Background

Peter Hacker was born on July 15, 1939 in London, United Kingdom. He is the son of Emeric Hacker, a doctor, and Thea (Mendel) Hacker.

Education

Peter entered Queen’s College in Oxford in 1960 and three years later got his Bachelor of Arts degree. He continued his studies and attained Doctor of Philosophy degree, graduating from St. Antony’s College in 1966. The philosopher also attended Balliol College in Oxford.

Career

Peter Hacker started his career as a junior research fellow in 1965 at Balliol College in Oxford, England, a position he held till 1966, when Hacker was appointed a fellow and philosophy tutor at St. John’s College.

Since 1968 he served as a visiting lecturer at Makerere University in Uganda. In 1973 and 1986 Peter worked as a visiting professor at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Also, he held the same position at the University of Michigan in 1974.

Eleven years later, in 1985, Hacker was appointed a Milton C. Scott visiting professor at Queen's University in Canada.

Beginning from 1985 to 1987 he also served as a British Academy Research Reader in the Humanities.

In 1991 Peter Hacker started to work as a Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellow, a position he held till 1994.

Also, in 2006 he was appointed an Emeritus Research Fellow at St. John's College. Three years later, in 2009, Hacker began to serve as a visiting fellow in humanities at the University of Bologna in Italy.

Currently, he is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Kent.

Achievements

• Peter Hacker, an outspoken critic of neuroscience, is mostly known for his research and writings, which have been devoted to the complex linguistic theories set forth by Austrian-born English philosopher Wittgenstein.

Works

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  • Insight and Illusion: Wittgenstein on Philosophy and the Metaphysics of Experience 1972
  • Insight and Illusion: Themes in the Philosophy of Wittgenstein 1986
  • Wittgenstein: Understanding and Meaning: Volume 1 of an Analytical Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations, Part I: Essays 2009
  • Frege: Logical Excavations 1984
  • Language, Sense and Nonsense: A Critical Investigation into Modern Theories of Language 1986
  • Scepticism, Rules and Language 1984
  • Wittgenstein: Rules, Grammar and Necessity: Volume 2 of an Analytical Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations 2009
  • Appearance and Reality: A Philosophical Investigation into Perception and Perceptual Qualities 1991
  • Wittgenstein: Meaning and Mind 1993
  • The Passions: A Study of Human Nature 2017

Views

Peter Hacker rejects mind-brain identity theories, as well as functionalism, eliminativism and other forms of reductionism. He advocates methodological pluralism, denying that standard explanations of human conduct are causal, and insisting on the irreducibility of explanation in terms of reasons and goals. The philosopher also denies, that psychological attributes can be intelligibly ascribed to the brain, insisting that they are ascribable only to the human being as a whole.

Connections

Peter married Sylvia Imhoff, a nurse, on August 31, 1963. The couple gave birth to three children - Jonathan, Adam and Jocelyn.

Father:

Emeric Hacker

Mother:

Thea (Mendel) Hacker

child:

Jonathan Hacker

child:

Adam Hacker

child:

Jocelyn Hacker

Wife:

Sylvia Imhoff