He specialized in epistemology, the philosophy of science, language, and mind.
Ia mengkhususkan diri dalam epistemologi, filsafat sains, bahasa, dan pikiran.
Boyd became interested in the philosophy of science during his undergraduate studies for a mathematics major at MIT for which he was awarded an S.B. in 1963.
Boyd menjadi tertarik pada filsafat sains selama studi sarjananya sebagai mahasiswa matematika di Institut Teknologi Massachusetts, tempat ia meraih gelar S.B. pada 1963.
He then, at the same institution and under the directorship of Richard Cartwright, went on to earn his Ph.D in 1970 with a doctoral thesis on mathematical logic titled A Recursion-Theoretic Characterization of the Ramified Analytical Hierarchy.
Di institusi yang sama, di bawah arahan Richard Cartwright, ia memperoleh gelar Ph.D. pada 1970 dengan disertasi doktoral dalam logika matematika berjudul A Recursion-Theoretic Characterization of the Ramified Analytical Hierarchy.
(He would also co-author, with Gustav Hensel and Hilary Putnam, a 1969 paper by this title).
Ia juga ikut menulis makalah tahun 1969 dengan judul yang sama bersama Gustav Hensel dan Hilary Putnam.
After teaching at Harvard University, the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the University of California, Berkeley, Boyd taught, from 1972, at the Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell University.
Setelah mengajar di Universitas Harvard, Universitas Michigan, Ann Arbor, dan Universitas California, Berkeley, Boyd mulai mengajar pada 1972 di Sage School of Philosophy, Cornell University.
In 1981 he was appointed as the Susan Linn Sage Professor of Philosophy there, a position he retained until his retirement, as professor emeritus, in 2017.
Pada 1981 ia diangkat sebagai Susan Linn Sage Professor of Philosophy di sana, posisi yang ia pegang hingga pensiun sebagai profesor emeritus pada 2017.
Boyd held visiting positions at Claremont-McKenna College (2012), the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand (2016), and the University of Melbourne in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Boyd juga memegang posisi sebagai profesor tamu di Claremont-McKenna College (2012), University of Canterbury di Christchurch, Selandia Baru (2016), dan Universitas Melbourne di Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
And, after his retirement from Cornell, he also taught at Lewis & Clark College.
Setelah pensiun dari Cornell, ia juga mengajar di Lewis & Clark College.
Boyd was best known for his arguments in favor of scientific realism and moral realism.
Boyd dikenal terutama atas argumentasinya yang mendukung realisme ilmiah dan realisme moral.
In the case of scientific realism, Boyd was a defender of what is called "the miracle argument" according to which if successful scientific theories "were far from the truth...the fact that they are so successful would be miraculous.
Dalam hal realisme ilmiah, Boyd membela apa yang disebut “argumen mukjizat”, menurutnya apabila teori-teori ilmiah yang berhasil itu “jauh dari kebenaran... maka fakta bahwa teori-teori tersebut begitu berhasil akan merupakan suatu keajaiban.
" In the case of moral realism, he was a key figure in the meta-ethical school known as "Cornell Realism."
Dalam hal realisme moral, ia merupakan tokoh penting dalam aliran meta-etika yang dikenal sebagai “Cornell Realism.”
" Boyd, along with Hilary Putnam and Jerry Fodor, was also influential in the development of an anti-reductionist form of materialism in the philosophy of mind.
Boyd, bersama Hilary Putnam dan Jerry Fodor, juga berpengaruh dalam pengembangan bentuk materialisme anti-reduksionis dalam filsafat pikiran.
In this view, although all individual psychological states and processes are entirely constituted by physical entities, the "explanations, natural kinds, and properties in psychology do not reduce to counterparts in more basic sciences, such as neurophysiology or physics.
Menurut pandangan ini, meskipun semua keadaan dan proses psikologis sepenuhnya tersusun dari entitas fisik, “penjelasan, jenis alamiah, dan sifat-sifat dalam psikologi tidak dapat direduksi ke padanan dalam ilmu yang lebih dasar, seperti neurofisiologi atau fisika.”