Dagfinn Føllesdal (born 22 June 1932) is a Norwegian-American philosopher. He is the Clarence Irving Lewis Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Stanford University, and professor emeritus at the University of Oslo.

Biography and career

Føllesdal was born in Askim. After earning his bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Oslo, he attended Harvard University and earned his Ph.D. in 1961 under Willard Van Orman Quine. He taught at Harvard University from 1961 to 1964, and began teaching at Stanford University in 1968. Føllesdal is a member of the Norwegian Academy for Language and Literature, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He resides at Tanum. He is a practicing Roman Catholic. He regularly participates in the sport of Orienteering.

Philosophical work

Føllesdal has written extensively on topics relating to the philosophy of language, phenomenology, existentialism, and hermeneutics. He was a pupil of Quine and is among the leading experts on the indeterminacy of translation.