Peter Lipton
American philosopher
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Through Bioethics, Explanation and Inference
Career
Lipton was an undergraduate at Wesleyan University and a graduate student at Oxford University. Before coming to Cambridge, he taught at Clark University and Williams College. He was a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and chaired the working party that produced Pharmacogenetics: Ethical Issues. He was also on the AskPhilosophers panel. In 2004, Lipton had the honour of being the Medawar Prize Lecturer of the Royal Society.
Lipton's research interests focused on the philosophy of science, including topics such as explanation, inference, testing, theory change, laws of nature, and scientific realism. Lipton's research in philosophy of science led him to do work in other related areas of philosophy; in epistemology, Lipton also investigated the philosophy of induction and testimony. Likewise in philosophy of mind Lipton researched notions of mental content and the mind–body problem.
He was a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics (2003–2007) and was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2006.
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Personal life
Lipton lived with his wife Diana and two sons Jonah and Jacob. He was a self-confessed "religious atheist" and "progressive Jew"; he held that he could follow the customs and culture of a Jewish lifestyle, and use the teachings of Judaism to help him tackle moral problems in life, without simultaneously believing in the metaphysics of such a religion (such as the existence of God).
On 25 November 2007, Lipton suffered a fatal heart attack after playing a game of squash. He was succeeded in his capacity as Head of Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge by John Forrester.