Panayot Krustev Butchvarov

Background

Butchvarov, Panayot Krustev was born on April 2, 1933 in Sofia, Bulgaria. Son of Krustyu Panayotov and Vanya (Tsaneva) Butchvarov.

Education

Bachelor, Robert College, Istanbul, 1952; Master of Arts, University of Virginia, 1954; Doctor of Philosophy, University of Virginia, 1955.

Career

Butchvarov left Syracuse University in 1968 as a full professor to move to the University of Iowa, where he was at the time of his retirement in 2005 the University of Iowa Foundation Distinguished Professor of Philosophy. He was President of the American Philosophical Association (Central Division) in 1992-1993, and has served as President of the American Philosophical Association (Central Division) and editor of the Journal of Philosophical Research. Butchvarov has made major, systematic contributions to contemporary metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics.

His books include Resemblance and Identity: An Examination of the Problem of Universals (Indiana University Press, 1966), The Concept of Knowledge (Northwestern University Press, 1970), Being Qua Being: A Theory of Identity, Existence and Predication (Indiana University Press, 1979), Skepticism in Ethics (Indiana University Press, 1989), Skepticism about the External World (Oxford University Press, 1998), and Anthropocentrism in Philosophy (de Gruyter, 2015).

Some of his writings can be found on and, more reliably. In metaphysics, Butchvarov is perhaps best known for his work on the identity theory of universals and on the nature of informative identity statements (that is, statements of the form a=b -- as opposed to instances of the law of identity, that is, statements of the form a=a).

In epistemology, he argues for the view that knowledge is the absolute impossibility of mistake. In ethics, his central metaethical thesis is that a realist account of goodness is defensible if goodness is seen as a generic property.

Butchvarov may be said to have been influenced by philosophers as varied as Plato, Kant, Hegel, and Wittgenstein.

The latter"s influence can perhaps best be seen in Butchvarov"s metaphilosophical Method of Analogy for which he argued in "The Limits of Ontological Analysis" (in M. South. Gram and East. Doctorate. Klemke (eds), The Ontological Turn: Studies in the Philosophy of Gustav Bergmann (University of Iowa Press, 1974)). In his most recent work, Butchvarov argues that anthropocentrism in philosophy, though common, is deeply paradoxical. Ethics investigates the human good (including happiness and pleasure), epistemology investigates human knowledge (including perception and conceptualization), and antirealist metaphysics holds that the world depends on our cognitive capacities.

But humans’ good and knowledge, including their language and concepts, are empirical matters, properly investigated by empirical sciences, not armchair philosophy.

And humans are inhabitants, not “makers,” of the world. Nevertheless, all three – ethics, epistemology, and antirealist metaphysics – can be reinterpreted as making no reference to humans.

Ethics would be confined to the metaphysics of the generic property goodness, epistemology to the appraisal of basic nonformal inferences, and antirealism to the logical structure of the world.

Achievements

• Panayot Krustev Butchvarov has been listed as a noteworthy Philosophy educator by Marquis Who's Who.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Being Qua Being: A Theory of Identity, Existence, and Predication

    ( Are there nonexistent things? What is the nature of inf...)

  • Skepticism About the External World

    (Do we know or even have evidence that external material o...)

  • Resemblance and Identity: An Examination of the Problem of Universals
  • Skepticism in Ethics

    (Book by Butchvarov, Panayot)

  • Resemblance and Identity: An Examination of the Problem of Universals

    (Book by Butchvarov, Panayot)

  • The Concept of Knowledge

    (1970 Hardcover. Minimal wear, Light soiling on cover. no ...)

  • Resemblance and Identity: An Examination of the Problem of Universals
  • Skepticism about the External World by Panayot Butchvarov (1998-05-21)
  • Skepticism in Ethics
  • Being Qua Being: A Theory of Identity, Existence, and Predication by Panayot Butchvarov (1979-05-22)

Membership

Member American Philosophical Association (program committee 1971, chairman 1975, nominating committee 1978, chairman 1993-1994, president central division 1992-1993), Central States Philosophical Association (vice president 1987-1988, president 1988-1989), Phi Beta Kappa.

Connections

Married Sue Graham, September 28, 1954. Children: Vanya, Christopher.

Father:

Krustyu Panayotov Butchvarov

Mother:

Vanya (Tsaneva) Butchvarov

Spouse:

Sue Graham

child:

Christopher Butchvarov

child:

Vanya Butchvarov