Christopher Meacham

Christopher Meacham is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He specializes in Formal Epistemology, Decision Theory, and the Philosophy of Physics. His work addresses foundational issues in Bayesianism, decision-theoretic paradoxes, and the relationship between rational belief and chance. Meacham holds a BA from Reed College (Physics and Philosophy) and a PhD from Rutgers University (Philosophy). His research explores topics such as statistical mechanical probabilities, self-locating beliefs, and ethical theories resolving population paradoxes. He has published widely on topics including laws of nature, chance-credence principles, and the dynamics of rational belief. His contributions span theoretical frameworks for non-Humean laws, critiques of evidential uniqueness, and solutions to decision-theoretic dilemmas like the Sleeping Beauty problem.

Research interests include extending Bayesianism to self-locating scenarios, formalizing constraints in decision theory for infinite utility cases, and reconciling ethical theories with population ethics challenges. His work bridges metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics, often engaging with cutting-edge debates in philosophy of science and formal methods.

Publications highlight analyses of statistical mechanical probabilities, critiques of traditional decision-theoretic frameworks, and explorations of person-affecting views in ethics. His current projects include developing a Nomic Likelihood Account of laws and addressing arbitrariness concerns in epistemic rationality debates.