Mark Balaguer, Ph.D.

Outstanding Professor Award, 2019-2020
Los Angeles
Department of Philosophy

When students learn philosophy, they learn to question things that are normally taken for granted. That’s a skill that’s indispensable to living an examined life—and to any job that requires thought.”

An influential philosopher with an international reputation, Mark Balaguer’s research is mainly focused on metaphysics, the philosophy of mathematics and free will, but he has also published papers on metaethics and the philosophy of language.

Balaguer has authored three books—Platonism and Anti-Platonism in Mathematics, Free Will as an Open Scientific Problem and Free Will, the last of which has been translated into multiple languages. He is currently working on his fourth book—Metaphysics, Sophistry, and Illusion—in which he develops a far-reaching critique of metaphysics.

He has served as chair of Cal State LA’s Department of Philosophy, and is one of the main advisers for M.A. students. Many of his students have gone on to Ph.D. programs and to tenure-track professor positions at other universities.