A Second Summer School for Philosophy in the City
- In June the Philosophy in the City programme, which is run by students from the Department, ran a very successful Summer school, the second of these annual events. The day event attracted over eighty pupils from three local schools, along with their teachers, and involved talks from Philosophy Department staff and students, seminars run by students and staff, and discussions of how in general PiC might benefit local schools. Our thanks to all those who attended, and especially to the contributors and organisers, under the careful eye of Josh Forstenzer (doctoral student).
New Appointments in Autumn 2009
- This semester the Department welcomes four new members of staff. Ioannis Trisokkas, who recently completed his PhD at Warwick on Hegel, will be teaching Phenomenology and Kant. Camillia Kong, who is completing doctorate at the LSE, will teach political philosophy. Nils Kurbis, whose doctorate in logic is from Kings London, will teach philosophy of mathematics and philosophy of mind. And Aimee Plourde joins the Culture and the Mind project as postdoctoral researcher.
Recent Research Awards
A team led by David Owens has received a British Academy Research Development Award of £65,000 for a project on 'Telling and Trusting'. Other members of the Department involved will be Paul Faulkner and Rob Hopkins (co-investigators) and Chris Hookway and Jenny Saul. The Department has also been successful in bidding for AHRC Research Leave Awards: Chris Hookway has been awarded one for work on Peirce, and Jimmy Lenman one to work towards a book integrating his thinking on normative ethics and metaethical theory.
The Department has a new home
After nearly a quarter of a century in the Arts Tower, with its long views and charming paternoster, the Department has moved. Its new home is a pair of mid-nineteenth century villas at 45 Victoria St. Our new accommodation offers far more workspace for graduates, as well as its own courtyard garden. It also puts us closer to 'Arts Quarter', the many new facilities built for the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.
Recent successes in the job market
We're delighted to announce a spate of successes on the part of present and recent postgraduates: Julien Murzi, who will complete later this year has been awarded the Analysis Studentship; Davide Rizza (PhD awarded 2009) has accepted a two-year position at UEA; Simon Fitzpatrick (2006) is moving from being a postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department to a tenure track position at John Carroll University (Cleveland, Ohio); and Gerry Hough (2005) has accepted a lectureship at the University of Aberdeen.
For more on our excellent placement record, see placement pages:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/philosophy/postgraduates/placement.html
AHRC Studentships in Philosophy
Sheffield University has now been allocated six studentships in the subject area of Philosophy, under the Arts and Humanities Research Council´s Block
Grant Partnerships Scheme. We have three Research Preparation Masters Scheme and three Doctoral awards. Most EU nationals admitted to the Department of Philosophy to read for our Masters courses in Philosophy, Political Theory or Cognitive Studies are likely to be eligible to apply for the former awards. Most EU nationals admitted to read for the degree of PhD in Philosophy are likely to be eligible for the latter.
The University also has a number of University Studentships and Fee Studentships for which applicants for AHRC Block Grant Partnership awards can
also apply.
There is a single application form for all three studentships. The relevant forms, and further details, are available here.
http://www.shef.ac.uk/pgresearch/studentships/uos.html
Department does exceptionally well in RAE
The latest Research Assessment Exercise has confirmed the Department as one of the very best in the country as a place to pursue research. Of the Department's total submission 35% was judged to be 4* (world-leading) and 35% 3* (internationally excellent). That puts the Department fourth in the country by the average grade attained per member of staff submitted, and fourth in the 'medals table' (ranking first by percentage of 4*, then by percentage of 3*, and so on). This excellent showing is all the more impressive given that every permanent member of staff was submitted for the exercise.
Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship for Bob Hale
Bob Hale has recently been awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship for 2009-11. This makes Bob the third member of the department in as many years to hold one of these prestigious awards (after Bob Stern and David Owens). Bob will be trying to develop and argue for three main claims: that we should accept facts about necessity and possibility as fundamental and irreducible, that questions about what kinds of things there are have an irreducibly modal dimension, and that a proper understanding of the relations between ontology and modality supports an account of second-order logic, possible world semantics and much of mathematics which renders their ostensibly very considerable existential commitments much less philosophically problematic than they are commonly taken to be.
Promotion News
We are delighted to announce that Chris Bennett and George Botterill have both been promoted to Senior Lecturer.
Stephen Stich joining department as Leverhulme Visiting Professor, March 2009 - May 2009
Stephen Stich will be Leverhulme Visiting Professor in the Department of Philosophy from 1 March 2009 - 30 May 2009. Prof. Stich will deliver a series of four Leverhulme Lectures in May (open to the public) and will also be teaching a postgraduate course on Experimental Philosophy.
White Rose Aesthetics Forum Established
Along with the Departments at Leeds and York, the Department has established a new forum for reseach into aesthetics — The White Rose Aesthetics Forum. The plan is to meet twice a year for afternoons of work-in-progress, and once for a one-day workshop on a particular theme.
AHRC Research Leave for Faulkner
Paul Faulkner has been awarded AHRC research leave funding to work on papers on trust.
AHRC Research Networks Grant for Lenman and Shemmer
Jimmy Lenman and Yonatan Shemmer have been awarded a £25K grant from the AHRC Research Networks and Workshops Scheme to run a series of workshops and a conference on the subject of constructivism in practical philosophy here at Sheffield over the next year.
Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship for Helen Frowe
Helen Frowe has been awarded a two-year Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship. She plans to write a book provisionally entitled War and Innocence. The main claims of the book will be that the rules of national defence are based on the rules of self-defence, and that the rules of self-defence cannot support the Principle of Non-Combatant Immunity. The award comes with a generous research allowance that will be spent on a series of workshops exploring key issues in permissible killing, and a conference on the overall theme of the book.
Department launches new MA in Cognitive Studies
The Department has launched a new MA in Cognitive Studies, to be run jointly with Archaeology, English Language and Linguistics, Human Communication Sciences and Psychology.
The website is here:
MA in Cognitive Studies
Special Issue of Abstracta on Eric Olson's 'The Human Animal'
This special edition is now available at http://www.abstracta.pro.br/english/Default.asp
Special Issue I 2008 Table of Contents:
Editorial
Précis of The Human Animal: Eric Olson
Big-Tent Metaphysics: Lynne Rudder Baker
Three Problems for Olson's Account of Personal Identity: Ned Markosian
Problems for Animalism: Dean Zimmerman
Replies: Eric Olson
Response to Eric Olson: Lynne Rudder Baker
Professor Hale's Inaugural
Bob Hale will give his inaugural lecture 'The Problem of Mathematical Objects? A Modest Sober Platonism' on Wednesday 5 March at 1715, Humanities Research Institute. Entrance is by ticket only from Julie Banham, j.p.banham@shef.ac.uk
Two new lectureships
The department is pleased to announce the employment of Kerstin Budde and Tim Storer as temporary lecturers.
Kerstin Budde studied as an undergraduate in Germany, and then completed her PhD in Cardiff in 2007. Her main research interests are political philosophy, especially Kant´s moral and political philosophy, Rawls and Social Contract theories. Tim Storer did his BA in Mathematics and Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, then the MPhil in Philosophy at King's College, London. He is currently finishing a PhD at Cambridge on the philosophy of mathematics. Tim's interests include mathematical and philosophical logic, and the history of early analytic philosophy.
Promotion for Steve Makin
We are very pleased to announce that Steve Makin has been promoted to a Readership, from 1st January 2008.
Laurence´s edited book `The Innate Mind: Foundations and the Future´ published
Stephen Laurence´s co-edited book (with Peter Carruthers and Stephen Stich) The Innate Mind: Foundations and the Future has been published by Oxford University Press. This book is a collection of eighteen original essays exploring the interaction of culture and the innate mind, addressing such questions as: What is innateness? Is it a confused notion? What is at stake in debates between nativists and empiricists? What is the relationship between genes and innateness? How do innate structures and learned information interact to produce adult forms of cognition, e.g. about number, and how does such learning take place? What innate abilities underlie the creative aspect of language use, and of creative cognition generally? What are the innate foundations of human motivation, and of human moral cognition? It is the third volume of a three-volume set on the subject of innateness, based on the AHRC Innateness and the Structure of the Mind Project .
Bob Stern awarded Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship
Bob Stern has recently been awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship for 2008-10. His research will be on 'Autonomy, Self-Legislation and Moral Realism'. This project will consider whether there is a coherent argument from autonomy to some form of antirealism or constructivism in ethics: if we are autonomous agents, does it follow that moral realism should be rejected? Bob aims to establish that this argument from autonomy to anti-realism is mistaken, and will show (particularly by reference to Kant and Hegel) that its uncritical adoption has also distorted our understanding of the history of ethics.
AHRC Research Leave for Botterill, Gregory and Saul
George Botterill, Jenny Saul and Dominic Gregory have been awarded AHRC research leave funding. George is working on a series of papers which apply the contrastive model of explanation to folk psychology, in particular the reasons we give as to why people acted as they did. Jenny is writing a book on the distinction between lying and misleading, which draws together concerns from both philosophy of language and ethics. Dominic is exploring the relationship between what we can imagine and what is possible.
MIND Research Fellowship for Faulkner
Paul Faulknerhas been awarded a MIND research fellowship for 2007-8 to work on three papers investigating the ethics, value and rationality of trust.
Chris Hookway elected president of Mind Association
Chris Hookway been elected the President of the Mind Association for a year from July 2007. The Mind Association is one of the two most prestigious general philosophical societies in the country. The President of the Mind Association delivers the inaugural address to the Joint Session of the Mind Association and the Aristotelian Society, the major national philosophical conference in the UK.
The Philosophy in the City project, through which our students introduce school children to philosophical ideas, has been shortlisted in `Contribution to the Local Community´ section of the Times Higher awards 2007 (making it to the final six). This is exciting news for all the students concerned, and a testimony to their commitment and vision, in setting up the scheme and seeing it through to this stage. The award winners will be announced on November 29th – and we wish them every success!
Department makes Two New Temporary Appointments
We are pleased to welcome Ulrich Schlösser and Helen Frowe to the Department. Ulrich was a postdoctoral researcher at the Humboldt University in Berlin, and specialises in German Idealism. Helen has recently completed her PhD at Reading, and works in normative and applied ethics.
Our students vote us top in UK according to National Student Survey 2007
In the 2007 National Student Survey the Sheffield Philosophy Department got the highest score of any UK Philosophy Department for overall student satisfaction. The National Student Survey is a government-backed survey of all final-year students, and almost all UK universities participate. 95% of those Sheffield Philosophy students who responded said that they were satisfied (or better!) with the course. We think that this reflects the fact that our department is an exciting and stimulating place to study.
Olson´s book `What Are We?´ published
Eric Olson´s book, What Are We? A Study in Personal Ontology, has been published by Oxford University Press. From the time of Locke, Eric says, discussions of personal identity have often ignored the question of our basic metaphysical nature:
whether we human people are biological organisms, spatial or temporal parts of organisms, bundles of perceptions, or what have you. The result of this neglect has been centuries of wild proposals and clashing intuitions. What Are We? is the first general study of this important question.
Department is recognized as women-friendly department
The Department has been recognized by the Society for Women in Philosophy as being women-friendly, on the following grounds:
Laurence´s edited book `Creations of the Mind´ published
- Support for working parents: willingness to arrange teaching around childcare commitments; support for switch to part-time contract; university offers funding to help female staff maintain their research activities after maternity leave (this initiative won
Education Sector Prize at the Opportunity Now 2007 Awards).
- Generally around 50% of graduate students are women.
- Support for women in philosophy: Good promotion record for women staff; annual "Drinks for Women Philosophers" event for postgraduate students and staff; good placement record for women postgraduates
- Support for feminist philosophy: financial support for feminism conference at Sheffield; funding for feminism postgraduates to give
papers at conferences, in the UK and abroad.
- Friendly, supportive atmosphere
Stephen Laurence´s co-edited book (with Eric Margolis) Creations of the Mind: Theories of Artifacts and Their Representation has been published by Oxford University Press. This book is a collection of sixteen original essays by theorists from a wide variety of disciplines who have a shared interest in the nature of artifacts and their implications for the human mind. Given their prominence in our everyday lives, artefacts have been surprisingly neglected by philosophers and psychologists. This book takes a step toward remedying that. The papers cover a broad range of topics concerned with the metaphysics of artifacts, our concepts of artifacts and the categories that they represent, the emergence of an understanding of artifacts in infants' cognitive development, as well as the evolution of artifacts and the use of tools by non-human animals.
Department continues to have excellent Postgraduate placement record
We have continued our excellent placement record for postgraduates, with several new appointments among our graduates. This year two Sheffield doctoral graduates were appointed to permanent lectureships at the University of Essex,one to a permanent lectureship at Macquarrie, and one to a two-year post at Birkbeck College London. Other successes include the award to our graduates of a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship, and an Analysis Studentship (also postdoctoral).
Saul´s book Simple Sentences, Substitution, and Intuitions published
Jennifer Saul's book, Simple Sentences, Substitution, and Intuitions, has been published by Oxford University Press. This book, which she finished while on leave, further develops some puzzle cases that Jenny devised a few years ago. She uses these to argue against standard accounts of propositional attitude reporting, and also to motivate a new approach to intuitions in philosophy of language.
Promotion news
We are very pleased to announce two new departmental promotions. Eric Olson and Jimmy Lenman have both been awarded Professorships.
Honorary Professor Stephen Stich awarded Jean Nicod Prize
Honorary Professor Stephen Stich has been awarded the prestigious Jean Nicod Prize. In conjunction with the prize, Stephen is giving a series of four lectures entitled "Moral Theory Meets Cognitive Science: How the Cognitive Science Can Transform Traditional Debates". Follow the links here to view these lectures online in their entirety.
Robert Stern wins prize for article
The Journal of the History of Philosophy has awarded its annual prize for the best article of 2006 to Robert Stern, for his paper "Hegel's Doppelsatz: A Neutral Reading" (Journal of the History of Philosophy, XLIV (2006), pp. 235-66).
Department makes Three New Temporary Appointments
Maria Jose Alcaraz Leon has come to us from Murcia (Spain), where she took her doctorate on Arthur Danto's theory of Art. Maria Jose is here on a Spanish government-funded postdoctoral scheme. David Yates has joined the Department as a temporary lecturer this semester. He will be teaching the first year course on Mind, Brain and Personal Identity, and the second year course on the Philosophy of Mind. David was awarded his PhD in 2006, and was then a teaching fellow at King's College London during the 2005-6 session. His main research areas are in metaphysics of mind and causation. Lina Papadaki is teaching a second year Ethics course. Lina completed her PhD thesis at Sheffield in 2006. Her interests are in feminist, political, and moral philosophy. Her research currently focuses on the phenomenon of women´s sexual objectification and on Kant´s ethical and moral philosophy, especially his views on sexuality and marriage.
Philosophy Students Launch new Philosophy in the City project
Students in the department have created and launched an exciting new volunteer based initiative called Philosophy in the City. This project is a new volunteering project led and run by students of the philosophy department. The aims of the project are to:
• Disseminate the study and awareness of philosophical inquiry beyond the university.
• Introduce philosophy to pupils from underperforming schools in a stimulating manner.
• Encourage those pupils to pursue their education and to offer them a means of striving towards university.
• Enable philosophy students to get experience of teaching, and of a school environment.
Currently, there are about 20 students (both undergraduates and postgraduates) participating in the project. They have established schemes to reach teenagers in Sheffield Park Academy and other schools. They have also another experimental scheme that involves 10-13 year-olds in a community centre in Crookesmoor.
In the long-term the project aims, in conjunction with The University of Sheffield Outreach Department, to offer a one-week Summer school and regular follow-up programmes for promising teenagers from difficult backgrounds. Click here for more information.
David Owens awarded Leverhulme Research Fellowship
David Owens has recently been awarded a Major Research Fellowship by the Leverhulme Trust, for 2007-09. The Leverhulme Trust awards these major fellowships to "enable well-established and distinguished researchers in the disciplines of the Humanities and Social Sciences to devote themselves to a single research project of outstanding originality and significance, capable of completion within two or three years." David will be writing on the role of authority in ordinary moral thinking: that is, how people can change the moral situation, can change what people are obliged to do and what they have a right to do, by way of speech acts like asserting, promising, consenting and forgiving.
Laurence´s edited book `The Innate Mind: Culture and Cognition´ published
Stephen Laurence´s co-edited book (with Peter Carruthers and Stephen Stich) The Innate Mind: Culture and Cognition has been published by Oxford University Press. This book is a collection of eighteen original essays exploring the interaction of culture and the innate mind, addressing such questions as: To what extent are mature cognitive capacities a reflection of particular cultures and to what extent are they a product of innate elements? How do innate elements interact with culture to achieve mature cognitive capacities? How do minds generate and shape cultures? How are cultures processed by minds? It is the second volume of a three-volume set on the subject of innateness, based on the AHRC Innateness and the Structure of the Mind Project .
Department is ranked =4th in UK in Philosophical Gourmet Report by UK raters
The Department has once again improved its position and done impressively in the Philosophical Gourmet Report, which offers a peer review assessment of the suitability of departments in North America, UK and Australasia for graduate research.
On the ranking by all assessors, Sheffield is now 6th= in the UK, while in the ranking by UK assessors only it is 4th=.
The ranking by UK assessors only for the top 10 departments is as follows:
The Department was also listed in a greater number of specialist areas than previously, as follows:
Philosophy of Language, Philosopy of Mind, Metaphysics, Philosophical Logic, Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Art, Philosophy of Cognitive Science, Philosophy of Mathematics, Epistemology, Normative Ethics, Feminism, Kant and German Idealism, 19th Century Philosophy after Hegel, American Pragmatism, History of Analytic Philosophy.
The Department was particularly highly ranked for Pragmatism and Philosophy of Language.
- 1 Oxford University (4.7)
- 2= Cambridge University (4.0)
- 2= University of St Andrews (4.0)
- 4= University College London (3.9)
- 4= University of Sheffield (3.9)
- 6 Birkbeck College, University of London (3.7)
- 7 King's College, London (3.6)
- 8= London School of Economics (3.3)
- 8= University of Leeds (3.3)
- 10 University of Bristol (3.2)
Department makes Two New Temporary Appointments
Lisa Fuller has joined the Department from the University of Toronto, on a two year post-doctoral fellowship. Her research is on global justice. Simon Fitzpatrick has been appointed as a research fellow to the AHRC Culture & Mind project run by the Department, and will be doing some teaching for us.
Department rated among best in UK in 2006 National Student Survey
The Department has once again done extremely well in the National Student Survey, which polls third year students across England and Wales concerning their satisfaction with teaching and courses (where Philosophy figures are combined with those from Theology and Religious Studies departments).
In the survey covering 2006, Philosophy at Sheffield (along with Biblical Studies) scores 4.3 (out of 5) in response to the question whether students agreed with the claim 'Overall, I am satisfied with the quality of the course'. Our combined teaching score was also 4.3, with a score of 4.4 for 'Staff are enthusiastic about what they are teaching' and 4.5 for 'The course is intellectually stimulating'. These scores put us among the top Departments in the country for student satisfaction with teaching.
Jimmy Lenman awarded AHRC Research Leave
Jimmy Lenman has been awarded AHRC research leave funding for the Spring semester 2007. Jimmy will work on `Moral Knowledge and Moral Objectivity´.
Makin´s Aristotle commentary published
Steve Makin´s translation of and commentary on Aristotle´s Metaphysics Book Θ has been published by Oxford University Press. This dense and difficult text by Aristotle is about the distinction between actuality and potentiality, and contributes to some the central issues in his metaphysics. The (very long) commentary is intended to make the (very short) text both accessible and engaging, and it has benefited from being used in various drafts as the basis of a third year module on more than one occasion.
`After Kant´ conference marks David Bell retirement
This summer will see the retirement of David Bell, after 30 years in the Department. In order to mark this event, a conference celebrating his work is being organized, for 27-28 July 2006. There will be a line-up of five speakers, who will be giving papers on themes relating to David´s work on Kant, idealism, and Frege. If any of you would like to attend this event, you would be extremely welcome. You can find further details concerning the speakers and booking here.
`Altruism and Moral Psychology´ conference
The Hang Seng Centre for Cognitive Science, based in the department, will be hosting an interdisciplinary conference exploring the psychological underpinnings of altruism and moral norms, and the implications of these psychological systems for ethical theory. The conference will address such questions as: What is altruism? What is the psychological basis for altruistic behavior? How do we represent moral norms? What is the structure of the psychological systems involved in the acquisition, processing, complying with, and enforcing moral norms? To what extent is moral psychology culturally universal? How does empirical work on moral psychology interact with normative theories in ethics and meta-ethical theory? You can find further details here.
Stephen Stich Arrives as Visiting Professor
Stephen Stich is visiting the department for seven weeks starting 1 May 2006. He will be teaching a Postgraduate course here on Moral Psychology, while he is here.
Promotion news
We are pleased to announce that Stephen Laurence has been promoted to a Professorship.
Undergraduate Conference at Sheffield
The British Undergraduate Philosophy Society has chosen Sheffield for its next day conference, where the British Journal of Undergraduate Philosophy will also be launched. The conference will be held on Saturday 4th February, in the Arts Tower, and all our students are warmly invited to attend.
The keynote speaker is Rob Hopkins, and there will also be submitted papers from philosophy students from across the country.
Stephen Laurence awarded AHRC Research Grant for new Culture and the Mind Project
Stephen Laurence has been awarded a grant from the Arts & Humanities Research Council for £538,000 to pursue a five-year interdisciplinary research project on Culture and the Mind. The project will bring together top scholars in a broad range of disciplines (including anthropology, archaeology, cognitive psychology, comparative psychology, developmental psychology, economics, history, neuroscience, and philosophy) to investigate the philosophical consequences of the impact of culture on the mind and the cognitive and evolutionary foundations of culture. The project will focus on three central topics: (1) artefacts and material culture, (2) moral and conventional cultural norms and the psychological systems involved in them, and (3) our the impact of culture on our everyday understanding of one another through the attribution of mental states like beliefs and desires ("folk psychology"), as well as our everyday understanding of the norms that govern reasoning. The project will involve a substantial component of philosophically informed anthropological fieldwork, looking at how facets of each of these topics are affected by cultural variation.
Hookway appointed as Dean
Chris Hookway has been appointed to Dean of the Faculty of Arts, where he will serve a two year term.
Promotion news
We are pleased to announce that Leif Wenar had been appointed to a Professorship, and Rosanna Keefe has been appointed to a Senior Lectureship.
Laurence´s edited book `The Innate Mind: Structure and Contents´ published
Stephen Laurence´s co-edited book (with Peter Carruthers and Stephen Stich) The Innate Mind: Structure and Contents has been published by Oxford University Press. This book is a collection of twenty original essays exploring what aspects of the mind are innate and how the mind is organized innately. The book addresses such questions as: What capacities, processes, representations, biases, and connections are innate? How do these innate elements feed into a story about the development of our mature cognitive capacities, and which of them are shared with other members of the animal kingdom? It is the first volume of a three-volume set on the subject of innateness, based on the AHRC Innateness and the Structure of the Mind Project .
Feminism conference
On 21-22 May, the department will host a conference entitled 'Gender, the Body, and Objectification'. This conference explores several issues that have been central to feminist thought: the nature and existence (or not) of gender and gender differences; what objectification is and whether it can ever be acceptable or even good; and the role of the body in both gender and objectification. The keynote speakers will be Sally Haslanger and Rae Langton from MIT, and there will be five further papers.
Bennett and Owens awarded AHRC Research Leave
Chris Bennett and David Owens have been awarded AHRB research leave funding for the Autumn semester 2005/6. Chris will work on `Forgiveness and the Right to be Punished: A Theory of Retribution and Restoration´, and David will work on `The Roots of Morality´.
Stephen Stich becomes Honorary Professor in the department
The Department has appointed Stephen Stich to an Honorary Professorship. Prof Stich holds the Board of Governors Chair in Philosophy at Rutgers University, USA. He is author of numerous books and articles, including Mindreading (with Shaun Nichols, 2003), Deconstructing the Mind (1996), The Fragmentation of Reason (1990), and From Folk Psychology to Cognitive Science (1983). He has been involved with the Hang Seng Centre for Cognitive Studies at Sheffield for many years, and will continue to visit Sheffield on a regular basis.
Hale joins the department
We are pleased to announce the appointment of Bob Hale, who will join the Department as a Professor from January 2006. Prof Hale is a leading figure in the philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, and metaphysics. His main work lies in two areas: first, in the philosophy of mathematics, where the most important aim has been to develop and defend the 'neo-Fregean' position in the philosophy of mathematics put forward jointly with Crispin Wright in various publications; and second, in the philosophy of logic and language, where the most important contributions have been devoted to the problems surrounding the notion of necessity, and especially that of logical necessity. His publications include Abstract Objects (Blackwell, 1997) and The Reason's Proper Study: Essays Towards a Neo-Fregean Philosophy of Mathematics (co-authored with Crispin Wright; Oxford University Press, 2001), as well as numerous papers.
Department launches new MA in Political Theory
The Department has launched a new MA in Political Theory, to be run jointly with the Politics Department at Sheffield.
