Barbara Scholz

Barbara Caroline Scholz (August 29, 1947 – May 14, 2011) was an American philosopher of science, with a particular focus on the philosophy of cognitive science and linguistics. She taught at the University of Toledo, at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and at San Jose State University. She was a fellow of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University in 2005–2006. From 1994 until her death in 2011, she was married to linguist Geoff Pullum. Scholz was born in Troy, Ohio. She earned multiple degrees, including a B.A. in Philosophy and Religion from Urbana College, an M.Div. from Andover Newton Theological School, an M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from Ohio State University, and an M.Sc. in Cognitive Science from the University of Edinburgh. Her academic career included positions at the University of Toledo, UC Santa Cruz, and San Jose State University, where her expertise encompassed logic, philosophy of linguistics, ethics, aesthetics, philosophy of biology, and philosophy of religion. In 2004, she initiated a project on the applications of model theory in syntax, supported by the Radcliffe Institute. In 2007, she moved to Edinburgh with Geoff Pullum and took a position at the University of Edinburgh. Scholz was an atheist and philosophical naturalist. She was diagnosed with terminal cancer in December 2010.