Biographical sketch:
I was born and grew up in Edmonton, Canada. In 1977 I
completed a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry at the University
of Alberta. I then earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy
and religious studies from McGill University in Montreal in 1980, and a
Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh in 1988.
After
teaching philosophy at the University of Hawaii from 1986 to
1989, I joined
the faculty at Haverford College in the fall of 1989. My
primary research
and teaching interests are in core areas of analytic
philosophy: the philosophy
of language, the philosophy of mind, metaphysics, epistemology, and the
philosophy of logic. I also have interests in the history and philosophy of mathematics.
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Publications
Book
- 2005 Frege's Logic (Harvard
University Press) .
Articles
- "Naturalism in the Philosophy of Mathematics", forthcoming in a volume on naturalism in epistemology and the philosophy of science, edited Michael Mi and Eric Peng (Rodolpi).
- “Pragmatism and Objective
Truth”, forthcoming
in New Pragmatism, edited by Cheryl Misak (Oxford University
Press).
- “An Antinomy of Empirical
Judgment: Brandom
and McDowell”, forthcoming in a volume of
the Pécs
International Conferences in Philosophy series (Kluwer). pdf
- "Inference, Meaning, and Truth in Brandom, Sellars, and Frege", forthcoming in Reading Brandom: Making It Explicit, edited by Bernhard Weiss and Jeremy Wanderer (Routledge).
- "Logic and the Foundations of Mathematics", forthcoming in The Oxford Handbook of American Philosophy, edited by Cheryl Misak (Oxford, 2007). pdf
- "Striving for Truth in the Practice of Mathematics: Kant and Frege", forthcoming in Grazer Philosophische Studien, spring 2007. pdf
- 2005 “Inferentialism and Holistic
Role Abstraction
in the Telling of Tales”, European Journal of Philosophy
13: 409-420. pdf
- 2005 “Reading Begriffsschrift”, Harvard Review of Philosophy 13: 4-24. To be
reprinted in the
collection Essays from the Harvard Review of
Philosophy,
ed. S. Phineas Upham (Open Court).
- 2004 “Overcoming Kant:
McDowell, and Sellars, on Judgment”,Theoria 17:
216-242.
- 2004 “Viete, Descartes,
and the Emergence
of Modern Mathematics”, Graduate Faculty
Philosophy Journal 25: 87-117. pdf
- 2004 “Putnam’s
New Realism",
translated into Italian, Iride 41: 211-215.
- 2002
“Frege and Early
Wittgenstein on Logic and Language”, in From Frege to
Wittgenstein:
Essays on Early Analytic Philosophy, edited by Erich Reck (Oxford
University Press).
- 2000 "Empirical Knowledge:
Kantian Themes and Sellarsian Variations", Philosophical Studies 101: 113-142. pdf
- 1997 "Brandom on Inference
and the Expressive Role of Logic", in Truth: Proceedings of the
9th SOFIA Conference, ed. E. Villanueva (Atascadero: Ridgeview,
1997), pp. 169-179.
- 1995 "Pragmatism and the
Philosophy of Language", Philosophy and Phenomenological
Research 55: 501-523. Click
here. Also reprinted in Richard Rorty, four volumes,
edited Alan Malachowski (Oxford University Press, 2002).
- 1995 "Names, Natural Kind
Terms, and Rigid Designation", Philosophical Studies 79:
259-281.
- 1995 "The Logic of Relations
and the Ideality of Space", Journal of Philosophical Research
20: 367-379.
- 1994 "The Coin of the
Intentional
Realm", Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior 24:
143-166. pdf
Reviews
- 2006 Of Tyler Burge, Truth, Thought, Reason: Essays on Frege (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2005), Philosophy in Review 26: 79-82.
- 2002 Of Willem deVries and Tomm
Triplett, Knowledge, Mind and the Given (Indianapolis
and Cambridge: Hackett, 2000), Philosophical Review 111:
281-284.
- 1993 Of Bruce Aune, Knowledge
of the External World (London and New York: Routledge,
1991), History
and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 15: 258-260.
Encyclopedia articles
- 2006 “McDowell, John”, The Encyclopedia of
Philosophy, second edition (Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA).
- 1999 “Sellars,
Wilfrid”, Encyclopedia Americana electronic version (CD)
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Some Recent Presentations
- 2006 “The Role of Begriffsschrift in the Striving for Truth”: (1) the New School for Social Research, New York; (2) Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan; (3) National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; (4) Kutztown University, Kutztown PA; (5) Swarthmore College, Swarthmore PA; (6) Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster PA; (7) Conference on Frege on Truth, Santa Maria, Brazil. (To be published under the title "Striving for Truth in the Practice of Mathematics: Kant and Frege".)
- 2006 “An Antinomy of Empirical Judgment: Brandom and McDowell”, invited lecture, The Social Space of Reason: From Hegel Onward, Second “Contemporary Hegel” International Conference, Venice, Italy.
- 2006 “Construction and Inference: The Use of Language in Modern Mathematical Practice”, VIII Coloquio Internacional Bariloche de Filosofía, San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina.
- 2006 “Frege’s Begriffsschrift”, invited lecture, Kwansei Gakuin University, Osaka, Japan.
- 2005 “Logical Analysis, Reduction, and Philosophical Understanding”, invited lecture, Conference on “Description, Denotation, Meaning: ‘On Denoting’ One Hundred Years Later”, Philosophy Institute of Eötvös University and the MTA–ELTE Philosophy of Language Research Group, Budapest, Hungary.
- 2005 “Frege’s Begriffsschrift”, keynote speaker, Fourth International Conference on Logic and Cognition, Zhongshan University, Guangzhou, China.
- 2005 “Inferentialism and Holistic Role Abstraction in the Telling of Tales”, invited lecture, Pecs Conference on the work of Robert Brandom, Pecs, Hungary, with response by Robert Brandom, University of Pittsburgh. Also as an invited lecture, “Author Meets Critics” session, APA, Pacific Division meeting, San Francisco, with response by Robert Brandom.
- 2003 “An Antinomy of Empirical Judgment”, invited lecture, International Conference on Analytical Pragmatism, Lublin, Poland.
- 2002 “Frege’s Begriffsshchrift, a formula language of pure thought”, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, CA. Also as an invited lecture at the University of New South Wales, University of Sidney, and University of Melbourne.
- 2002 “Getting About in the Modern World”, keynote speaker, Conference on Natural Representation, Sydney, Australia. Also as an invited lecture at the University of Adelaide.
- 2001 “From Contingency to Solidarity: Rorty’s Pragmatist Turn”, invited lecture, Conference on Rorty’s writings, Pecs, Hungary. Response by Richard Rorty.
- 2001 “Frege’s Begriffsschrift, a formula language of pure thought”, invited lecture, Northwestern University.
- 2000 “An Antinomy of Empirical Judgment: Brandom and McDowell”, invited lecture, Workshop on Experience, University of Pittsburgh. Also as an invited lecture, Conference on Brandom's Making It Explicit, Pecs, Hungary.
- 2000 “Frege’s Begriffsschrift, a formula language of pure thought”, invited lecture, University of Pittsburgh.
- 2000 “The Language of Thought: Reflections on Frege”, invited lecture, Bryn Mawr College
- 2000 “When Derivations Explain: Logical Generality and Fruitful Proof”, HOPOS 2000: Third International History of Philosophy of Science Conference, Vienna, Austria.
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Honors and Awards
- 2002-03 Fellow, Center for Advanced Study
in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford CA
- 2000
ACLS Frederick
Burkhardt Residential Fellowship
- 1997 NEH
Fellowship for College Teachers and Independent
Scholars
- 1990
NEH Summer Institute Fellowship
- 1981-1985 Doctoral Fellowship, Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
- 1980-1981 MA Scholarship, Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council of Canada
- 1980-1981 MA Scholarship, Fonds F.C.A.C.
(Quebec)
- 1980 University
Scholar, McGill University
- 1980 W. M. Birks
Award in Religious Studies, McGill University
- 1980 E. S. Reford
Scholarship in Philosophy, McGill University
- 1979 University
Scholar, McGill University
- 1979 James McGill
Award, McGill University
- 1979 E. Hurlbatt
Scholarship, McGill University
- 1977 Gold Medal
in Biochemistry, University of Alberta
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Courses
Taught
Introductory
- Philosophy
and the Good Life
- Historical
Introduction to Philosophy (year-long course)
Intermediate
- Early
Modern Continental Philosophy
- Metaphysics
and Epistemology: Heidegger's Basic Problems of
Phenomenology
- Metaphysics
and Epistemology : Rorty's Philosophy and the Mirror of
Nature
- Historical
Introduction to Logic
Upper-level
Seminars
- Topics
in the Philosophy of Mind
- Topics
in Analytic Philosophy
On leave in 2006-07.
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