Celebrating Professor Frank Jackson’s career
(L-R) Professor Alan Hajek and Professor Frank Jackson.
The School of Philosophy hosted a public lecture in late October to celebrate the illustrious career of Professor Frank Jackson as he moves to the University’s emeritus faculty.
He was introduced by the Head of the School of Philosophy, Professor Alan Hájek, who said that “an event of this magnitude cannot just pass by without due recognition.”
Professor Jackson spoke about one of his best-known contributions to philosophy in his lecture What physicalists have to say about the knowledge argument.
This argument involves a famous thought experiment about a brilliant scientist who has spent all her life in a black-and-white room, but who has all physical information about the world. Then she leaves the room and sees the coloured world outside for the first time. It seems that she gains knowledge, but it cannot be physical information; so physical information must be incomplete.
This theory was the inspiration for the song and video ‘What Mary Didn’t Know’ by Dorian Electra & The Electrodes. His thought experiment was dramatized in the British documentary Brainspotting, and appears centrally in David Lodge’s novel Thinks... Professor Jackson himself even appears in the novel!
His argument has generated a huge literature, and the paper in which it appears is one of the most cited philosophy papers of all time. In 2004 he was chosen as a ‘Citation Laureate’ by Thomson-ISI, an award given to those who are most extensively cited by their peers in research papers published around the world.
Working in academia since the 1960s, Jackson’s publications extend over many fields of philosophy, including philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, conditionals, philosophy of science, and moral philosophy.
Professor Hájek also noted: “From very early in his career he has had an extraordinary commitment to co-writing papers. This is a feature of Australian philosophy generally, but of Frank’s approach in particular.”
Professor Jackson first joined ANU in 1986 as Professor of Philosophy and Head of the Philosophy Program in the Research School of Social Sciences, and he was a Distinguished Professor at ANU from 2003 to 2014.
He has received countless awards and accolades, including an Order of Australia, election as Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities, and as Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences.
In 1995, he delivered the John Locke lectures at Oxford University – one of only four Australians to ever receive this honour. He has held a number of further positions at ANU, including Director of the Institute of Advanced studies, Deputy Vice Chancellor of Research, and Director of the Research School of Social Sciences.
After stepping down from his half-time appointment at Princeton University, in retirement he will probably be spending more time at ANU than he has over the last few years.
“I’m delighted to say that in his retirement we’re actually seeing more of him,” said Professor Hájek.