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It is with great sadness that the Philosophy Programme at the University of Otago announces the passing of our colleague and friend, Emeritus Professor Alan Musgrave, on 20 January 2026.

In Conversation: Alan Musgrave interviewed by Heather Dyke, 2012

In 2012, Professor Alan Musgrave was honoured with the Distinguished Research Medal, the highest research honour given by the University of Otago. He also received the Humanities Aronui Medal from the Royal Society of New Zealand. The current Head of Philosophy, Professor Heather Dyke, sat down with Alan in 2012 to chat about his life, career, and philosophical ideas. This interview was first published via University of Otago podcasts.

Watch the interview on YouTube

Academic qualifications

1969: PhD London
1961: BA (Hons) London

Research interests

Alan was educated at the London School of Economics, where with Imre Lakatos he edited Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge, one of the most influential collections of essays in recent philosophy of science.

He came to Otago as Head of Department in 1970, retiring from this post in 2005. His chief interests are the theory of knowledge and the history and philosophy of science.

His book Common Sense, Science, and Scepticism forms the basis of the introductory course in epistemology. Essays on Realism and Rationalism (1999) and Secular Sermons (2009) are collections of his articles.

Publications

Recent publications include

  • Musgrave, A.E. (2010) 'Darwin's Life and Method'. In Aspects of Darwin: A New Zealand Celebration. D.Galloway and J. Timmins (eds), Hewitson Library Occasional Monograph no.1, Friends of the Knox College Library, Dunedin, New Zealand, 20-35.
  • Musgrave, A.E. (2010) 'Critical Rationalism, Explanation and Severe Tests'. In Error and Inference: Recent Exchanges on Experimental Reasoning, Reliability, and the Objectivity and Rationality of Science. D.G. Mayo and A. Spanos (eds). Cambridge and London: Cambridge University Press, 88-112.
  • Musgrave, A.E. (2009) Secular Sermons. Otago University Press.
  • Musgrave, A.E. (2009) 'Experience and Perceptual Belief'. In Rethinking Popper (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science Volume 272). S. Parusnikova and R.S. Cohen (eds). Dordrecht: Springer Science and Business Media, 5-19.
  • Musgrave, A.E. (2008) 'Pleonastic Patonism'. In From Truth to Reality: New Essays in Logic and Metaphysics. H. Dyke (ed). New York and London: Routledge, 66-84.
  • Musgrave, A.E. (2007) 'Realism and Surrealism about Science'. In Creativity, Enterprise, Policy - New Directions in Education (Proceedings of the 2007 Conference of the Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia, Wellington, New Zealand), Vol.1, 1-7.
  • Musgrave, A.E. (2007) 'The Miracle Argument for Scientific Realism', The Rutherford Journal: The New Zealand Journal for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, February 2007.
  • Musgrave, A.E. (2006) 'Responses', In Rationality and Reality: Conversations with Alan Musgrave, C. Cheyne and J. Worrall (eds). Dordrecht: Springer, 293-333
  • Musgrave. A.E. (2006) 'Critical Rationalism', In The Power of Argumentation (Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and Humanities , vol. 91). E. Suarez-Iniguez (ed). Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, 185-224
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