Alan Musgrave

Alan Musgrave (born c.1940) is an English born New Zealand philosopher. Musgrave was educated at the London School of Economics with a BA Honours Philosophy and Economics 1961. Sir Karl Popper supervised Musgrave's PhD which was completed in 1969. Musgrave worked as Popper's Research Assistant initially then as a Lecturer. Musgrave was appointed to the Chair of the Philosophy Department at the University of Otago in 1970, and was head of department from 1970 to 2005. He was 30 years old at his appointment. Along with Imre Lakatos, a friend and colleague, they edited Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge (Cambridge University Press, 1970). It is the best-selling of the 4 volumes that record the Popper/Kuhn confrontation at the 1965 London Conference that Lakatos and Musgrave organised. In 1992 Musgrave published Common Sense, Science and Scepticism; an entry level book on epistemology. In 1999 Musgrave published Essays on Realism and Rationalism (Rodopi); a collection of his scholarly papers. In 2006 Musgrave was honoured with a Festschrift: Rationality and Reality: Conversations with Alan Musgrave, edited by Colin Cheyne & John Worall (Springer). In 2009, Musgrave published Secular Sermons: Essays on Science and Philosophy (Otago University Press); an entry level book on science, religion and mathematics.

Among his non scholarly achievements is the Otago Philosophy's ranking in New Zealand's Performance Based Research Funding. In both the 2003 & 2006 survey's Otago's Philosophy department ranked as the best performing department among all academic disciplines in New Zealand. In 2010 Musgrave is planning to retire from academia. The University of Otago embarked on a funding campaign to raise money towards a scholarship in his honour. In 2012 the University of Otago awarded Musgrave the Distinguished Research Medal, the university's highest research honour.

Read more about Alan Musgrave:  Research Interests, A Variant of Traditional Realism, Musgrave's Realism, Other Information

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    People must not do things for fun. We are not here for fun. There is no reference to fun in any act of Parliament.
    —A.P. (Sir Alan Patrick)

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    —Unknown. Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard (l. 17–24)