Stephen Hetherington
Stephen Cade Hetherington is an Australian analytic philosopher specialising in epistemology and, to a lesser extent, metaphysics. He is an emeritus professor in the School of Humanities and Languages at the University of New South Wales, a prolific author, and served as editor-in-chief of the Australasian Journal of Philosophy from December 2013 to March 2022.
Family
Early life
The son of the Australian artist, caricaturist, cartoonist, and puppeteer, Norman Frederick Hetherington, and Margaret "Peggy" Hetherington, née Owrid, née Purnell, Stephen Cade Hetherington was born at Sydney in 1959.He grew up in Mosman, New South Wales, where his father's puppetry collection and workshop were located in the basement beneath the family residence.
Marriage
He married the artist Parveen Kaur Seehra in 1990.Education
He attended the opportunity classes (years 5 and 6) at Neutral Bay Public School and, then, attended the academically selective Fort Street High School in Sydney.He received his tertiary education from the University of Sydney, from New College at the University of Oxford, and from the University of Pittsburgh:
- University of Sydney: Bachelor of Arts, 1981.
- University of Oxford, New College: Bachelor of Philosophy, 1983.
- University of Pittsburgh: Master of Arts, 1986.
- University of Pittsburgh: Doctor of Philosophy, 1987.
Puppeteer
In the four years that he studied at the University of Sydney, Hetherington not only operated marionettes part-time in his father's special, highly successful dental health programme for children, but also spoke to the children before and after each show. His part in this programme ceased when left Australia, and went to Oxford to continue his studies.Author
His first four publications were written while he was still a student; the first two, written as an undergraduate student, were derived from papers written for his Honours-year coursework at the University of Sydney, and the other two were written as a post-graduate student during his time at the University of Pittsburgh.He became a well-respected prolific author in a wide range of philosophical domains, especially epistemology:
Academic
He commenced his academic career in 1987, as an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at West Virginia University; and in 1990 he transferred to the philosophy department of the University of New South Wales where he remained until his retirement in late 2020.Editor-in-chief
From December 2013 until March 2022 he was the editor-in-chief of the Australasian Journal of Philosophy, a prestigious English-language philosophy journal continuously published since 1923.He is the editor-in-chief of the Cambridge University Press Elements in Epistemology series and, also, the Bloomsbury Publishing Critical Introductions to Contemporary Epistemology series.