Is there a famous person, who is alive, that considers themselves a platonist??

Question

I need an answer quick and I just cannot find one myself!

Answer 1

Here is a list of references to Platonic realists. I’m not sure how “famous” they are, but most of them are reasonably well-known in philosophy. Virtually every philosophy student has read stuff by Alvin Plantinga, for example. Roger Penrose is probably the most well-known over all:

Roger Penrose, The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and The Laws of Physics, Oxford University Press, 1989, ISBN 0-14-014534-6 (paperback). Received the Rhone-Poulenc Science Book Prize in 1990.

Here are some others:

Bealer, George, 1982, Quality and Concept, Oxford: Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press: New York.

Butchvarov, Panayot, 1979. Being Qua Being: A Theory of Identity, Existence, and Prediction, Indiana University Press: Bloomington & London.

Craig, William Lane, 2000, The Tensed Theory of Time, Kluwer Academic:
Dodrecht.

Grossman, Reinhardt, 1992. The Existence of the World, Routledge: New York.

Hale, Bob, 1987. Abstract Objects, Blackwell: New York.

Hochberg, Herbert, 1981, “Logical Form, Existence, and Relational Predication,” in French, Peter A., Uehling, Theodore E., Jr., and Wettstein, Howard, 1981, Midwest Studies in Philosophy, VI, pp. 215-238, University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis.

Leftow, Brian, 1991, Time and Eternity, Cornell University Press: Ithaca.

Moreland, J. P. 2001, Universals, McGill-Queens University Press, Montreal and
Kingston.

Oaklander, Nathan, and Smith, Quentin, (eds.), 1994, The New Theory of Time,
Yale University Press. New Haven.

Plantinga, Alvin, 1974, The Nature of Necessity, Oxford University Press: Oxford.

Tooley, Michael, 1987. Causation: A Realist Approach, Oxford
University Press: Oxford.

Answer 2

Roger Penrose was called a Platonist once by Steven Hawking. Does that count?

Allan Sandage admitted to being a Platonist (and a Christian), as has Ricardo Dominguez. Are they famous? You decide.

Part of the problem is that being called a Platonist is considered an insult in some circles. Particularly since Plato claimed that we never really see what's REALLY going on, just the 'shadows on the walls'. So if someone calls you a Platonist, they're saying that you deny the possibility of the efficacy of science altogether. Of course, some people LIKE that idea.

Answer 3

Twentyfive years ago, when I joined the Army, I was a platoon commander. so, I considered myself a 'Platoonist'. Today, I am well known, and alive!
Hey, be precise in your grammar, and state clearly what you want to know !