D. M. Armstrong 1926 – 2014
David Malet Armstrong was an Australian philosopher and the leading representative of the school of Australian materialism. Educated at Sydney and Oxford, he held the chair of philosophy at Sydney for nearly three decades. His Materialist Theory of the Mind defended the central state identity theory of mind and shaped the wider development of physicalism, while Universals and Scientific Realism, A World of States of Affairs, and Truth and Truthmakers articulated a comprehensive realist metaphysics of universals, states of affairs, and truthmakers. He was a founding figure of the Australasian Association of Philosophy and a warm and exacting teacher of generations of students.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Australian
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Analytic
Selected quotes
-
Attributed to D. M. Armstrong:
“Universals are immanent in the particulars that have them.”
-
Attributed to D. M. Armstrong:
“Mental states are physical states of the central nervous system.”
-
Attributed to D. M. Armstrong:
“Causation is a relation between states of affairs.”
-
Attributed to D. M. Armstrong:
“Every truth requires a truthmaker.”
-
Attributed to D. M. Armstrong:
“Possible worlds are recombinations of actual elements.”