Stephen Park Turner
American philosopher (born 1951)
Stephen Park Turner (born March 1, 1951) is an American philosopher and sociologist who researches social practice, political theory, and the philosophy of the social sciences. He serves as Graduate Research Professor and Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of South Florida. His published work examines tacit knowledge, causality in statistical modeling, and the institutional development of American sociology.
Early life and education
Turner was born on March 1, 1951, in Chicago, Illinois, to Lawrence L. Turner and Natalie Stephens. He enrolled at the University of Missouri in Columbia, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1971, a Master of Arts in sociology in 1971, and a Master of Arts in philosophy in 1972, before completing his doctorate in sociology in 1975. His doctoral dissertation focused on philosophical translation within sociological explanation and was published in 1980 by Cambridge University Press as Sociological Explanation as Translation.
Academic career
Turner joined the faculty at the University of South Florida in 1975 as an assistant professor, was promoted to associate professor in 1979 and to full professor in 1984, and was appointed Graduate Research Professor in Sociology in 1987. In 1989, his primary appointment transitioned to the Department of Philosophy while retaining the Graduate Research Professor title and receiving the designation of Distinguished University Professor.
Throughout his career, Turner has held visiting faculty appointments at Virginia Tech in 1982, the University of Notre Dame in 1985, and Boston University in 1987. Internationally, he completed research fellowships at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala, Sweden, and received a research fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1991.
The public source identifies “Stephen Park Turner” as american philosopher (born 1951). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Stephen, Park and Turner.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q59827451. VIAF identifies the subject as 4947109. The Library of Congress control number is n79121108. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1951, 1971, 1972 and 1975.
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This entry incorporates text from “Stephen Park Turner” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.