Profile: George Botterill

MA, BPhil Oxford

George moved to Sheffield in 1988. He had previously taught at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, where he had worked since completing his undergraduate and postgraduate studies under Simon Blackburn's supervision at Pembroke College, Oxford. His main research interests are in philosophy of psychology and philosophy of science (in which he is an advocate of Lakatos's Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes). The Department's involvement in cognitive studies through the work of the Hang Seng Centre provides a natural opportunity to exploit interconnections between these two areas.

Important issues here, as elsewhere in philosophy, depend upon the concept of causation, and it has been an ambition of George's to develop a satisfactory realist account of causation. He is currently trying to do that by applying a contrastive model of causal explanation.

George Botterill's name may be known to some people from the field of chess, in which he is a FIDE International Master, the author of a number of books, and was British Champion in 1974 and 1977.

Contact

email : g.botterill@sheffield.ac.uk

Selected Publications

See a selected list of publications by George Botterill

Postgraduate Supervision

Current PhD Researchers

Angela Bird
- on Emotions, Culture, and the Mind

Suilin Lavelle
- on Folk Psychology, Explanations and Predictions

Robin Scaife
- on Moral Psychology and Agency

Penelope Voutsina
- on Knowing One's Own Mind

Recent Doctorates under GB's Supervision

Sue Lock
- "Content, Causation, and Relational Properties", 2008

Leonardo Ribeiro
- "Desires, Agency, and Self-determination", 2008

Office Hours

Wednesday 12-1pm
Friday 1-2pm