Ullin Place

{{Short description|British philosopher and psychologist (1924–2000)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}{{Use British English|date=May 2026}}

{{More citations needed|date=January 2021}} {{Infobox philosopher | region = Western philosophy | era = 20th-century philosophy | name = Ullin Place | birth_date = 24 October 1924 | birth_place = Northallerton, Yorkshire, England | death_date = 2 January 2000 (aged 75) | death_place = Thirsk, North Yorkshire, England | alma_mater = University of Oxford | school_tradition = Analytic philosophy<br />Australian realism<br />Logical behaviorism<ref>[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/behaviorism/ ''Behaviorism'']. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.</ref> | main_interests = Philosophy of mind | notable_ideas = Mind–brain identity theory }}

'''Ullin Thomas Place''' (24 October 1924 – 2 January 2000), usually cited as '''U. T. Place''', was a British philosopher and psychologist. After an initial posting at the University of Adelaide, he spent the next 28 years practicing clinical psychology and lecturing in both philosophy and psychology, mainly at the University of Leeds.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Palmer |first=David C. |date= |year=2000 |title=In memoriam: Ullin place: 1924–2000 |url=https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2731371/ |journal=The Behavior Analyst |language=en |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=95–98 |doi=10.1007/BF03392002 |issn=0738-6729 |pmc=2731371}}</ref>{{Reference page|page=96}} His 1956 paper "Is Consciousness a Brain Process?" launched the identity theory of mind.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Armstrong |first=D. M. |author-link=David Malet Armstrong |url=https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/monograph/The_Companion_to_Philosophy_in_Australia_and_New_Zealand_Second_Edition_/12821423?file=24318515 |title=A Companion to Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand |date=2014 |publisher=Monash University Publishing |isbn=978-1-925495-26-3 |editor-last=Oppy |editor-first=Graham |editor-link=Graham Oppy |edition=2nd |location= |pages=461-464 |chapter=Place, U. T. |editor-last2=Trakakis |editor-first2=N. N. |editor-link2=Nick Trakakis |chapter-url=https://utplace.uk/pdf/Others/Armstrong%20(2014)%20Place,%20U%20T.pdf}}</ref>{{Reference page|page=461 }}

== Life == Place was born on 24 October 1924 in Northallerton, Yorkshire.{{Sfn|Armstrong|2014|p=461}}

He was educated at Rugby School.{{Sfn|Palmer|2000|p=96}} He won an Open Scholarship to Corpus Christi College, Oxford in 1942 and spent a term there but his studies were interrupted by the Second World War. In 1943 he registered as a conscientious objector and worked in the Friends’ Ambulance Service for the remainder of the war (his mother’s ancestors being Quakers). He returned to Oxford in 1946, graduating in philosophy and psychology in 1949 and taking a diploma in anthropology in 1950.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tartaglia |first=James |author-link=James Tartaglia |title=The dictionary of twentieth century British philosophers |date=2005 |publisher=Thoemmes |isbn=978-1-84371-096-7 |editor-last=Brown |editor-first=Stuart C. |location=Bristol |pages=785-789 |chapter=PLACE, Ullin Thomas (1924-2000) |doi=10.5040/9781350052437%2D0328}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Graham |first=George |title=Editorial Introduction Place in Mind and Mind in Place |date=2004-01-15 |work=Identifying the Mind |pages=3–13 |editor-last=Graham |editor-first=George |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/49840/chapter/422024096 |access-date=2026-05-13 |publisher=Oxford University PressNew York, NY |language=en |doi=10.1093/oso/9780195161373.003.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-516137-3 |last2=Valentine |first2=Elizabeth R |editor2-last=Valentine |editor2-first=Elizabeth R|url-access=subscription }}</ref>{{Reference page|page=4}}

He studied under and was strongly influenced by Gilbert Ryle at Oxford University. There, he became acquainted with philosophy of mind in the logical behaviourist tradition, of which Ryle was a major exponent. Although he would later abandon logical behaviourism as a theory of the mind in favour of the type-identity theory, Place nevertheless continued to harbour sympathies toward the behaviouristic approach to psychology in general. He even went so far as to defend the ''radical behaviourist'' theses of B.F. Skinner, as expressed in ''Verbal Behavior'' (1957), from the criticisms of Noam Chomsky and the growing movement of cognitive psychology.

Place, as well as J. J. C. Smart, nevertheless established his place in the annals of analytic philosophy by founding the theory which would eventually help to dethrone and displace ''philosophical behaviourism'' - the identity theory. In "Is Consciousness a Brain Process?" Place formulated the thesis that mental processes were not to be defined in terms of behaviour; rather, one must identify them with neural states. With this bold thesis, Place became one of the fathers of the current materialistic mainstream of the philosophy of mind.

Place died in Thirsk, Yorkshire on 2 January 2000.{{Sfn|Armstrong|2014|p=461}} He bequeathed his brain to the University of Adelaide.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Keane |first=Daniel |date=2022-06-26 |title=This philosopher is still taking visits 'by appointment only', even after his death |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-26/u-t-place-philosophy-of-brains-and-minds-university-of-adelaide/101158816 |access-date=2026-05-12 |work=ABC News |language=en-AU}}</ref>

His sister, Dorothy E. Smith, was a prominent Canadian sociologist and the founder of the field of institutional ethnography, and his brother, Milner Place, was one of England's leading poets.

== Place's identity theory vs. that of Feigl and Smart == There are actually subtle but interesting differences between the three most widely credited formulations of the type identity thesis, those of Place, Feigl and Smart which were published in several articles in the late 1950s. Place's notion of the ''identity'' involved in the identity thesis is derived from Bertrand Russell's distinction among several types of ''is'' statements: the ''is'' of identity, the ''is'' of equality and the ''is'' of predication. Place's version of the relation of identity in the so-called ''identity thesis'' is more accurately described as an asymmetric relation of composition. For Place, higher-level mental events are composed out of lower-level physical events and will eventually be analytically reduced to these. To the objection that "sensations" do not mean the same thing as "brain processes", Place could simply reply with the example that "lightning" does not mean the same thing as "electrical discharge" since we determine that something is lightning by looking and seeing it, whereas we determine that something is an electrical discharge through experimentation and testing. Nevertheless, "lightning is an electrical discharge" is true since the one is ''composed'' of the other. Similarly, "clouds are water vapor" means that "clouds are composed of droplets of water vapor" but not vice versa.

For Feigl and Smart, on the other hand, the identity was to be interpreted as the identity between the referents of two descriptions (senses) which referred to the same thing, as in "the morning star" and "the evening star" both referring to Venus. So to the objection about the lack of equality of meaning between "sensation" and "brain process", their response was to invoke this Fregean distinction: "sensations" and "brain" processes do indeed ''mean'' different things but they refer to the same physical phenomenon. Moreover, "sensations are brain processes" is a contingent, not a necessary, identity.

== Works == * {{Cite book |last=Place |first=U. T. |title=Identifying the mind: selected papers of U.T. Place |date=2023 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-773053-9 |editor-last=Graham |editor-first=George |series=Philosophy of mind series |location=New York |author-mask=0 |orig-year=2004 |editor-last2=Valentine |editor-first2=Elizabeth R.}}<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Armstrong |first=D. M. |author-link=David Malet Armstrong |date= |year=2004 |title=Review: Identifying the Mind: Selected Papers of U.T. Place |url=https://ndpr.nd.edu/reviews/identifying-the-mind-selected-papers-of-u-t-place/ |journal=Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews}}</ref> *{{Cite journal |last=Place |first=U. T. |author-mask=0 |date= |year=1956 |title=Is consciousness a brain process? |url=https://utplace.uk/pdf/1956%20Is%20Consciousness%20a%20Brain%20Process.pdf |journal=British Journal of Psychology |language=en |volume=47 |issue=1 |pages=44–50 |doi=10.1111/j.2044-8295.1956.tb00560.x |issn=0007-1269}} * {{Cite journal |last=Place |first=U. T. |author-mask=0 |date=1981 |title=Skinner's "Verbal Behavior I" - Why We Need It |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27758970 |journal=Behaviorism |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=1–24 |issn=0090-4155 |url-access=registration}}

==Notes== {{reflist}}

== References == * J. Franklin, ''Corrupting the Youth: A History of Philosophy in Australia'', 2003, ch. 9.

== Further reading ==

* {{Cite journal |last=Catania |first=A. Charles |author-link=A. Charles Catania |date=2003 |title=Ullin T. Place: A Life in Verbal Behavior |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27759456 |journal=Behavior and Philosophy |volume=31 |pages=173–180 |issn=1053-8348 |url-access=registration}}

== External links == *[https://utplace.uk Ullin Thomas Place (1924-2000). Philosopher and psychologist. The intellectual legacy of a radical empiricist], complete bibliography with download links, compiled and edited by Thomas Place.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Place, Ullin}} Category:British philosophers of mind Category:20th-century English philosophers Category:1924 births Category:2000 deaths Category:Analytic philosophers Category:People educated at Rugby School Category:Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford Category:Academics of the University of Leeds