Daniel Bonevac

Daniel Albert Bonevac (born 1955)^[1] is a professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin. His areas of interest are metaphysics, philosophical logic, ethics, and Eastern philosophy. He is known for his outspoken right-wing political positions.

Education and career

Bonevac majored in philosophy at Haverford College, graduating in 1975. He received a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh in 1977 and a Ph.D. in 1980.^[2] His doctoral dissertation was "Ontological Reduction and Abstract Entities".^[3]

He joined the University of Texas at Austin as an assistant professor of philosophy in 1980, chaired the department from 1991 to 2001, and became full professor there in 1992.^[2]

Politics

In autumn 2016, Bonevac joined 145 other scholars and writers in declaring support for Donald Trump for president.^[4][5] On May 15, 2024, Bonevac and another UT-Austin professor filed a lawsuit in federal court demanding the right to fail students if they miss class for abortion, and to refuse to hire teaching assistants who have used mail-order abortion medicine. In his statement on the issue, Bonevac stated that he has "no intention of complying with" new Title IX regulations prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity and requiring accommodation for absences caused by abortion, will not use students' preferred pronouns, and will not allow "cross-dressing" teaching assistants.^[6][7]

Books

• Reduction in the Abstract Sciences (1982)
• Deduction: Introductory Symbolic Logic (1987, 2002)^[8]
• The Art and Science of Logic (1990)
• Today's Moral Issues: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives (1992, 7th ed. 2012)
• Understanding Non-Western Philosophy: Introductory Readings (edited with Stephen H. Phillips, 1993)^[9]
• Beyond the Western Tradition: Readings in Moral and Political Philosophy (edited with William Boon and Stephen H. Phillips, 1992)
• Simple Logic (1999, 2001)
• Worldly Wisdom: A Multicultural Introduction to Philosophy (2001)
• Introduction to World Philosophy: A Multicultural Reader (edited with Stephen H. Phillips, 2009)
• Historical Dictionary of Ethics (2023)

Reduction in the Abstract Sciences won the Johnsonian Prize for the best "first book" in philosophy from The Journal of Philosophy^[2]