# John Hawthorne

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{{Short description|English philosopher (born 1964)}}
{{for-multi|the Australian politician|John Hawthorne (politician)|the English archaeologist|John G. Hawthorne}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox academic
| name               = John Hawthorne
| honorific_suffix   = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FBA|size=100%}}
| image              = 
| alt                = 
| caption            = 
| birth_name         = John Patrick Hawthorne
| birth_date         = {{birth date and age|1964|05|25|df=yes}}
| birth_place        = [Birmingham](/source/Birmingham), England
| death_date         = <!-- {{death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} (death date then birth date) -->
| death_place        = 
| other_names        = John O'Leary-Hawthorne
| spouse             = 
| partner            = 
| awards             = <!--notable national-level awards only-->
| alma_mater         = {{ubl | [University of Manchester](/source/University_of_Manchester) | [Syracuse University](/source/Syracuse_University)}}
| thesis_title       = Public Meaning and Mental Content<ref name="Hawthorne 1990"/><ref name="Doctoral Dissertations, 1990–91">{{cite journal |year=1991 |title=Doctoral Dissertations, 1990–91 |journal=The Review of Metaphysics |volume=45 |issue=1 |page=198 |issn=2154-1302 |jstor=20129169}}</ref>
| thesis_year        = 1990
| school_tradition   = [Analytic philosophy](/source/Analytic_philosophy)
| doctoral_advisor   = [Jonathan Bennett](/source/Jonathan_Bennett_(philosopher))<ref name="Doctoral Dissertations, 1990–91"/>
| academic_advisors  = 
| influences         = {{flatlist|
* [William Alston](/source/William_Alston)
* [Jonathan Bennett](/source/Jonathan_Bennett_(philosopher))
* [David Lewis](/source/David_Lewis_(philosopher))
* [Timothy Williamson](/source/Timothy_Williamson)
}}
| era                = 
| discipline         = [Philosophy](/source/Philosophy)
| sub_discipline     = {{hlist | [Epistemology](/source/Epistemology) | [metaphysics](/source/metaphysics) | [philosophy of language](/source/philosophy_of_language)}}
| workplaces         = {{ubl | [University of New South Wales](/source/University_of_New_South_Wales) | [Arizona State University](/source/Arizona_State_University) | [Syracuse University](/source/Syracuse_University) | [Rutgers University](/source/Rutgers_University) | [Magdalen College, Oxford](/source/Magdalen_College%2C_Oxford) | [University of Southern California](/source/University_of_Southern_California) | [Australian Catholic University](/source/Australian_Catholic_University)}}
| doctoral_students  = [Amia Srinivasan](/source/Amia_Srinivasan)
| notable_students   = 
| main_interests     = 
| notable_works      = 
| notable_ideas      = Subject-sensitive invariantism
| influenced         = <!--must be referenced from a third-party source-->
| signature          = 
| signature_alt      = 
}}
'''John Patrick Hawthorne'''<ref name="Hawthorne 1990">{{cite thesis |last=Hawthorne |first=John Patrick |year=1990 |title=Public Meaning and Mental Content |type=PhD dissertation |location=Syracuse, New York |publisher=Syracuse University |oclc=78441217}}</ref> {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FBA}} (born 25 May 1964) is an English [philosopher](/source/philosopher), currently serving as Professor of Philosophy at the [Australian Catholic University](/source/Australian_Catholic_University) in Melbourne,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.acu.edu.au/research/our-research-institutes/dianoia-institute-of-philosophy|title=Dianoia Institute of Philosophy|access-date=3 October 2019|archive-date=3 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191003225330/https://www.acu.edu.au/research/our-research-institutes/dianoia-institute-of-philosophy|url-status=dead}}</ref> and Professor of Philosophy at the [University of Southern California](/source/University_of_Southern_California).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://dornsife.usc.edu/cf/phil/faculty_display.cfm?Person_ID=1047479|title = Faculty Profile > School of Philosophy > USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences}}</ref>  He is recognized as a leading contemporary contributor to [metaphysics](/source/metaphysics) and [epistemology](/source/epistemology).<ref>{{cite book|url=http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780198250241.do |title=The Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics: Hardback: Michael J. Loux|series=Oxford Handbooks|publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2003-08-28 |isbn=978-0-19-825024-1|access-date=2013-08-26}}</ref>

==Early life and career==
Hawthorne was born on 25 May 1964 in [Birmingham](/source/Birmingham), England.<ref name="CV">{{cite web |last=Hawthorne |first=John |year=2018 |title=Curriculum Vitae |url=https://dornsife.usc.edu/tools/mytools/PersonnelInfoSystem/DOC/Faculty/PHIL/vita_1047479.pdf |location=Los Angeles |publisher=University of Southern California |access-date=28 April 2019}}</ref> He earned his PhD from [Syracuse University](/source/Syracuse_University), where he studied with [William Alston](/source/William_Alston) and [Jonathan Bennett](/source/Jonathan_Bennett_(philosopher)). From 2006 to 2015, he was the [Waynflete Professor of Metaphysical Philosophy](/source/Waynflete_Professor_of_Metaphysical_Philosophy) at the [University of Oxford](/source/University_of_Oxford). He has also taught at the [University of New South Wales](/source/University_of_New_South_Wales), [Arizona State University](/source/Arizona_State_University), [Syracuse University](/source/Syracuse_University), [Rutgers University](/source/Rutgers_University), and [Princeton University](/source/Princeton_University).

==Philosophical work==

Hawthorne's 2006 collection ''Metaphysical Essays'' offers original treatments of fundamental topics in [philosophy](/source/philosophy), including [identity](/source/Identity_(philosophy)), [ontology](/source/ontology), [vagueness](/source/vagueness), and [causation](/source/Causality), which one reviewer called "essential reading for anyone currently engaged in [analytic](/source/analytic_philosophy) [metaphysics](/source/metaphysics)".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/25198-metaphysical-essays/|title=Metaphysical Essays|date=15 January 2007 |last1=Lowe |first1=E. J. }}</ref>

In his book ''Knowledge and Lotteries'', Hawthorne defends a view in [epistemology](/source/epistemology) according to which the presence of [knowledge](/source/knowledge) is dependent on the subject's interests (he calls this view "subject-sensitive invariantism").<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/23836-knowledge-and-lotteries/|title=Knowledge and Lotteries|first=Matthew|last=McGrath|journal=Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews|date=6 August 2004|access-date=9 December 2012}}</ref> Unlike [contextualism](/source/contextualism), Hawthorne's view does not require that the meaning of the word "know" changes from one context of [ascription](/source/ascription) to another. His view is thus a variety of invariantism. However, whether a subject has knowledge depends to a surprising extent on features of the ''subject's'' context, including practical concerns. The American philosopher [Jason Stanley](/source/Jason_Stanley) holds a similar view.<ref>{{cite web|title=Fine-Tuning Fine-Tuning|url=https://www.yoaavisaacs.com/uploads/6/9/2/0/69204575/ms_for_fine-tuning_fine-tuning.pdf|access-date=26 November 2025}}</ref>

Hawthorne has also written on [philosophy of language](/source/philosophy_of_language) and [philosophical logic](/source/philosophical_logic), [philosophy of religion](/source/philosophy_of_religion), [philosophy of mind](/source/philosophy_of_mind), and on [Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz](/source/Gottfried_Wilhelm_Leibniz).

==Works==

===Books===

* ''Killing and Other Dastardly Deeds: Hard Problems for Moral Theory'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2026. Contributions by Christina Dietz, Vishnu Sridharan, and Yoaav Isaacs.)
* ''The Bounds of Possibility: Puzzles of Modal Variation'' (with Cian Dorr and Juhani Yli-Vakkuri, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021)
* ''Narrow Content'' (with Juhani Yli-Vakkuri, [Oxford University Press](/source/Oxford_University_Press), 2018)
* ''The Reference Book'' (with David Manley, [Oxford University Press](/source/Oxford_University_Press), 2012)
* ''Relativism and Monadic Truth'' (with [Herman Cappelen](/source/Herman_Cappelen), Oxford University Press 2010)
* ''Metaphysical Essays'' ([Oxford University Press](/source/Oxford_University_Press), 2006)
* ''Knowledge and Lotteries'' ([Oxford University Press](/source/Oxford_University_Press), 2004)
* ''Substance and Individuation in Leibniz'' (with J. A. Cover, [Cambridge University Press](/source/Cambridge_University_Press) 2003)
* ''[The Grammar of Meaning: Normativity and Semantic Discourse](/source/The_Grammar_of_Meaning%3A_Normativity_and_Semantic_Discourse)'' (with Mark Norris Lance, Cambridge University Press, 1997)

===Edited books===

* ''Conditionals, Paradox, and Probability: Themes from the Philosophy of Dorothy Edgington'' (edited with Lee Walters, Oxford University Press, 2021)
* ''Knowledge, Belief, and God: New Insights in Religious Epistemology'' (edited with Matthew A. Benton and Dani Rabinowitz, Oxford University Press, 2018)
* ''The Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Methodology'' (edited with [Herman Cappelen](/source/Herman_Cappelen) and [Tamar Gendler](/source/Tamar_Gendler), Oxford University Press, 2016)
* ''Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics'' (edited with [Theodore Sider](/source/Theodore_Sider) and [Dean Zimmerman](/source/Dean_Zimmerman_(philosopher)), Blackwell, 2007)
* ''Perceptual Experience'' (edited with [Tamar Gendler](/source/Tamar_Gendler), Oxford University Press, 2006)
* ''Conceivability and Possibility'' (edited with [Tamar Gendler](/source/Tamar_Gendler), Oxford University Press, 2002)

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://dornsife.usc.edu/cf/phil/faculty_display.cfm?Person_ID=1047479 University of Southern California Webpage]
*[https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?hl=en&user=uQFM2v4AAAAJ&pagesize=100&view_op=list_works Google Scholar Page]

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{{s-bef|before=[Dorothy Edgington](/source/Dorothy_Edgington)}}
{{s-ttl|title=[Waynflete Professor of<br />Metaphysical Philosophy](/source/Waynflete_Professor_of_Metaphysical_Philosophy)|years=2006–2015}}
{{s-aft|after=[Ofra Magidor](/source/Ofra_Magidor)}}
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Category:1964 births
Category:20th-century British philosophers
Category:21st-century British philosophers
Category:Analytic philosophers
Category:British epistemologists
Category:Living people
Category:Metaphysicians
Category:Philosophers of language
Category:Philosophers of mind
Category:Philosophers of religion
Category:Syracuse University alumni
Category:Waynflete Professors of Metaphysical Philosophy

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Category:Academic staff of the Australian Catholic University

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [John Hawthorne](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hawthorne) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hawthorne?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.