Peter Godfrey-Smith

Born in Australia in 1965, Godfrey-Smith received a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of California, San Diego in 1991 under the supervision of Philip Kitcher. He previously taught at Harvard University,^[3] Stanford University, Australian National University, and the CUNY Graduate Center.^[4] Godfrey-Smith was the recipient of the Lakatos Award^[5] for his 2009 book, Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection which discusses the philosophical foundations of the theory of evolution.^[6][7]

He has criticized the arguments of intelligent design proponents.^[8] He was an early critic of Covid-19 lockdown measures, beginning with a series of Twitter posts in January 2021.^[9][10][11]

In 2016, Godfrey-Smith published the book Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness.^[12] It explores the origin of sentience, consciousness and intelligence in the animal kingdom, specifically how it evolved in cephalopods compared to mammals and birds.^[13][14][15]

• Complexity and the function of mind in nature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1996. ISBN 0-521-45166-3. OCLC 32468942.
• Theory and reality : an introduction to the philosophy of science (1st ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2003. ISBN 0-226-30062-5. OCLC 51223665.
• Darwinian populations and natural selection. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2009. ISBN 978-0-19-156778-0. OCLC 373185464.
• Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness. New York: William Collins. 2016. ISBN 978-0-374-22776-0. OCLC 957696590.
• Metazoa : animal life and the birth of the mind. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2020. ISBN 978-0-374-20794-6. OCLC 1158510266.

• Stubbings, Diane (January–February 2021). "Gradual evolution: investigating the origins of consciousness: review of Metazoa: animal minds and the birth of consciousness by Peter Godfrey-Smith". Australian Book Review. 428: 62.

• Official website