarian, and Croatian * ''Autumn in Oxford'' (Lake Union, 2016) * ''The Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Social Science'' (Routledge, 2017) (with Lee McIntyre) * ''How History Gets Things Wrong: The Neuroscience of Our Addiction to Stories'' (MIT Press, 2018) * ''The Intrigues of Jennie Lee'' (Top Hat Books, 2020) * ''Reduction and Mechanism'' (Cambridge University Press, 2020) * ''In the Shadow of Enigma'' (Top Hat Books, 2021) * ''Blunt Instrument: Why Economic Theory Can't Get Any Better...Why We Need It Anyway'' (MIT Press, 2025)

References

External links

Alex Rosenberg’s home page

Alex Rosenberg and David Levine on Economics at Bloggingheads

John Dupré and Alex Rosenberg on Reductionism at Philosophy TV

Owen Flanagan and Alex Rosenberg on Naturalism at Philosophy TV

"The Disenchanted Naturalist's Guide to Reality."
* *
Alex Rosenberg on Atheist's Guide to Reality at Minnesota Atheists

Richard Marshall reviews "Atheist's Guide to Reality"
in 3:AM Magazine
Alex Rosenberg on Atheist's Guide to Reality at American Free Thought

Alex Rosenberg, Samir Okasha, Julian Baggini on "Atheist's Guide to Reality" at Microphilosophy

Talking Philosophy interview with Alex Rosenberg on "Atheist's Guide to Reality" [now hosted on Rosenberg's homepage
/nowiki>">ow hosted on Rosenberg's homepage">Talking Philosophy interview with Alex Rosenberg on "Atheist's Guide to Reality" [now hosted on Rosenberg's homepage
/nowiki>
Alex Rosenberg, "Bodies-in-Motion-An Exchange."

Alex Rosenberg and Tyler Curtain, "What Is Economics Good For?"

Alex Rosenberg, "Can moral disputes be resolved?"

Alex Rosenberg, an extended film interview with transcripts for the 'Why Are We Here?' documentary series

* [https://www.salon.com/writer/alex-rosenberg/ Alex Rosenberg, "Why most narrative history is wrong"]
Alex Rosenberg, "Can we learn from history?"

Alex Rosenberg, "Humans are hardwired to tell history in stories"

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosenberg, Alexander 1946 births Living people Philosophers from North Carolina Atheist philosophers City College of New York alumni Duke University faculty Syracuse University faculty Johns Hopkins University alumni Stuyvesant High School alumni Philosophers of biology American philosophers of social science Writers about religion and science 20th-century atheists 21st-century atheists Lakatos Award winners American atheism activists