Ruth Millikan

Ruth Millikan
Born	1933

Era	Contemporary philosophy
Region	Western Philosophy
Main interests	philosophy of biology, philosophy of psychology, philosophy of language
Notable ideas	biosemantics
Influences Wilfrid Sellars

Ruth Garrett Millikan (born 1933) is a leading American philosopher of biology, psychology, and language who spent most of her career at the University of Connecticut.

Millikan earned her AB from Oberlin College in 1955. At Yale University she studied under Wilfrid Sellars before she left for the University of Pittsburgh, and earned her PhD in 1969. She and Paul Churchland are often considered leading proponents of "right wing" (i.e., individualistic) Sellarsianism.

Millikan taught half-time at the University of Michigan from 1993-1996, but otherwise spent her entire career at the University of Connecticut, where she is now professor emeritus. She is married to American psychologist and cognitive scientist Donald Shankweiler.

She was awarded the Jean Nicod Prize and gave the Jean Nicod Lectures in Paris in 2002. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2014 and received, in 2017, both the Nicholas Rescher Prize for Systematic Philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh and the Rolf Schock Prize in Logic and Philosophy.