Here are the rules for my weekly, most-underrated philosopher of the week entry: 1. no dead people; 2. no people currently or about to be employed in a Leiter top 50 (or equivalent) department (even thought these are also filled with underrated folk); 3. no former dissertation advisors, or other teachers from graduate school; 4. no former students; 5. No untenured folk. 6. Excellence in more than one AOS. (That is I want to recognize *interesting* philosophers, not just hyperspecialized ones.)
This week's winner, Marietje van der Schaar, perfectly exhibits the spirit guiding this weekly feature. (Full disclosure: we are former colleagues at Leiden University.) She is a creative logician (especially constructive type theory), with a fine eye for its Mitteleuropa historical component. (Like many of the "most underrated" featured here, she dislikes self-promotion.) More recently she has started to recover Arnauld (and Locke) from previous neglect and misrepresentation. For Marietje history is, it seems, always philosophically alive. As the Frege-founding myth becomes less pronounced within analytic philosophy and interest in Brentano gains, Marietje's work will be a natural entry into alternative conceptions of logic. In fact, if Analytic and Continental philosophers ever learn to talk to each other (for real), it may well be through the bridging work of Marietje. Meanwhile, I can't wait to hear her next paper, on Locke and SPinoza!
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