Robert Nola | |
Birth Date: | 25 June 1940 |
Death Place: | Auckland, New Zealand |
Fields: | Philosophy of science |
Workplaces: | University of Auckland |
Alma Mater: | University of Auckland Australian National University |
Thesis1 Title: | Theoretical change in the physical sciences: a study of theory reduction and theory replacement in science |
Thesis1 Url: | https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/139404 |
Thesis1 Year: | 1968 |
Spouse: | Jan Crosthwaite |
Robert Nola (25 June 1940 – 23 October 2022) was a New Zealand philosophy academic, and was an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Auckland.[1] [2] His work focussed on the philosophy and history of science, on epistemology and on metaphysics.
Nola's mother was New Zealand-born and his father was an immigrant from Dalmatia in Croatia. His family were nominally Catholic, his mother becoming a Catholic to marry his father. Nola attended a state school, rather than a Catholic school. He studied mathematics and philosophy at the University of Auckland.[3]
After a 1968 PhD titled Theoretical change in the physical sciences: a study of theory reduction and theory replacement in science at the Australian National University, Nola moved to the University of Auckland, rising to full professor.[1]
Nola was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2009 and was a Fellow of the New Zealand Academy of the Humanities.[4]
In July 2021, in the context of a review of the NCEA (New Zealand's National Curriculum), Nola, along with six other University of Auckland Professors and Emeritus Professors published a controversial letter "In Defence of Science" in the New Zealand Listener.[5] Along with Professor Garth Cooper, Nola resigned from the Royal Society Te Āparangi in March 2022 regarding the controversy.[6]