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Princeton

  • Princeton

The Americas · Analytic, American, Modern European

Princeton, New Jersey, has been home to many analytic philosophers since the mid-twentieth century. Stephen Kleene and Alan Turing wrote doctorates at the university in the 1930s, and Albert Einstein, settled in the town by 1935, died there in 1955. Carl Hempel taught at Princeton from 1955, Thomas Kuhn from 1964 and David Lewis from 1970 until his death; Saul Kripke held the McCosh chair from 1976 to 1998. Later faculty included Thomas Nagel, Bas van Fraassen, Harry Frankfurt, Peter Singer and Kwame Anthony Appiah. The nearby Institute for Advanced Study gave posts to the anthropologist Clifford Geertz and the political theorist Michael Walzer.

When

  • 1934–1955 Logic and physics From Kleene's doctorate to Einstein's death.
  • 1955–2008 Analytic philosophy department From Hempel's arrival to van Fraassen's retirement as McCosh Professor.

Schools and institutions

  • Princeton University Kripke, Lewis, Hempel, Kuhn, Nagel and van Fraassen taught here.
  • Institute for Advanced Study Geertz was a founding professor of its School of Social Science from 1970; Walzer joined it in 1980.
  • University Center for Human Values Singer held its DeCamp chair of bioethics from 1999.

Thinkers

  • Saul Kripke 1940 – 2022taught here, 1976–1998 (McCosh Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University until his retirement in 1998.)
  • Donald Davidson 1917 – 2003taught here, 1967–1970 (Held a position at Princeton before moving to Rockefeller University.)
  • David Lewis 1941 – 2001taught here, 1970–2001 (Remained at Princeton from 1970 until his death in 2001.)
  • Thomas Kuhn 1922 – 1996taught here, 1964 (M. Taylor Pyne Professor of Philosophy and History of Science at Princeton from 1964; named to a chair at MIT in 1983.)
  • Carl Hempel 1905 – 1997taught here, 1955–1973 (Moved to Princeton in 1955; mandatory retirement in 1973.)
  • Richard Rorty 1931 – 2007taught here, 1961–1982 (Taught at Princeton University after three years at Wellesley.)
  • Hilary Putnam 1926 – 2016taught here, 1961 (Taught at Northwestern and Princeton before returning to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1961.)
  • Thomas Nagel b. 1937taught here, 1966–1980 (Taught at Princeton University.)
  • Paul Benacerraf 1931 – 2025taught here, 1960–2007 (Princeton undergraduate (Class of 1952) and PhD (1960); joined the faculty in 1960, provost 1988-1991; died at home in Princeton in 2025.)
  • Harry Frankfurt 1929 – 2023taught here, 1990–2002 (Joined Princeton's faculty in 1990; emeritus from 2002.)
  • Robert Nozick 1938 – 2002studied here, 1963 (MA (1961) and PhD (1963) from Princeton, where he then taught briefly.)
  • Jerry Fodor 1935 – 2017studied here (Earned his doctorate in philosophy at Princeton.)
  • Peter Singer b. 1946taught here, 1999–2026 (Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton from 1999.)
  • Alan Turing 1912 – 1954studied here, 1938 (Wrote his PhD thesis at Princeton (1938).)
  • Stephen Kleene 1909 – 1994studied here, 1934 (Doctorate from Princeton in 1934; taught there until 1935.)
  • Albert Einstein 1879 – 1955worked here, 1955 (Divided his time between Berlin and Princeton; the arrangement became permanent by 1935; died in Princeton on 18 April 1955.)
  • Philip Pettit b. 1945taught here, 2002–2026 (L. S. Rockefeller University Professor of Human Values at Princeton, teaching there from 2002.)
  • Larry Laudan 1941 – 2022studied here, 1965 (Doctorate in philosophy from Princeton in 1965, with a committee of Hempel, Church and Kuhn.)
  • Alvin Goldman 1938 – 2024studied here, 1965 (PhD in philosophy from Princeton in 1965.)
  • Kwame Anthony Appiah b. 1954taught here, 2002–2014 (Moved to Princeton in 2002 after Yale, Cornell, Duke and Harvard; retired from Princeton in February 2014.)
  • Sally Haslanger b. 1955taught here, 1986–1989 (Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Princeton.)
  • Philip Kitcher b. 1947studied here, 1974 (PhD from Princeton in 1974.)
  • T. M. Scanlon b. 1940taught here, 1966–1984 (BA from Princeton in 1962; taught there from 1966 until moving to Harvard.)
  • David Bohm 1917 – 1992taught here, 1947 (Assistant professor at Princeton University from 1947.)
  • Michael Smith b. 1954taught here, 2004–2026 (Assistant professor at Princeton 1985-1989; returned as professor in 2004; McCosh Professor of Philosophy from 2009 (current on his CV).)
  • Bas van Fraassen b. 1941taught here, 1982–2008 (Professor at Princeton from 1982; McCosh Professor 1998-2008, then emeritus.)
  • Shelly Kaganstudied here, 1982 (PhD in philosophy from Princeton in 1982.)
  • Clifford Geertz 1926 – 2006worked here, 1970–2006 (Founding professor of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study; visiting lecturer in Princeton's history department 1975-2000.)
  • Robert Stalnaker b. 1940studied here, 1965 (PhD from Princeton University in 1965.)
  • Adam Elga active 2000s – presenttaught here, 2001–2026 (Professor in Princeton's philosophy department, which he joined in autumn 2001.)
  • Michael Walzer b. 1935worked here, 1980–2007 (Assistant professor at Princeton University 1962-1966; faculty member of the Institute for Advanced Study's School of Social Science from 1980, emeritus from 2007.)

Sources: Britannica: Saul Kripke · SEP: Donald Davidson · SEP: David Lewis · SEP: Thomas Kuhn · SEP: Carl Hempel · SEP: Richard Rorty · Boston Globe: Hilary Putnam obituary (2016) · Balzan Prize: Thomas Nagel bio-bibliography · Princeton University: Paul Benacerraf obituary (2025) · Princeton University: Harry Frankfurt obituary (2023) · Harvard Gazette: Robert Nozick obituary (2002) · Boston Globe: Jerry Fodor obituary (2017) · Wheeler Centre: Peter Singer · SEP: Alan Turing · MacTutor (University of St Andrews): Stephen Kleene · MacTutor (University of St Andrews): Albert Einstein · Princeton University: Philip Pettit · UNAM Instituto de Investigaciones Filosóficas: Larry Laudan · Princeton Alumni Weekly: Alvin I. Goldman *65 memorial · Princeton University, Dean of the Faculty: Kwame Anthony Appiah · Sally Haslanger: curriculum vitae · Columbia University Professors Emeriti: Philip Kitcher · Harvard Philosophy: Thomas M. Scanlon · Britannica: David Bohm · Michael Smith: curriculum vitae · Bas van Fraassen: curriculum vitae (San Francisco State University) · Shelly Kagan: about (Yale) · Institute for Advanced Study: Clifford Geertz, life · MIT News: Robert Stalnaker profile (2015) · Princeton Philosophy: Adam Elga · Institute for Advanced Study: Michael Walzer

Other places in The Americas