Peter K. Unger (; born April 25, 1942) is a contemporary 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 ...

and professor in the Department of Philosophy at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

. His main interests lie in the fields of

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of ...

epistemology Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowle ...

ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...

, and the

philosophy of mind Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of the mind and its relation to the Body (biology), body and the Reality, external world. The mind–body problem is a paradigmatic issue in philosophy of mind, although a ...

Biography

Unger attended

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the e ...

at the same time as David Lewis, earning a B.A. in philosophy in 1962, and

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 ...

, where he studied under

A. J. Ayer Sir Alfred Jules "Freddie" Ayer ( ; 29 October 1910 – 27 June 1989) was an English philosopher known for his promotion of logical positivism, particularly in his books '' Language, Truth, and Logic'' (1936) and ''The Problem of Knowledge'' (1 ...

and earned a doctorate in 1966. – dead link, see
Internet Archive copy
of May 22, 2009, access: May 29, 2023. Unger has written a defense of profound

philosophical skepticism Philosophical skepticism (UK spelling: scepticism; from Ancient Greek, Greek σκέψις ''skepsis'', "inquiry") is a family of philosophical views that question the possibility of knowledge. It differs from other forms of skepticism in that ...

. In ''Ignorance'' (1975), he argues that nobody knows anything and even that nobody is reasonable or justified in believing anything. In ''Philosophical Relativity'' (1984), he argues that many philosophical questions cannot be definitively answered. In the field of applied ethics, his best-known work is '' Living High and Letting Die'' (1996). In this text, Unger argues that the citizens of first-world countries have a moral duty to make large donations to life-saving charities (such as

Oxfam Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent non-governmental organizations (NGOs), focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International. It began as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief ...

and

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

), and that once they have given all of their own money and possessions, beyond what is needed to survive, they should give what belongs to others, even if having to beg, borrow, or steal in the process. In "The Mental Problems of the Many" (2002), he argues for substantial interactionist dualism on questions of mind and matter: that each of us is an immaterial soul. The argument is extended and fortified in his 2006 book ''All the Power in the World''. In ''Empty Ideas'' (2014), he argues that

analytic philosophy Analytic philosophy is a broad movement within Western philosophy, especially English-speaking world, anglophone philosophy, focused on analysis as a philosophical method; clarity of prose; rigor in arguments; and making use of formal logic, mat ...

has delivered no substantial results as to how things are with concrete reality.

Selected publications

Books

* ''Ignorance: A Case for Scepticism'' (

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 1975 and 2002) * ''Philosophical Relativity'' (Blackwell and Minnesota, 1984; Oxford, 2002) * ''Identity, Consciousness and Value'' (Oxford, 1990) * '' Living High and Letting Die: Our Illusion of Innocence'' (Oxford, 1996) * ''All the Power in the World'' (Oxford, 2006) , see
selected chapters
- dead link, see
Internet Archive copy
of December 26, 2005, access: May 29, 2023. * ''Philosophical Papers, Volume 1'' (Oxford, 2006) * ''Philosophical Papers, Volume 2'' (Oxford, 2006) * ''Empty Ideas: A Critique of Analytic Philosophy '' (Oxford, 2014)

Articles

* "An Analysis of Factual Knowledge", ''The Journal of Philosophy'', LXV (1968): 157–170 * "A Defense of Skepticism", ''The Philosophical Review'', LXXX (1971): 198–219. * "The Uniqueness in Causation", ''American Philosophical Quarterly'', 14 (1977): 177–188. * "There Are No Ordinary Things", ''Synthese'', 41 (1979): 117–154. * "I do not Exist", in ''Perception and Identity'', G. F. MacDonald (ed.), London: Macmillan, 1979 and ''Material Constitution'', Michael C. Rea (ed.), 1996. * "Why There Are No People", ''Midwest Studies in Philosophy'', IV (1979): 177–222. * "The Problem of the Many", ''Midwest Studies in Philosophy'', V (1980), pp. 411–467. * "The Causal Theory of Reference", ''Philosophical Studies'', 43 (1983): 1–45. * "The Mystery of the Physical and the Matter of Qualities", ''Midwest Studies in Philosophy'', XXII (1999), 75–99. * "Minimizing Arbitrariness: Toward Metaphysics of Infinitely Many Isolated Concrete Worlds", ''Midwest Studies in Philosophy'', IX (1984): 29–51. * "The Mental Problems of the Many", ''Oxford Studies in Metaphysics'', Volume 1, Oxford, 2002. *
Free Will and Scientiphicalism
, ''Philosophy and Phenomenological Research'', vol. 65 (2002) – dead link, see
Internet Archive copy
of December 23, 2005, access: May 29, 2023. *
The Survival of the Sentient
, ''Philosophical Perspectives'', vol. 14 (2000) – dead link, see
Internet Archive copy
of December 23, 2005, access: May 29, 2023.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Unger, Peter 1942 births Analytic philosophers 21st-century American philosophers Living people American epistemologists American metaphysicians American philosophers of mind Dualists Swarthmore College alumni Skeptic philosophers