Photo: Anna Riedl / CC BY-SA 4.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Derek Parfit is the kind of thinker I genuinely admire from a distance. A British philosopher working on personal identity, rationality, and ethics, he's widely counted among the most influential moral philosophers of recent decades, and I can see why. What strikes me is that his 1971 paper on personal identity made his name almost immediately, which is rare in philosophy. Winning the 2014 Rolf Schock Prize in Logic and Philosophy confirmed his standing. To me, what makes him compelling is that he asked unsettling questions about what makes us the same person over time. He died in early 2017, but those questions clearly outlive him.
Overview
Derek Antony Parfit (; 11 December 1942 – 2 January 2017) was a British philosopher who specialised in personal identity, rationality, and ethics. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential moral philosophers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Parfit rose to prominence in 1971 with the publication of his first paper, "Personal Identity".
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Derek Parfit
- Name (Japanese)
- デレク・パーフィット
- Reading
- でれく・ぱーふぃっと
- Born
- December 11, 1942 – January 1, 2017
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Sagittarius / Horse
- Origin
- Chengdu, People's Republic of China
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- philosopher
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Eton College
Awards & achievements
- 2014 Rolf Schock Prize in Logic and Philosophy
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Philosopher — see all → · More people from People's Republic of China →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.