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Michael Bratman

U. G. and Abbie Birch Durfee Professor

Ph.D., Rockefeller University, Philosophy (1974)
B.A., Haverford College, Philosophy (1967)
Academic Appointments
Professor, Philosophy
Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations
Member, Phi Beta Kappa Society
Director, National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar for College Teachers (1993 - 1993)
Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2012 - Present)
Chair, National Board of the American Philosophical Association (2011 - 2014)
Vice-President, Pacific Division, American Philosophical Association (2008 - 2009)
President, Pacific Division, American Philosophical Association (2009 - 2010)
Member, National Board of the American Philosophical Association (2008 - 2011)
Chair, Nominating Committee, American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division (1995 - 1996)
Member, American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division Program Committee (1982 - 1984)
Member, various editorial boards and referee for various journals and book publishers
Honors & Awards
Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching, Stanford University (1977)
Graves Award in the Humanities, Stanford University (1977)
IFAAMAS influential paper award, International Foundation of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (2008)
Included in The Philosopher’s Annual 26, The Philosopher’s Annual (2003)
Woodrow Wilson Graduate Fellowship, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
Danforth Graduate Fellowship, Danforth Foundation
NCAA Graduate Fellowship, National College Athletic Association
Rockefeller University Graduate Fellowship, Rockefeller University
My main research interests are in the philosophy of action, where this includes issues about social and institutional organization and agency, and about practical rationality. My book publications are Intention, Plans, and Practical Reason (1987); Faces of Intention: Selected Essays on Intention and Agency (1999); Structures of Agency: Essays (2007); Shared Agency: A Planning Theory of Acting Together (2014); Planning, Time, and Self-Governance: Essays in Practical Rationality (2018); and Shared and Institutional Agency (2022). I am a co-editor of Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and Contemporary Readings. I have been awarded an ACLS Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and fellowships from the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and the Stanford University Humanities Center. I am a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. My joint paper with David Israel and Martha Pollack, "Plans and Resource-Bounded Practical Reasoning," Computational Intelligence 4 (1988): 349-355, was the recipient of the 2008 International Foundation of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems influential paper award. I have been President of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association and was Chair of the National Board of the American Philosophical Association from 2011-2014. In 2014 I received the American Philosophical Association's Philip L. Quinn Prize "in recognition of service to philosophy and philosophers, broadly construed." In 2019 I received the Lebowitz Prize for philosophical achievement and contribution. In 2024 I presented the Dewey Lecture at the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association.

Contact

Telephone
(650) 723-2547

Research Interests