Bob Hale (philosopher)

Bob Hale, FRSE (1945 – 12 December 2017)[3] was a British philosopher, known for his contributions to the development of the neo-Fregean (neo-logicist) philosophy of mathematics in collaboration with Crispin Wright, and for his works in modality and philosophy of language.[4]

Bob Hale
Born	1945
Died	12 December 2017 (aged 72)
Alma mater	University of Oxford
Era	Contemporary philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Analytic philosophy Neo-logicism (Scottish School)[1]
Main interests	Philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of language, modality
Notable ideas	Neo-logicism, essentialist theory of modality[2]
Influences Gottlob Frege

Career

Hale obtained a BPhil in Philosophy in 1967 from Linacre College, University of Oxford.[5] From 2006 until his death, he was a professor of philosophy in the department of philosophy at the University of Sheffield. Prior to that, he taught in the University of Glasgow, the University of St. Andrews and the University of Lancaster.

Hale produced the first published neo-Fregean construction of the real numbers.[4][6] In his book (Necessary Beings), he argues for an essentialist theory of necessity and possibility.[6]

Notable positions

• British Academy Research Reader (1997–9)
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (from 2000)[6]
• President of the Aristotelian Society (2002–3)[7]
• Leverhulme Senior Research Fellow (2009–11)

Selected works

• (1987) Abstract Objects. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.[8]
• (1997) Co-editor with Crispin Wright. The Blackwell Companion to the Philosophy of Language. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
• (2001) With Crispin Wright. The Reason's Proper Study: Essays towards a Neo-Fregean Philosophy of Mathematics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.[9]
• (2013) "Necessary Beings: An Essay on Ontology, Modality, and the relations between them" Oxford: Oxford University Press.[10]

References

1. st-andrews.ac.uk Archived 2006-12-24 at the Wayback Machine
2. Hale, Bob (2012), "What is absolute necessity?", Philosophia Scientiae, 16(2), 117–148.
3. Memorial Notice for Bob Hale, Sheffield Department of Philosophy, 18 December 2017
4. "Bob Hale RIP (1945–2017)", 3:AM Magazine, 16 December 2017
5. Linacre News, Issue 54 (PDF), Linacre College, Autumn 2017
6. "Profile: Bob Hale". Sheffield Department of Philosophy. Archived from the original on 21 September 2016.
7. The Council, The Aristotelian Society, retrieved 2012-12-03.
8. Reviews of Abstract Objects:
   • Williamson, Timothy (July 1988), Mind, 97 (387): 487–490, doi:10.1093/mind/xcvii.387.487, JSTOR 2255093CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
   • Freedman, David (October 1988), Philosophical Books, 29 (4): 214–217, doi:10.1111/j.1468-0149.1988.tb02079.xCS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
   • Stahl, Gérold (January–March 1989), Revue philosophique de la France et de l'étranger, 179 (1): 109, JSTOR 41095963CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
   • Künne, Wolfgang (June 1989), Ratio, 2 (1): 89–100, doi:10.1111/j.1467-9329.1989.tb00129.xCS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
   • Noonan, Harold W. (July 1989), The Philosophical Quarterly, 39 (156): 354–357, doi:10.2307/2220176, JSTOR 2220176CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
   • Sweet, Albert (September 1989), The Review of Metaphysics, 43 (1): 166–168, JSTOR 20128851CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
   • Burgess, John P. (April 1992), The Philosophical Review, 101 (2): 414–416, doi:10.2307/2185558, JSTOR 2185558CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
   • Hodes, Harold T. (1992), International Studies in Philosophy, 24 (3): 146–148, doi:10.5840/intstudphil1992243140CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
9. Review of The Reason's Proper Study: Essays towards a Neo-Fregean Philosophy of Mathematics:
   • Uzquiano, Gabriel (June 2006), The Bulletin of Symbolic Logic, 12 (2): 291–294, doi:10.1017/S1079898600002729, JSTOR 4617264, MR 2962442CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
10. Reviews of Necessary Beings: An Essay on Ontology, Modality, and the relations between them:
    • Kauss, Dominik (August 2014), Theoria, 80 (3): 277–282, doi:10.1111/theo.12053CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
    • Kürbis, Nils (May 2015), "Necessary beings by Bob Hale" (PDF), Disputatio, 7 (40): 92–100, doi:10.2478/disp-2015-0006, S2CID 171750707, archived from the original (PDF) on 22 December 2017, retrieved 19 December 2017

External links

• Interview at 3:AM Magazine