Isaac Levi

Who is Isaac Levi?

Isaac Levi is an American philosopher. He is the John Dewey Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Columbia University. Levi came onto the philosophic scene with his groundbreaking first book, Gambling with Truth. In the text Levi offers a decision theoretic reconstruction of epistemology with a close-eye towards the classical pragmatist philosophers like William James and Charles Sanders Peirce. Levi is known for his pioneering work in belief revision and imprecise probability.

Levi is one of several doctoral students of Ernest Nagel who were influential in American post-war philosophy; others were Morton White, Patrick Suppes, Henry Kyburg, and Sidney Morgenbesser. Levi also served as doctoral advisor to prominent formal philosophers, including Horacio Arló-Costa and Teddy Seidenfeld. Morgenbesser once quipped that Seidenfeld, who studied under Kyburg as an undergraduate, was Kyburg's revenge upon Levi. There is a rich literature of debate between Kyburg and Levi on topics in what has come to be known as formal epistemology.