Gilbert Harman

Gilbert Harman
Harman as a student in 1960
BornMay 26, 1938
DiedNovember 13, 2021 (aged 83)
Education
EducationSwarthmore College (BA)
Harvard University (PhD)
Doctoral advisorWillard Van Orman Quine
Philosophical work
EraContemporary philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolAnalytic philosophy
Doctoral studentsStephen Stich, James Dreier, Joshua Knobe, Daniel Rothschild
Main interestsPhilosophy of language, philosophy of mind, ethics, epistemology
Notable ideasPerceptual experience has intentional content
Three levels of meaning
Situationist critique of virtue ethics
Brain in a vat thought experiment

Gilbert Harman (May 26, 1938 – November 13, 2021) was an American philosopher, who taught at Princeton University from 1963 until his retirement in 2017. He published widely in philosophy of language, cognitive science, philosophy of mind, ethics, moral psychology, epistemology, statistical learning theory, and metaphysics. He and George Miller co-directed the Princeton University Cognitive Science Laboratory. Harman taught or co-taught courses in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Psychology, Philosophy, and Linguistics.