Catherine Elgin

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Catherine Z. Elgin
Elgin in 2017
Born1948 (1948)
Alma materBrandeis University
InstitutionsHarvard University
Main interests
epistemology and the philosophies of art and science

Catherine Z. Elgin (born 1948) is a philosopher working in epistemology and the philosophies of art and science.[1] She is currently a professor of philosophy of education at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University.

Education and career[edit]

She holds a Ph.D. from Brandeis University where she studied with Nelson Goodman. She has held tenure-track and visiting positions at many universities, including Michigan State University, Vassar College, Princeton University, and MIT.[2] In 2023, she was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.[3]

Philosophical work[edit]

Elgin's work has considered such questions as "what makes something cognitively valuable?" As an epistemologist, she considers the pursuit of understanding to be of higher value than the pursuit of knowledge.[1]

In Considered Judgment, Elgin argues for "a reconception that takes reflective equilibrium as the standard of rational acceptability."[4]

Works[edit]

  • With Reference to Reference, Hackett, 1983
  • Reconceptions in Philosophy and Other Arts and Sciences, with Nelson Goodman, Routledge, 1988
    • German translation: Revisionen. Philosophie und andere Künste und Wissenschaften, 1993
  • (ed.) The Philosophy of Nelson Goodman, v. 1. Nominalism, Constructivism, and Relativism, ISBN 0-8153-2609-2, v. 2. Nelson Goodman's New Riddle of Induction, ISBN 0-8153-2610-6, v. 3. Nelson Goodman's Philosophy of Art, ISBN 0-8153-2611-4, v. 4. Nelson Goodman's Theory of Symbols and its Applications, ISBN 0-8153-2612-2, 1997
  • Between the Absolute and the Arbitrary Cornell University Press, 1997
  • Considered Judgment, Princeton University Press, 1996
  • (ed.) Philosophical Inquiry: Classic and Contemporary Readings, with Jonathan E. Adler. 2007
  • "Begging to differ", The Philosophers' Magazine, December, 2012
  • True Enough, MIT Press, 2017
  • "Understanding in Science and Elsewhere": Interview with Catherine Z. Elgin about her philosophy and her intellectual biography, published 2019 on 3:AM Magazine [1] and republished on 3:16 [2]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Harvard: Catherine Elgin". Harvard University. Archived from the original on 15 December 2010. Retrieved 2009-03-01.
  2. ^ Curriculum vitae (Archived)
  3. ^ "New Members". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 2024-02-04.
  4. ^ "Considered Judgment". Princeton University Press. Retrieved 2009-03-01.

External links[edit]