Roderick Chisholm
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Roderick M Chisholm (Seekonk, Massachusetts, 1916 -- Providence, Rhode Island, 1999) was an American philosopher, known for his work on epistemology, metaphysics, free will, and the philosophy of perception. He did his Ph.D. at Harvard University under Clarence Irving Lewis, and taught at Brown University.
Chisholm's first major work was a textbook on epistemology called Theory of Knowledge. His masterwork was Person and Object, a title punning W. V. O. Quine's Word and Object. Chisholm, a metaphysical Platonist and rationalist in the tradition of G. E. Moore and Franz Brentano, objected to Quine's anti-realism, behaviorism, and relativism. He defended the possibility of empirical knowledge by appeal to a priori epistemic principles whose consequences include that it is more reasonable to trust your senses and memory in most situtations than to doubt them. He also defended a controversial theory of volition (some think it a version of libertarianism, others, a version of compatibilism), the possibilty of robust self-knowledge, and an objective ethics of requirements similar to that of W. D. Ross. Chisholm's other books include The Problem of the Criterion, Perception, and A Realist Theory of the Categories, though his numerous journal articles are probably better known than any of these.
Chisholm read widely in the history of philosophy, and frequently referred to the work of Ancient, Medieval, Modern, and even Continental philosophers (although the use he made of this material has sometimes been challenged). Nonetheless, he greatly respected the history of philosophy, in the face of a prevailing indifference thereto. Chisholm translated some work by Brentano and by Husserl, and contributed to the post-1970 renaissance of mereology.
Chisholm greatly influenced a number of his graduate students and colleagues, including Keith Lehrer, R. C. Sleigh, Ernest Sosa, Fred Feldman, Terence Penelhum, Selmer Bringsjord and Dean Zimmerman.
Reference
- Hahn, L. E., ed., 1997. The Philosophy of Roderick Chisholm (The Library of Living Philosophers). Open Court. Includes an autobiographical essay and a complete bibliography.