Legal Probabilism: An Epistemological Dissent, Susan Haack

Susan Haack (B.A., M.A., B.Phil, Oxford; Ph.D., Cambridge) is Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, Cooper Senior Scholar in Arts and Sciences, Professor of Philosophy, and Professor of Law at the University of Miami.

Her work ranges from philosophy of logic and language, epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of science, Pragmatism—both philosophical and legal—and the law of evidence, especially scientific evidence, to social philosophy, feminism, and philosophy of literature.

Her books include Philosophy of Logics; Deviant Logic, Fuzzy Logic: Beyond the Formalism; Manifesto of a Passionate Moderate; Defending Science—Within Reason; Pragmatism, Old and New; Putting Philosophy to Work (2008), Ciencia, Sociedad y Cultura (2008), and the second, expanded edition of her internationally-acclaimed Evidence and Inquiry (2009). In 2010 she received her first copies of the Chinese edition of Defending Science; in 2011 she gave a series of lectures in Rio de Janeiro to mark the publication of the Portuguese edition of her Manifesto; the Romanian edition of Evidence and Inquiry appeared in 2012; and the second, expanded edition of Putting Philosophy to Work in 2013. Her new book, Evidence Matters: Science, Proof, and Truth in the Law, (Flyer/Podcast1/Podcast2) published by Cambridge University Press, appeared in 2014.

Haack has also published around 200 articles, in a wide range of philosophical, legal, literary, scientific, and general-interest journals. A good many of these articles have proven so highly-regarded that they have been reprinted and/or translated, some several times.

Haack’s work has been translated into French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Croatian, Danish, Swedish, Romanian, Korean, and Chinese; and she is invited to lecture around the world.

She counts more than 600 speaking engagements (so far!)—in philosophy departments, at law schools, at international conferences, and in numerous other fora. In 2009 she gave lectures across the U.S., and in Italy, the U.K., Switzerland, Chile, Colombia, and—her second major lecture tour there—China; in 2010 she gave lectures in the U.S., Spain, Slovakia, Canada, Finland, and Colombia; in 2011 in the U.S., Canada, Sweden, Spain, Brazil, and Romania; in 2012 in the U.S., Spain, Germany, Brazil, and (twice) Colombia. In 2013 she gave lectures in the U.S., Belgium, Greece, Colombia, Brazil, Canada, and Germany; and in 2014 in the U.S., the Netherlands, Colombia, Brazil, Uruguay, and Peru. Her 2015 schedule already includes speaking engagements in the U.S., Spain, Mexico, Poland, Brazil, and the U.K.

Prof. Haack has won an award from the American Philosophical Association, and another from UM, for excellence in teaching; and (also from UM) an award for outstanding graduate mentor, the Provost’s Award for excellence in research, and the Faculty Senate Distinguished Scholar Award; as well as the (national) Forkosch Award for excellence in writing. She was included in Peter J. King’s One Hundred Philosophers: The Life and Work of the World’s Greatest Thinkers and in the Sunday Independent’s list, based on a BBC poll, of the ten most important women philosophers of all time; her work has celebrated in a volume of essays entitled Susan Haack: A Lady of Distinctions; and in 2011 she was awarded the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa by Petre Andrei University (Romania). The Münster Lecture that she gave at Universität Münster in 2013 will appear in the form of a second volume of essays on her work, Susan Haack: Reintegrating Philosophy.