| Bob Fischer | |
| Birth Name: | Robert William Fischer |
| Occupation: | Professor |
| Era: | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region: | United States |
| Thesis Title: | Modal Knowledge, in Theory |
| Thesis Url: | https://www.proquest.com/openview/dce7fdbcfe38ca29f10051b0b6d23f0d/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750 |
| Thesis Year: | 2011 |
| Doctoral Advisor: | W. D. Hart |
| Main Interests: | Epistemology
|
| Notable Ideas: | Theory-Based Epistemology of Modality |
Bob Fischer is an American philosopher who specializes in epistemology (especially modal epistemology) and ethics (especially animal ethics). He is a Professor of Philosophy at Texas State University and a Senior Research Manager at Rethink Priorities. His books include Modal Justification via Theories (in which he defends his account of "Theory-Based Epistemology of Modality"), The Ethics of Eating Animals, and Weighing Animal Welfare.
Fischer earned a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and English at State University of New York at Geneseo from 2001 to 2004. He received a PhD in philosophy at the University of Illinois Chicago. He submitted his doctoral thesis, which was entitled Modal Knowledge, in Theory, in 2011. His advisor (and thesis committee chair) was W. D. Hart; the other committee members were Colin Klein, Walter Edelberg, Daniel Sutherland, and Karen Bennett.
From Illinois, he moved to Texas State University, first (2011–2013) as a Senior Lecturer, and subsequently as an Assistant Professor of Philosophy (2013–19), an Associate Professor of Philosophy (2019–2024), and Professor of Philosophy (2024-present). Fischer is a Senior Research Manager at Rethink Priorities and, along with Mark Budolfson and Lisa Kramer, a director of the Animal Welfare Economics Working Group.[1]
Fischer's first sole-authored monograph was Modal Justification via Theories, in which he defends a "Theory-Based Epistemology of Modality". According to this account, agents can have a justified belief in modal claims about certain kinds of "extraordinary" matters (e.g., philosophical issues) only if the claim follows from a theory in which they have a justified belief. Key to Fischer's account is that abductive reasoning (such as appeals to the virtue of simplicity) is well-placed to help agents to identify the theories that they are justified in believing. The epistemologists Antonella Mallozzi, Anand Vaidya, and Michael Wallner give the example of mind-body dualism. On Fischer's Theory-Based Epistemology of Modality, "we are justified in believing that mind-body dualism is metaphysically possible only if we are justified in believing a theory T from which mind-body dualism follows", but if T "is not the simplest theory, all else being equal, then one would not be justified in believing it, and thus not be justified in believing that mind-body dualism is metaphysically possible".
In 2024, Fischer published Weighing Animal Welfare, which collects the research that he and his team did from 2021-2023 on interspecies welfare comparisons. Interspecies welfare comparisons involve estimating the relative well-being levels of members of different species. For instance, if someone judges that a chicken in a battery cage is worse off than a human living a normal life, that person is making an interspecies welfare comparison. The book shows how it may be possible to make such comparisons by finding a mix of behavioral and physiological proxies for possible differences in the intensities of valenced experiences (like pleasure and pain). It then reports the results of applying that methodology.