About

Craig Callender is the Tata Chancellor Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at UC San Diego and serves as Co-Director of the Institute for Practical Ethics. His academic role is situated within the Department of Philosophy at UC San Diego, where he is engaged in philosophical research and teaching. The webpage indicates his involvement in public engagement, conferences, and research related to skepticism, conservation, and the nature of time and the observer, reflecting his interests in philosophical questions surrounding these topics. His contact information is provided, emphasizing his active academic and public engagement presence.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Physics
• Mathematics
• Engineering
• Mechanical engineering
• Thermodynamics
• Quantum mechanics
• Epistemology
• Geography
• Meteorology
• Theoretical physics
• Philosophy
• Environmental science
• Economics
• Classical mechanics
• Positive economics
• Mathematical economics

Selected publications

• Navigating synergies vs. trade-offs between climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation

  npj Biodiversity · 2025-06-03 · 3 citations

  reviewOpen access

  Synergies between mitigating climate change and conserving biodiversity are often emphasized in public discourse and policy, but there can be trade-offs between these aims. Where trade-offs are evident, cost-benefit analysis (CBA) has emerged as a dominant approach to resolving them. We highlight limitations of this approach and propose that creating enviro-ethics committees using principles of collaborative governance would provide a practical mechanism for transparently grappling with trade-offs at various levels.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Toll of the Tolman Effect: On the Status of Classical Temperature in General Relativity

  The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science · 2025-07-24 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  The Tolman effect is well-known in relativistic cosmology but rarely discussed outside it. That is surprising because the effect -- that systems extended over a varying gravitational potential exhibit temperature gradients while in thermal equilibrium -- conflicts with ordinary classical thermodynamics. In this paper we try to better understand this effect from a foundational perspective. We make five claims. First, as Tolman knew, it was Einstein who first discovered the effect, and furthermore, Einstein's derivation helps us appreciate how robust it is. Second, the standard interpretation of the effect in terms of 'local temperature' leads to the breakdown of much of classical thermodynamics. Third, one can rescue thermodynamics by using Einstein's preferred interpretation in terms of the 'wahre Temperatur' -- what we'll call global temperature -- but it too has some costs. Fourth, the effect is perhaps best understood in terms of clocks as opposed to energy loss. Fifth, inspired by a proposal of Einstein's elsewhere, we sketch an interpretation of the effect in terms of a third novel temperature, which we call the 'wahre-local temperature'. On this view, temperature -- and thermodynamics -- is defined only in relation to local clocks. In sum, we view the fragmentation of temperature in thermodynamics as a natural and expected result of the fragmentation of time in general relativity.

  PublisherDOI

• Building Decision Points Into Research’s Slipperiest Slopes

  Issues in Science and Technology · 2025-07-01 · 1 citations

  article

  The controversy around a ban on “mirror life” should lead to a more nuanced public conversation about how to manage the benefits and risks of precursor biotechnologies.

  PublisherDOI

• Insights into Quantum Time Reversal from the Classical Schrödinger Equation

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2025-10-28

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Prodigy That Time Forgot: The Incredible and Untold Story of John von Newton

  Fundamental theories of physics · 2024-01-01

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• PSA volume 91 issue 2 Cover and Front matter

  Philosophy of Science · 2024-03-18

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Support US OCTOPUS Act to keep octopuses wild

  Science · 2024-08-15 · 7 citations

  letter
  PublisherDOI

• Going ‘Humean’ on the Flow of Time

  Timing & Time Perception · 2023-08-22 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract We argue that the problem of the flow of time is a special problem, one unlike many other challenges in reconciling temporal phenomena with time in physics. After clarifying this point, we develop a Humean account of the flow of time according to which the psychological stream of experience explains why we think the world is tensed. On our account, the flow of time is not all inferential, as the invitation to think time flows comes from the deepest aspects of human experience, making it an offer we cannot refuse.

  PublisherDOI

• Screening Out Neurodiversity

  Kennedy Institute of Ethics journal · 2023-03-01 · 6 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Autistic adults suffer from an alarmingly high and increasing unemployment rate. Many companies use pre-employment personality screening tests. These filters likely have disparate impacts on neurodivergent individuals, exacerbating this social problem. This situation gives rise to a bind. On the one hand, the tests disproportionately harm a vulnerable group in society. On the other, employers think that personality test scores are predictors of job performance and have a right to use personality traits in their decisions. It is difficult to say whether these negative disparate impacts are a case of wrongful discrimination. Nevertheless, we will show that pre-employment personality tests prey on several features of autism in an unfair way, and for this reason, we suggest the contours of some regulation that we deem necessary.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• PSA volume 90 issue 3 Cover and Front matter

  Philosophy of Science · 2023-07-01

  articleOpen access

  An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Nick Huggett

  369 shared

• John Dupré

  University of Exeter

  369 shared

• Michela Massimi

  369 shared

• Gordon Belot

  Cambridge University Press

  368 shared

• Alan C. Love

  365 shared

• Geoffrey Hellman

  Cambridge University Press

  364 shared

• Marc Lange

  364 shared

• Laura Ruetsche

  364 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Philosophy

  University of California, San Diego

  1992

• M.A., Philosophy

  University of California, San Diego

  1989

• B.A., Philosophy

  University of California, San Diego

  1986