Susan Haack

Susan Haack

Susan Haack at the University of Miami, Spring 2005
Full name	Susan Haack
Born	1945 England
Era	Contemporary philosophy
Region	Western Philosophy
School	Analytic
Main interests	Philosophy of science Philosophy of logic Epistemology Pragmatism Charles Sanders Peirce
Notable ideas	Foundherentism Crossword puzzle model of science
Influenced by Francis Bacon · W.V.O. Quine C.S. Peirce
Influenced Luciano Floridi · John Zeis

Susan Haack (born 1945, England) is an English professor of philosophy and law at the University of Miami in the United States. She has written on logic, the philosophy of language, epistemology, and metaphysics. Her pragmatism follows that of Charles Sanders Peirce.

Career

Haack is a graduate of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. At Oxford, she studied at St. Hilda's College, where her first philosophy teacher was Jean Austin, the widow of J. L. Austin. She also studied Plato with Gilbert Ryle and logic with Michael Dummett. David Pears supervised her B.Phil. dissertation on ambiguity. At Cambridge, she wrote her Ph.D. under the supervision of Timothy Smiley. She held the positions of Fellow of New Hall, Cambridge and professor of philosophy at the University of Warwick before taking her current position at the University of Miami.

Ideas

Haack's major contribution to philosophy, in the 1993 book Evidence and Inquiry is her epistemological theory called foundherentism, which is her attempt to avoid the logical problems of both pure foundationalism (which is susceptible to infinite regress) and pure coherentism (which is susceptible to circularity). She illustrates this idea with the metaphor of the crossword puzzle. A highly simplified version of this proceeds as follows: Finding an answer using a clue is analogous to a foundational source (grounded in empirical evidence). Making sure that the interlocking words are mutually sensible is analogous to justification through coherence. Both are necessary components in the justification of knowledge. At least one scholar has claimed that Haack's foundherentism collapses into foundationalism upon further inspection.

Haack has been a fierce critic of Richard Rorty. She wrote a play, We Pragmatists ...: Peirce and Rorty in Conversation, consisting entirely of quotes from both philosophers. She performed the role of Peirce. Haack published a vigorous essay in the New Criterion, taking strong exception to many of Rorty's views, especially his claim to be a sort of pragmatist.

Haack (1998) is highly critical of the view that there is a feminine perspective on logic and scientific truth. She holds that many feminist critiques of science and philosophy are overly concerned with 'political correctness'.

She has written for Free Inquiry magazine and the "Council for Secular Humanism". Haack's work has been reviewed and cited in the popular press, such as The Times Literary Supplement as well as in academic journals.

Memberships

Haack is an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa Society and Phi Kappa Phi, a past President of the Charles S. Peirce Society, and a past member of the U.S./UK Educational Commission.

Select Writings by Haack

• 1974. Deviant Logic. Cambridge University Press.
• 1978. Philosophy of Logics.
• Haack, Susan; Kolenda, Konstantin (1977). "Two Fallibilists in Search of the Truth". Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 51 (Supplementary Volumes): 63–104. JSTOR 4106816.  (Charles Sanders Peirce and Karl Popper have strikingly similar views on the propensity theory of probability and philosophy of science.)
• 1993, Evidence and Inquiry.
• 1996, Deviant Logic, Fuzzy Logic: Beyond the Formalism. The University of Chicago Press. (Extends the 1974 Deviant Logic, with some additional essays published between 1973 and 1980, particularly on fuzzy logic, cf The Philosophical Review, 107:3, 468-471 [1])
• 1997, "Vulgar Rortyism," The New Criterion 16.
• 1998. Manifesto of a Passionate Moderate: Unfashionable Essays.
• 2003. Defending Science: Within Reason Between Scientism and Cynicism. ISBN 1-59102-117-0.
• 2005, "Trial and Error: The Supreme Court's Philosophy of Science, ," American Journal of Public Health.
• 2006 (edited with Robert Lane). Pragmatism, Old and New.
• 2008. Putting Philosophy to Work: Inquiry and Its Place in Culture

External links

• Susan Haack's Web Page at University of Miami.
• Susan Haack Summary biography.