Alexander Rosenberg Wins Philosophy Honor

Alexander Rosenberg, R. Taylor Cole Professor of Philosophy at Duke University, has been awarded the Romanell-Phi Beta Kappa Professorship in Philosophy for 2006-07.

Each year, the professorship is presented to a philosophy scholar in recognition of distinguished achievement and the scholar's past or potential contribution to public understanding of philosophy. Recipients receive a stipend of $7,500 and are expected to present three public lectures at their institutions.

Society Secretary John Churchill said the Romanell Professorship, with its three thematically related lectures, "is an opportunity for PBK to promote philosophical inquiry and to honor the recipient's important contributions to the field."

Rosenberg's lecture series is called "The Meaning of Darwinism" and proposes to guide the listener through the theoretical place and role of Darwinism within the natural sciences, humanities and social and behavioral sciences.

"With a body of distinguished achievement in the philosophy of science and the philosophy of biology in particular, Alex Rosenberg is the philosopher to address the opportunities and the problems brought by the biological sciences," said David Wong, chair of Duke's philosophy department.

Rosenberg has been a Guggenheim Fellow, a National Science Foundation Senior Scholar and a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies. In 1993, he won the Lakatos Award from the London School of Economics for an outstanding contribution to the philosophy of science. A prolific scholar, Rosenberg has authored about 170 articles and 10 books.

Rosenberg earned his bachelor of arts degree from City College of New York and his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University.

The professorship is made possible by an endowment from the late Patrick Romanell, H.Y. Benedict Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas at El Paso, and his wife, Edna.