Lynne rudder baker, distinguished professor emerita in philosophy at the university of massachusetts, amherst, has died. Review of lynne rudder baker, persons and bodies theodore sider journal of philosophy 99 2002. The philosophy of lynne rudder baker hasker 2019 religious. A constitution view by lynne rudder baker cambridge. It is with great sadness that we report the death of lynne rudder baker, distinguished professor emerita in philosophy. Review of lynne rudder baker, persons and bodies ted sider. Bakers critique of my view of the self as a fiction captures some of its points well but misses the possibility of a theorists fiction, like the equator or a center of gravity, which is not an illusion, but rather an abstraction, like dollars, poems, and softwaremade of no material but dependent on material vehicles. Linguistic evidence of a firstperson perspective comes from use of firstperson pronouns embedded in sentences with linguistic or psychological verbse. Naturalism and the first person perspective by lynne.
We invited her to answer the question what does philosophy of religion offer to the modern university. In her third book on the philosophy of mind, lynne rudder baker investigates what she terms the personbody problem and offers a detailed account of the relation between human persons and their bodies. Lynne rudder baker has been a persistent critic of this view. Chapter 8 argues that the firstperson perspective is a twostage dispositional property. The philosophy of mind has long been dominated by the view that mental states are identical with, constituted by, or grounded in brain states. In contrast to leading metaphysical views that take everyday things to be either nonexistent or reducible to microobjects, the constitution view construes familiar things as irreducible parts of reality. Pdf lynne rudder baker, naturalism and the firstperson. In brian mclaughlin and ansgar beckermann, editors, the oxford handbook for the philosophy of mind, pages 109120. Baker, lynne rudder 2003 why christians should not be libertarians. She is the author of explaining attitudes cambridge, 1995, persons and bodies cambridge, 2000, the metaphysics of. Cambridge core logic persons and bodies by lynne rudder baker. Lynne rudder baker, university of massachusetts, amherst.
Saving belief by lynne rudder baker overdrive rakuten. First, to critically discuss lynne rudders baker batheory of time, and second to contrast it with the. Bakers argument is based on the constitution view of persons and bodies, which aims to show what distinguishes persons from all other beings. Source for information on baker, lynne rudder 1944. The main aim of the first part is to argue that the firstperson perspective that we humans enjoy cannot be reduced to thirdperson facts or properties which are the only facts and properties with which baker thinks naturalism has any truck, and nor can it be eliminated in. Despite the anecdotal evidence baker gives that libertarian. Lynne rudder baker is professor emeritus of philosophy at the university of massachusetts, amherst. We, the editors of the journal of social ontology, like to think that it is on this rapidly evolving domain of research that the various lines of philosophical research of her impressive lifes work converge. She began teaching at mary baldwin college immediately thereafter, and she held an andrew mellon postdoctoral fellowship at the university of pittsburgh during the. The princeton legacy library uses the latest printondemand technology to again make available previously outofprint books from the distinguished backlist of. Middlebury notes the death of former faculty member lynne rudder baker, who taught in middlebury s philosophy department for years, from 19761989. The metaphysics of everyday life by lynne rudder baker. Lynne rudder baker obituary department of philosophy. Olson, baker, and a reply article pdf available in the philosophical forum 331.
After a year studying philosophy at johns hopkins university on a national defense education act fellowship 19671968, she returned to nashville to marry. January 15, 2015 lynne rudder baker, naturalism and the firstperson perspective, oxford university press, 20, 248pp. An essay in practical realism, by lynne rudder baker. Lynne rudder baker february 14, 1944 december 24, 2017 was an american philosopher and author. Logi gunnarssons philosophy of personal identity and multiple personality focuses on the question of whether it is possible for more than one person understood as a fundamental entity and not merely a set of personality or character traits to exist in a single human body. Pdf on jan 1, 2011, william hasker and others published the metaphysics of. Bakers book is a fine defence of a view worth taking seriously. Lynne rudder baker was born on 14 february 1944 in atlanta, georgia. Introduction lynne rudder baker and many others think that paradigmatic instances of one object. Zimmerman, rutgers university philosophical topics vol. This online memorial is dedicated to lynne rudder baker.
A critique of lynne rudder baker s theory of material constitution dean w. Material persons and the doctrine of resurrection lynne rudder baker many christians assume that there are only two possibilities for what a human person is. It is a place to celebrate her life with photos, stories, music and other tributes. The expression nonreductive materialism refers to a variety of positions whose roots lie in attempts to solve the mindbody problem. Lynne rudder baker is distinguished professor of philosophy at the university of massachusetts, amherst. At the time of her death she was a distinguished professor at the university of massachusetts amherst born in atlanta, georgia in 1944 to virginia bennett and james rudder, she earned her ph. An augustinian challenge, faith and philosophy 20 2003.
Property p is a firstperson property if either i p entails that whatever exemplifies it has the capacity to interact consciously and intentionally with the environment andor ii p entails that whatever exemplifies it can conceive of herself as herself in the first. Olson, reply to lynne rudder baker, philosophy and phenomenological research59 1999, 162. Together, her critique of physicalism 1987, her distinctive view of mental attitudes. Professor baker was known for her work in philosophy of mind, and also wrote on other topics in metaphysics, the nature of philosophy, and philosophy of religion. Lynne rudder baker, naturalism and the firstperson perspective. Bakers interesting book contributes new arguments for this view, a new definition of constitution, and a sustained application to persons and human animals. Bakers research focused on metaphysics, philosophy of mind and philosophical theology. Lynne rudder bakers new book, naturalism and the first person perspective, has two parts. For ancient peoples, the afterlife was a realm of vastly diminished existence populated by shades, ghostly. Naturalism and the firstperson perspective, by lynne. If an entity is a person, what kind of being, most fundamentally, is she. Since the persons we are familiar with are human persons persons with human bodies one may simply assume that what we human.
Saving belief should be read by philosophers, psychologists, and others interested in the philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, and cognitive science. Saving belief by lynne rudder baker 19890101 lynne rudder baker on. This volume is the first critical booklength evaluation of her views and criticism. She defends an alternative account based on the idea of. View lynne rudder baker research papers on academia.
Use the link below to share a fulltext version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Any instance of any propertyintentional, social, legal and so onis constituted by instances of lowerlevel properties, down to physical particles. Metaphysical framework for the firstperson perspective. Chapter 10 sets out a seriously nonreductive alternative to scientific naturalism. His purview is multiple personality broadly defined to include the psychiatric phenomena of. Lynne rudder baker on what does philosophy of religion.
A critique of lynne rudder bakers theory of material constitution dean w. Philosophy of personal identity and multiple personality. Baker currently maintains that in addition to the bseries and brelations, the aseries and minddependent aproperties are irreducible features of reality. Philosophers of mind have not in general been very attentive to metaphysics. Introduction the answer to the question when does a person begin. Hence, they are unique in being able to consider the possibility of life after death. Department of philosophy south college 305 university of massachusetts amherst, ma 010039274 usa phone. Lynne rudder baker, 73, a distinguished philosopher and teacher, died at her home in amherst, massachusetts on december 24, 2017, after a lengthy struggle with heart disease.
Subsequent references to this article will be made parenthetically in the text. Lynne rudder baker distinguished professor emeritus. Baker, lynne rudder1944 lynne rudder baker was born in atlanta, georgia, received her phd in philosophy from vanderbilt university in 1972, and teaches at the university of massachusetts at amherst. While some critics have objected that bakers views resemble substance dualism e. Lynne rudder baker has been a persistent critic of this view, developing instead a theory grounded in a larger metaphysical outlook called practical realism. Nearnaturalism includes an account of ontological levels in terms of constitution of propertyinstances. Proponents of nonreductive materialism hold that the mental is ontologically part of the material world.
A constitution view, by lynne rudder baker, mind, 110 2001, pp. Lynne rudder baker presents and defends a unique account of the material world. It is an artifact of our everyday effort to make sense of our. Ideas of an afterlife of one sort or another have been promulgated by all manner of cultures and religions.