John Lucas (philosopher)
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'''John Randolph Lucas''' [[British Academy|FBA]] (born [[18 June]], [[1929]]) is a British philosopher.
== Overview ==
As an undergraduate at [[Balliol College, Oxford]], 1947-1950, Lucas studied first maths, then [[Greats]] (Philosophy and Ancient History), obtaining his MA in Philosophy in 1954. He spent the 1957-58 academic year at [[Princeton University]], deepening his understanding of mathematics and logic. For 36 years, until his 1996 retirement, he was a Fellow and Tutor of [[Merton College, Oxford]], and remains an emeritus member of the University Faculty of [[Philosophy]]. He is a Fellow of the [[British Academy]].
Lucas is perhaps best known for his paper "[[Minds, Machines and Gödel]]," arguing that an [[Turing machine|automaton]] cannot represent a human [[mathematician]]. [[Douglas Hofstadter]]'s ''[[Gödel, Escher, Bach]]'' includes an extensive critical discussion of Lucas's argument and the ensuing vigorous debate in the academic literature.
A prolific author with unusually diverse teaching and research interests, Lucas has written on the [[philosophy of mathematics]], especially the implications of [[Gödel's incompleteness theorem]], the [[philosophy of mind]], [[free will and determinism]], the [[philosophy of science]] with special reference to [[special relativity]], [[causality]], [[political philosophy]], [[ethics]] and [[business ethics]], and the [[philosophy of religion]].
The son of a [[Church of England]] clergyman, Lucas describes himself as "a dyed-in-the-wool traditional Englishman." He and Morar Portal have four children, among them [[Edward Lucas (journalist)|Edward Lucas]], Central and Eastern European correspondent of [[The Economist]]. Sartorially independent, he may be remembered for a cool-weather habit of wearing a tie over his sweater under a jacket.
In addition to his philosophical career, Lucas has taken a practical interest in business ethics. He helped found the Oxford Consumers' Group [http://www.communigate.co.uk/oxford/oxfordconsumergroup/index.phtml], and was its first Chairman in 1961-3, serving again in 1965.
==Main philosophical contributions==
===Free will===
[[Minds, Machines and Gödel|Lucas (1961)]] began a lengthy and heated [[Mechanism (philosophy)#Gödelian arguments|debate]] over the implications of [[Gödel's incompleteness theorems]] for the [[Mechanism (philosophy)#Anthropic mechanism|anthropic mechanism thesis]], by arguing that:<ref> Adapted mainly from [http://www.leaderu.com/truth/2truth08.html] </ref>
# [[Determinism]] ↔ For any human ''h'' there exists at least one (deterministic) [[logical system]] ''L''(''h'') which reliably predicts ''H'''s actions in all circumstances.
# For any logical system ''L'' a sufficiently skilled [[mathematical logic]]ian (equipped with a sufficiently powerful computer if necessary) can construct some statements ''T''(''L'') which are true but unprovable in ''L''. (This follows from Gödel's first theorem.)
# If a human ''m'' is a sufficiently skillful mathematical logician (equipped with a sufficiently powerful computer if necessary) then if ''m'' is given ''L''(''m''), he or she can construct ''T''(''L''(''m'')) and
# Determine that they are true--which ''L''(''m'') cannot do.
# Hence ''L''(''m'') does not reliably predict ''m'''s actions in all circumstances.
# Hence ''m'' has [[free will]].
# It is implausible that the qualitative difference between mathematical logicians and the rest of the population is such that the former have free will and the latter do not.
===Space, time and causality===
Lucas wrote several books on the philosophy of science and space-time (see below). In ''A treatise on time and space'' he introduced a transcendental derivation of the Lorenz Transformations based on Red and Blue exchanging messages (in Russian and Greek respectively) from their respective frames of reference which demonstrates how these can be derived from a minimal set of philosophical assumptions.
In ''The Future'' Lucas gives a detailed analysis of tenses and time, arguing that "the [[Block time|Block universe]] gives a deeply inadequate view of time. It fails to account for the passage of time, the pre-eminence of the present, the directedness of time and the difference between the future and the past"<ref> ''The Future'' p8</ref> and in favour of a tree structure in which there is only one past or present (at any given point in spacetime) but a large number of possible futures. "We are by our own decisions in the face of other men's actions and chance circumstances weaving the web of history on the loom of natural necessity"<ref>op. cit. p4</ref>
Through his collaboration with Peter E. Hodgson on space-time and causality, Lucas has an [[Erdős number]] of 6.
==Career highlights==
*1942-7. Schooled at St Mary's College, Winchester (commonly known as [[Winchester College]])
*1947-51. Attended [[Balliol College, Oxford]] on a scholarship.
*1951. BA with 1st Class Honours, [[Greats]].
*1951-3. Harmsworth Senior Scholar, [[Merton College, Oxford]].
*1952. John Locke Scholarship, [[Oxford University]].
*1953-6. Junior Research Fellow, [[Merton College, Oxford]].
*1956-9. Fellow and Assistant Tutor, [[Corpus Christi College, Cambridge]].
*1957-8. Jane Eliza Procter Visiting Fellow, [[Princeton University]].
*1959-60. [[Leverhulme]] Research Fellow, the [[University of Leeds]].
*1960-96. Fellow and Tutor of [[Merton College, Oxford]].
*1988. Elected a Fellow of the [[British Academy]].
*1990-6. Reader in Philosophy, [[Oxford University]].
*1991-3. President, [[British Society for the Philosophy of Science]].
==Books==
*1966. ''Principles of Politics'' (edited). ISBN 0-19-824774-5
*1970. ''The Concept of Probability''. ISBN 0-19-824340-5
*1970. ''The Freedom of the Will''. ISBN 0-19-824343-X
*1972. ''The Nature of Mind''. (with [[A. J. P. Kenny]], H. C. Longuet-Higgins, and [[C. H. Waddington]])
*1973. ''The Development of Mind''. (with A.J.P.Kenny, H.C.Longet-Higgins, and C.H.Waddington)
*1973. ''A Treatise on Time and Space''. ISBN 0-416-75070-2
*1976. ''Essays on Freedom and Grace''. ISBN 0-281-02932-6
*1976. ''Democracy and Participation''. ISBN 0-14-021882-3
*1978. ''Butler's Philosophy of Religion Vindicated''. ISBN 0-907078-06-0
*1980. ''On Justice''. ISBN 0-19-824598-X
*1985. ''Space, Time and Causality'' (with P. E. Hodgson). ISBN 0-19-875057-9
*1989. ''The Future''. ISBN 0-631-16659-9
*1990. ''Spacetime and Electromagnetism'' (with P. E. Hodgson). ISBN 0-19-852038-7
*1993. ''Responsibility''. ISBN 0-19-823578-X
*1997. ''Ethical Economics'' (with M. R. Griffiths). ISBN 0-312-16398-3
*1999. ''Conceptual Roots of Mathematics''. ISBN 0-415-20738-X
*2003. ''An Engagement with Plato's Republic'' (with B.G. Mitchell). ISBN 0-7546-3366-7
*2006. ''Reason and Reality'', freely available as a series of .pdf files on Lucas's website (below).
[http://users.ox.ac.uk/~jrlucas/bibliog/bibliogr.html Bibliography] of Lucas's writings, with many available online.
==Notes==
<references/>
==External links==
*Lucas, John R., 2002, "[http://www.leaderu.com/truth/2truth08.html The Godelian Argument,]" ''The Truth Journal''.
*[http://users.ox.ac.uk/~jrlucas/ Home page of J. R. Lucas,] with much online material.
*[http://users.ox.ac.uk/~jrlucas/me.html Short biography of Lucas,], including his Who's Who entry.
*[http://www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk/index.shtml Oxford University Faculty of Philosophy Home Page.]
*[http://www.communigate.co.uk/oxford/oxfordconsumergroup/index.phtml Oxford Consumers' Group.]
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[[Category:1929 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:English philosophers]]
[[Category:20th century philosophers]]
[[Category:21st century philosophers]]
[[Category:Fellows of the British Academy]]
[[Category:Philosophers of mathematics]]
[[Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Fellows of Merton College, Oxford]]
[[fr:John Lucas]]