After receiving his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1968, Perry taught at UCLA from 1968 to 1974 and then at Stanford University from 1974 until 2008. Since 2008 he has been Emeritus at Stanford, and a professor of philosophy (half time) at the University of California, Riverside.
Perry has written a number of books, including Situations and Attitudes (with Jon Barwise), Knowledge, Possibility and Consciousness, Reference and Reflexivity, and Crititical Pragmatics (with Kepa Korta), and over a hundred articles, chiefly in the philosophy of language and philosophy of mind. He delivered the Jean Nicod Lectures in Paris. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Norwegian Academy of Arts and Sciences, has honorary degrees from Doane College and from the University of the Basque Country, and has won a Humboldt Prize (Germany). He is a past President of the American Philosophical Association (Pacific Division). In 2011, he won the Ig-Nobel Prize in literature, for his work on “structured procrastination.”
For almost ten years, Perry has co-hosted the public radio program “Philosophy Talk” with co-host Ken Taylor. Philosophy Talk originates at KALW in San Francisco (91.7); it is carried on over forty stations and is available on the internet (www.philosophytalk.org).
Perry and his wife Frenchie have been married since 1962; they have three grown children and ten grandchildren.
Read Dr. John Perry’s abstract for his plenary lecture, “Presupposition and Reflexive Content.” He will be speaking on Saturday, October 20 at 11:15 a.m.
