Department of Philosophy: People: Core Faculty: Allen Stairs

Allen Stairs Allen Stairs (PhD University of Western Ontario) is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Associate Chair the philosophy department. His early work was concerned with the role of the Hilbert space structure in the interpretation of quantum mechanics, arguing against certain versions of "quantum logic," but in favor of the idea that something appropriately called "logical structure" has an explanatory role to play in quantum mechanics. More recently, he has concentrated on the philosophy of religion and the problem of free will. He is also interested in the pedagogical problems of conveying philosophical ideas to a non-academic audience.

E-mail: stairs@umd.edu

Personal Home Page: http://stairs.umd.edu

Representative Publications

A Thinker's Guide to Philosophy of Religion (forthcoming) Longman publishers, Spring 2007. (Co-authored with Christopher Bernard).

"Kriske, Tupman and Quantum Logic: The Quantum Logician's Conundrum," forthcoming in A Festschrift for Jeffrey Bub, Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science, Springer, 2007.

"Local Realism and Conditional Probability," Foundations of Physics, Feb 14, 2006. (Co-authored with Jeffrey Bub).

"Religious Diversity and Religious Belief," in God Matters, (Raymond Martin and Christopher Bernard, editors) Longman, 2002.

"On Arthur Fine's Solution to the Measurement Problem," Foundations of Physics Letters, v.5 no. 2 (1992).

"Quantum Logic, Realism and Value-Definiteness," Philosophy of Science, December, 1983.