Nathan Salmon - Biography

Biography

Salmon was born January 2, 1951 in Los Angeles to a working-class family of Sephardi Jews of Spanish-Turkish heritage. He is the grandson of archivist Emily Sene (née Emily Perez) and oud player Isaac Sene.

The first person in his family to go to college, Salmon attended El Camino College and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). At UCLA he studied with Tyler Burge, Alonzo Church, Keith Donnellan, Donald Kalish, David Kaplan, Saul Kripke, and Yiannis Moschovakis. Salmon earned his Ph.D. in 1979 while he was assistant professor of philosophy at Princeton University. In 1984 the Council of Graduate Schools awarded him the Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities, on the basis of his book, Reference and Essence (1981), which was based on his UCLA doctoral dissertation. His second book, Frege's Puzzle (1986), was selected by Scott Soames for a literary website as one of the best five books on the philosophy of language.

Salmon is currently distinguished professor of philosophy at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he has taught since 1984. He has also taught at UCLA, the University of California, Riverside, and the University of Southern California, and was a regular visiting distinguished professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center from 2009 to 2012.