Nozick Named University Professor

Robert Nozick, Porter professor of philosophy, has been named the Pellegrino University Professor.

The philosopher is the latest of 18 individuals to receive Harvard's most prestigious professorial post.

"This is an encouragement to pursue the boldest intellectual projects and an opportunity to teach innovative courses elsewhere in the University," Nozick said yesterday.

A University professorship gives an individual teaching privileges at all of Harvard's graduate schools, as well as in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

The original mandate of the University professorships is to honor "individuals of distinction...working on the frontiers of knowledge, and in such a way as to cross the conventional boundaries of the specialties."

Last May, three professors were awarded University professorships: Baker professor of administration Robert C. Merton, a Nobel laureate; Cornel West '74, professor of the philosophy of religion and professor of Afro-American studies; and Weiner Professor of Social Policy William Julius Wilson.

Nozick's work spans a number of areas, including political philosophy, free will, personal identity, epistemology, the foundations of ethics and theories of rational decision and rational belief.

His current work deals with the philosophy of science, psychology, neuroscience and metaphysics. It centers on the notion of an objective world.

Nozick is teaching two undergraduate half courses this semester--Philosophy 143, "Truth and Necessity," and Philosophy 152, "Objectivity and Subjectivity."

"In general, I give completely new courses every year," he said. "I expect to continue to use my teaching to explore new subject matter, this time maybe in a wider horizon."

Nozick says he sees his University Professorship as an opportunity to combine philosophy with other parts of the University.

"There are a lot of Faculties at the University. I'll just have to think about where [I] would teach," he said.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Nozick received his B.A. from Columbia University and his Ph.D. from Princeton University, where he wrote his thesis on theories of rational decision.

He left an assistant professorship at Princeton to come to Harvard in 1965. After serving as an assistant professor at Harvard for two years, he was appointed an associate professor at Rockefeller University in 1967.

Nozick returned to Harvard in 1969 as a full professor of philosophy. He chaired the philosophy department from 1981 to 1984.