North Beach, Durban
I was born in 1947, in Como, Italy, where my father was working after the war. My family traveled around when I was young. I went to schools in Trinidad, Lancashire and London, before spending twelve years in Durban, South Africa from 1956. I attended Isipingo Beach Government School, Durban High School, and finally the University of Natal, where I studied mathematics and statistics for four years.
In 1968 I returned to England to study philosophy at Cambridge. I did a second undergraduate degree in two years, and then a PhD on conceptual change and scientific rationality.
My first philosophy job, in 1973, was at the University of Reading, where I lectured on the philosophy of social science in the Department of Sociology. After four years I left to join the Department of Philosophy at Macquarie University in Sydney. In 1979-80 I held a one-year post at in the Philosophy Department at Birkbeck College in London and then lectured for the next decade in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge. In 1990 I joined the Department of Philosophy at King's College London as Professor of Philosophy of Science. From 2015 until 2020 I spent the second half of each academic year at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
I was President of the British Society for Philosophy of Science for 1993-5, President of the Mind Association for 2009-10, and President of the Aristotelian Society for 2013-14.
In 1968 I returned to England to study philosophy at Cambridge. I did a second undergraduate degree in two years, and then a PhD on conceptual change and scientific rationality.
My first philosophy job, in 1973, was at the University of Reading, where I lectured on the philosophy of social science in the Department of Sociology. After four years I left to join the Department of Philosophy at Macquarie University in Sydney. In 1979-80 I held a one-year post at in the Philosophy Department at Birkbeck College in London and then lectured for the next decade in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge. In 1990 I joined the Department of Philosophy at King's College London as Professor of Philosophy of Science. From 2015 until 2020 I spent the second half of each academic year at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
I was President of the British Society for Philosophy of Science for 1993-5, President of the Mind Association for 2009-10, and President of the Aristotelian Society for 2013-14.
