Australian philosophy

Australian philosophy refers to the philosophical tradition of the people of Australia and of its citizens abroad.

Indigenous perspectives

Main article: Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology

Australian indigenous traditions attribute moral authority outside the individual to The Dreaming, which is bound up with the relation of human society to land.

Idealism

The earliest academic philosophers in Australia, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, were like their European contemporaries mostly idealists. They included Sir Francis Anderson, professor of philosophy at Sydney University from 1890 to 1921, W.R. Boyce Gibson in Melbourne, and Sir William Mitchell in Adelaide

John Anderson

Sydney philosophy was dominated in the mid-twentieth century by the Scottish immigrant John Anderson (philosopher), Challis Professor of Philosophy at Sydney University from 1927 to 1958. He developed a complete empiricist philosophy that contrasted with the linguistic philosophy then developing in other parts of the English-speaking world. His controversial atheism and his view that there was no such thing as moral obligation attracted condemnation, and through his students had an influence on the Sydney Push and other libertarian currents of the 1960s.

Melbourne Philosophy

Philosophy at Melbourne University was more diverse but in the mid-twentieth century heavily influenced by Wittgenstein.

Australian realism

Main article: Australian realism

• Australian realism — flourished in the first half of the 20th century in several universities in Australia including the Australian National University, the University of Adelaide, and the University of Sydney

Metaphysics

Australian philosophers have typically taken a realist view of entities mentioned in science, such as forces, causes, and properties or universals. D.M. Armstrong's 1978 Universals and Scientific Realism defended realism about universals, arguing that, for example, the property of being blue must be a reality common to all blue things.

Ethics

In his 1977 book Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong John Anderson's student John Mackie defended an "error theory" of morality, holding that the idea of moral obligation was a mistake.

Peter Singer's 1975 book Animal Liberation was influential in moves against eating and experimenting on animals. His views on bioethics, including the permissibility of killing even non-disabled babies, have attracted controversy and protests.

Many Australian philosophers defended more traditional and objectivist theories of morality, including Catholic scholastic philosophers, Raimond Gaita, John Finnis and Jenny Teichman.

See also

• Australasian Association of Philosophy
• Australasian Journal of Philosophy

Bibliography

• Grave, Selwyn A. (1984). A History of Philosophy in Australia. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press. ISBN 0702216976.
• Srzednicki, Jan T.J; Wood, David, eds. (1992). Essays on Philosophy in Australia. Dordrecht: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-94-015-8006-9. ISBN 978-0-7923-1695-4.
• Oppy, G.; Trakakis, N.N., eds. (2011). The Antipodean Philosopher: Public Lectures on Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand. Lanham Md: Lexington Books. ISBN 9780739167939.
• Franklin, James (2003). Corrupting the Youth: A History of Philosophy in Australia. Sydney: Macleay Press. ISBN 1876492082.
• Oppy, G.; Trakakis, N.N. (2014). A Companion to Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand (2nd ed.). Melbourne: Monash University Publishing. ISBN 9781921867712.
• Oppy, G.; Trakakis, N.N., eds. (2014). History of Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand. New York: Springer. ISBN 9789400769571.

External links

• Australasian Association of Philosophy homepage
• D. Khlentzos, 'Realism' in A Companion to Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand
• Godfrey-Smith, Peter (2019-03-19). "Why does Australia have an outsized influence on philosophy?". Aeon. Retrieved 2019-03-21.
• D.M. Armstrong, Black Swans: The formative influences in Australian philosophy
• David Stove, Why have philosophers? (review of S. Grave, History of Philosophy in Australia, 1985)
• ABC Radio National: The Philosopher's Zone