Peter Millican
Peter Millican (born March 1, 1958) is an British philosopher currently teaching at Hertford College, Oxford University in the United Kingdom. His primary interests include the philosophy of David Hume, philosophy of religion, philosophy of language, and epistemology. Millican is the co-editor of the journal Hume Studies. Millican also has an interest in the field of computing and is an International Correspondance Chess Grandmaster.
Education
Peter Millican attended Borden Grammar School in Kent, United Kingdom. He read Philosophy and Theology at Lincoln College, Oxford from 1976–1980. Staying at Lincoln College, Millican took the Philosophy B.Phil. in 1982.
Academic career
After teaching Theology briefly at the University of Glasgow from 1983 to 1985, Millican was appointed to a Lectureship at Leeds University, teaching both Computing and Philosophy. Millican completed his Ph.D. in 1996 with a thesis on Hume, Induction and Probability.
Obama autobiography controversy
In 2008 and 2009 some conservative commentators advanced claims that Obama's autobiography, Dreams from My Father was written or ghost-written by Ayers. In a series of articles in American Thinker and WorldNetDaily, author Jack Cashill claimed that his own analysis of the book showed Ayers' writing style. In late October, US Congressman Chris Cannon and his brother-in-law attempted to hire Millican to prove Ayers' authorship using computer analysis. Millican refused after they would not assure him in advance that his results would be published regardless of the outcome.[1][2][3][4] Millican later criticized the claim, saying variously that he had "found no evidence for Cashill's ghostwriting hypothesis", that it was "unlikely"[5] and that he felt "totally confident that it is false".[3]
Publications
- Reading Hume on Human Understanding (Oxford, Oxford University Press: 2002)[1]
External links
- Personal Website
- Staff Homepage at Hertford College, Oxford
- Website on his work on David Hume
- Website on his work on Philosophy and Computing
- ^ Sarah Baxter (2008-10-02). "Republicans try to use Oxford don to smear Barack Obama". The Sunday Times.
- ^ Peter Millican (2008-10-02). "How they tried to tarnish Barack Obama". The Sunday Times.
- ^ a b Thomas Burr, "Congressman Cannon questions Obama authorship", Salt Lake Tribune, 11/03/2008 (courtesy link to article lede: http://qa.politicswest.com/node/32523/print)
- ^ Obama book under scrutiny", United Press International, Nov. 2, 2008
- ^ Peter Millican. "Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father".