Loading AI tools
American ethicist From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bob Fischer is an American philosopher who specializes in epistemology (especially modal epistemology) and ethics (especially animal ethics). He is a Professor of Philosophy at Texas State University and a Senior Research Manager at Rethink Priorities. His books include Modal Justification via Theories (in which he defends his account of "Theory-Based Epistemology of Modality"), The Ethics of Eating Animals, and Weighing Animal Welfare.
Bob Fischer | |
---|---|
Born | Robert William Fischer |
Education | |
Occupation | Professor |
Era | Contemporary philosophy |
Region | United States |
Institutions | Texas State University |
Thesis | Modal Knowledge, in Theory (2011) |
Doctoral advisor | W. D. Hart |
Main interests | Epistemology; ethics |
Notable ideas | Theory-Based Epistemology of Modality |
Website | www |
Fischer earned a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and English at State University of New York at Geneseo from 2001 to 2004.[1] He received a PhD in philosophy at the University of Illinois Chicago.[1] He submitted his doctoral thesis, which was entitled Modal Knowledge, in Theory, in 2011. His advisor (and thesis committee chair) was W. D. Hart; the other committee members were Colin Klein, Walter Edelberg, Daniel Sutherland, and Karen Bennett.[2]
From Illinois, he moved to Texas State University, first (2011–2013) as a Senior Lecturer, and subsequently as an Assistant Professor of Philosophy (2013–19), an Associate Professor of Philosophy (2019–2024),[1] and Professor of Philosophy (2024-present).[citation needed] Fischer is a Senior Research Manager at Rethink Priorities[3] and, along with Mark Budolfson and Lisa Kramer, a director of the Animal Welfare Economics Working Group.[4]
Fischer's first sole-authored monograph was Modal Justification via Theories,[5] in which he defends a "Theory-Based Epistemology of Modality". According to this account, agents can have a justified belief in modal claims about certain kinds of "extraordinary" matters (e.g., philosophical issues) only if the claim follows from a theory in which they have a justified belief. Key to Fischer's account is that abductive reasoning (such as appeals to the virtue of simplicity) is well-placed to help agents to identify the theories that they are justified in believing.[6] The epistemologists Antonella Mallozzi, Anand Vaidya, and Michael Wallner give the example of mind-body dualism. On Fischer's Theory-Based Epistemology of Modality, "we are justified in believing that mind-body dualism is metaphysically possible only if we are justified in believing a theory T from which mind-body dualism follows", but if T "is not the simplest theory, all else being equal, then one would not be justified in believing it, and thus not be justified in believing that mind-body dualism is metaphysically possible".[6]
In 2024, Fischer published Weighing Animal Welfare, which collects the research that he and his team did from 2021-2023 on interspecies welfare comparisons. Interspecies welfare comparisons involve estimating the relative well-being levels of members of different species. For instance, if someone judges that a chicken in a battery cage is worse off than a human living a normal life, that person is making an interspecies welfare comparison. The book shows how it may be possible to make such comparisons by finding a mix of behavioral and physiological proxies for possible differences in the intensities of valenced experiences (like pleasure and pain). It then reports the results of applying that methodology.[citation needed]
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.