Academic Honor for Research in Philosophy of Science
SWARTHMORE, Pa. — The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has appointed Alan Baker, a professor of philosophy at Swarthmore College, as a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow. Baker was selected as part of the foundation's 101st class of fellows, joining 223 scholars, artists, and researchers chosen from a competitive pool of nearly 5,000 applicants.
Baker is one of three philosophers recognized in the 2026 fellowship class. He represents the second philosophy faculty member from Swarthmore College to receive the honor, following Monroe Beardsley's receipt of the award in 1950.
Research Focus on Mathematical Explanation
The Guggenheim Fellowship will provide funding for Baker during a full-year sabbatical leave throughout the 2026–2027 academic year. The fellowship will allow him to complete a book manuscript tentatively titled Mathematical Explanation in Science, which investigates how mathematical concepts and theoretical structures operate within scientific explanations.
Baker's academic research is positioned at the intersection of the philosophy of mathematics and the philosophy of science. As a proponent of mathematical platonism, his work asserts that abstract mathematical entities—such as numbers, sets, and functions—have an objective existence and that their role in physical science explanations supports their reality. His research has contributed to the development and defense of the Enhanced Indispensability Argument, a topic covered in his co-authored volume Indispensability (Cambridge University Press, 2023) and across various peer-reviewed philosophy journals.
Two Decades of Academic Service
Baker joined the Swarthmore College faculty in 2003 after completing his doctoral degree at Princeton University in 1999. Over his tenure at Swarthmore, his publication record has addressed foundational topics in epistemology, theoretical simplicity, and the application of abstract mathematics to physical phenomena.
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation awards fellowships annually to individuals who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. The 2026 class of fellows encompasses researchers across 55 academic and artistic disciplines.