The following philosophers have been elected as Fellows of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences: Kit Fine (New York University); Anil Gupta (University of Pittsburgh); Richard Kraut (Northwestern University); and Nicholas Wolterstorff (Emeritus, Yale University). (This material will be on the AAAS website on Monday, though an e-mail announcing the elections was sent to me.)
Gradually, the AAAS is correcting for some of the embarrassing omissions in its roster, none more so than Kit Fine, who was elected a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy before being recognized by the AAAS! (I note that the AAAS, in Political Science, also recognized John Roemer this year, who was, like Professor Fine, elected a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy last year!)
It is fair enough that seniority is a factor in the elections to the Academy, but it is also fair to say that, like the failure to give the Nobel Prize in Literature to James Joyce, the failure to elect a few especially distinguished senior figures in our field will soon bring the whole affair into disrepute. I am thinking especially of Arthur Fine, now at the University of Washington; Larry Laudan, now at the National Autonomous University of Mexico; Stephen Stich at Rutgers University, New Brunswick; and Crispin Wright at the University of St. Andrews. I suppose it is true that Professors Laudan and Wright would now have to count as "foreign" members (though each does some teaching still in the US), of whom there are fewer, but they, like Professor Stich, are "household" names to all students of philosophy, so much so that it is really rather extraordinary that their accomplishments across several decades have not yet been recognized by the Academy. To be fair, of the sixteen philosophers I mentioned a couple of years ago as odd omissions, five have since been elected, and some of those not elected are, to be sure, not as senior as those recognized.
Bearing in mind my earlier cautionary notes on this subject (about why AAAS membership is a weak indicator of program quality), here are the eleven Philosophy Departments with the most non-emeritus, full-time AAAS members for fall 2006 (those over 70 are marked with an *; in some cases philosophy faculty were elected in fields outside philosophy; in some cases faculty are only part-time).
Harvard University (C. Korsgaard, D. Parfit [part-time], T. Scanlon, *A. Sen [elected in Economics; part-time], G. Striker)
New York University (N. Block, K. Fine, *R. Dworkin [elected in Law; part-time], H. Field, T. Nagel, D. Parfit [part-time], J. Waldron [elected in Law]).
Princeton University (A. Appiah [elected in Social Relations], *P. Benacerraf [on phased retirement], J. Cooper, G. Harman, A. Nehamas, B. van Fraassen [on phased retirement])
Rutgers University, New Brunswick (*J. Fodor, A. Goldman, D. Parfit [part-time], E. Sosa).
Stanford University (J. Cohen [elected in Political Science] *S. Feferman [elected in Mathematics], *D. Follesdal [part-time], M. Friedman, J. Perry, A. Wood)
University of California, Berkeley (*H. Dreyfus, S. Scheffler, *J. Searle, *B. Stroud)
University of California, Irvine (P. Maddy, D. Malament, B. Skyrms)
University of California, Los Angeles (T. Burge, B. Copenhaver, B. Herman, *D. Kaplan, D.A. Martin)
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (*E. Curley, S. Darwall, A. Gibbard, P. Railton, D. Regan [elected in Law], L. Sklar, K. Walton).
University of Notre Dame (*A. MacIntyre, *A. Plantinga, P. van Inwagen)
University of Pittsburgh (R. Brandom, J. Earman, A. Gupta, *A. Grunbaum, J. McDowell)
UPDATE: A couple of correspondents have already asked about my failure to mention any historians of philosophy as notable omissions. The fact is, however, that the AAAS has done fairly well in recognizing those who have enriched our understanding of the history of the field. There are certainly distinguished senior scholars whom I would expect to be recognized in the years ahead for their contributions--Frederick Beiser (Syracuse), Alan Code (Berkeley), Michael Della Rocca (Yale), Michael Forster (Chicago), Daniel Garber (Princeton), Don Garrett (NYU), Gary Hatfield (Penn), Nicholas Jolley (UC Irvine), Beatrice Longuenesse (NYU), A.P.D. Mourelatos (Texas), Alan Nelson (North Carolina), Calvin Normore (UCLA), and Paul Woodruff (Texas), among others--but none strike me as ridiculous omissions, yet, on a par with those noted above.
AND ANOTHER: There is a list and discussion of the new Law fellows here.
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