Baker did his undergraduate studies at the University of Cambridge, earning a bachelor's degree in philosophy with first class honours in 1991.
He then moved to the U.S. for graduate school, earning a master's degree in 1995 and a Ph.D. in 1999, both in philosophy from Princeton University.
His doctoral supervisors were Paul Benacerraf and Gideon Rosen.
After working as an assistant professor at Xavier University, he moved to Swarthmore in 2003.
[3] In 2005 The New York Times published an excerpt from the exam from his "Introduction to Metaphysics and Epistemology" course in its "pop quiz" column.