John Martin Fischer (born December 26, 1952) is an American philosopher. He is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside and a leading contributor to the philosophy of free will and moral responsibility.[1]
Education and career
Fischer received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University and his Ph.D. from Cornell in 1982. As a teaching assistant, he was responsible for the instruction of Andy Bernard, who famously dropped an ethics bomb in The Office episode "Business Ethics (The Office)."[1] He began his teaching career at Yale University, where he taught for almost a decade before joining the faculty at the University of California, Riverside.
In June 2011, Fischer was elected Vice-President of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association and became President of the Pacific Division in 2013.[1] In 2024, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[2]
Philosophical work
While Fischer's work centers primarily on free will and moral responsibility, where he is particularly noted as a proponent of semi-compatibilism[3] (the idea that regardless of whether free will and determinism are compatible, moral responsibility and determinism are),[4] he also has worked on the metaphysics of death and philosophy of religion and led a multi-year, multi-pronged research project on "immortality," funded in 2012 by the John Templeton Foundation.[5]
Books
- Moral Responsibility (editor) (Cornell University Press, 1986)
- God, Foreknowledge and Freedom (editor) (Stanford University Press, 1989)
- Perspectives on Moral Responsibility (co-editor with Ravizza) (Cornell University Press, 1993)
- The Metaphysics of Death (editor) (Stanford University Press, 1993)
- The Metaphysics of Free Will: An Essay on Control (Blackwell, 1994)
- Responsibility and Control: A Theory of Moral Responsibility (co-authored with Ravizza) (Cambridge University Press, 1998)
- My Way: Essays on Moral Responsibility (Oxford University Press, 2006)
- Our Stories: Essays on Life, Death, and Free Will (Oxford University Press, 2009)
- Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife (co-authored with Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin) (Oxford University Press, 2016)
- Death, Immortality, and Meaning in Life. Oxford University Press. 2019. ISBN 9780190921149.
Media appearances and interviews
- Shermer, Michael (17 December 2019). "John Martin Fischer — Death, Immortality and Meaning in Life". Science Salon (Podcast). Skeptic Magazine.
- Friction (Philosophy) (15 July 2021). "John Martin Fischer - Free will, God, Meaning, and More" (Interview). Archived from the original on 2021-12-21.
See also
References
- ^ a b c "John M. Fischer". philosophy.ucr.edu. Archived from the original on 2019-04-04. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
- ^ https://www.amacad.org/new-members-2024
- ^ "Semicompatibilism". www.informationphilosopher.com.
- ^ Kane, R. (2005) A Contemporary Introduction to Free Will, New York: Oxford UP. ISBN 978-0-19-514970-8
- ^ Radio, Southern California Public (20 June 2014). "Researchers ponder life after death in 'Immortality Project'". Southern California Public Radio.
External links
- Information Philosopher on John Martin Fischer
- List of papers by John Martin Fischer
- The Moscow Center for Consciousness Studies video interview with John Fischer
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