Professor
Michael E. Bratman
Stanford University
Philosopher; Educator; Professional society administrator; Academic administrator
Area
Humanities and Arts
Specialty
Philosophy
Elected
2012
Michael E. Bratman has been at Stanford University since 1974. He is currently U. G. and Abbie Birch Durfee Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, and Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University. His book publications are Intention, Plans, and Practical Reason (1987), Faces of Intention: Selected Essays on Intention and Agency (1999), Structures of Agency: Essays (2007), and Shared Agency: A Planning Theory of Acting Together (2014). His research focuses on the nature and role of intentions in action and their relevance to theories of rationality and sociality. Has argued that intentions, and plans more generally, cannot be reduced to beliefs and desires, but that they play an ineliminable role in our psychological economies, both individual and social, allowing for coordination of action across time and supporting shared cooperative activity and self-governance. Emphasized the role intentions and plans play in the psychology of beings with limited resources. Developed this point, in the context of artificial intelligence, in a 1988 Computational Intelligence article (with David Israel and Martha Pollack) that was a winner of the 2008 IFAAMAS (International Foundation of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems) influential paper award. Ideas have also been influential in political theory, cognitive science, law and other areas. He has been awarded an ACLS Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and fellowships from the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and the Stanford University Humanities Center. At Stanford, has served as Chair of the Department of Philosophy, Associate Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, Chair of the Academic Senate, and member of the Advisory Board. Past President of the American Philosophical Association (APA), Pacific Division, and past Chair of the APA National Board (2011-14). In 2014 he received the American Philosophical Association's Philip L. Quinn Prize "in recognition of service to philosophy and philosophers, broadly construed."
Last Updated