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Oxford Philosophy OXFORD 2019-20 PHILOSOPHY More pleasant to recollect, at the beginning of the academic 2019-20 Welcome year we welcomed a number of new colleagues as tutorial OXFORD From the Chair of the Faculty Board fellows—Catharine Abell (aesthetics at Queen’s); Alexander Bown and Marion Durand (ancient philosophy at Balliol PHILOSOPHY and Corpus respectively); Will Davies and Matt Parrot (philosophy of mind at St Anne’s and St Hilda’s respectively); and Natalia Waights Hickman (philosophy of action at Worcester). Several of these appointments represented the bringing-back-up-to-number of the fellows in philosophy CONTENTS at the relevant college, following a gap—with St Anne’s and Worcester returning to two fellows after a number of 2 Welcome From the Chair of the Faculty Board: Chris Timpson years, and Balliol (of course, a much-storied college for philosophy) returning to three. 4 News 5 New People Sad news gathered over the winter, however, as we learnt of the deaths of a number of greatly esteemed emeritus 6 Aesthetics in the 21st Century: Catharine Abell, James Grant & Alison Hills colleagues: David Bostock, Myles Burnyeat, Jim Griffin, 10 Philosophy at Oxford 1979-2020: Anita Avramides Rom Harré, John Lucas, and Brian McGuinness. Many of you will have personal memories of these gifted 13 The Story of Academia.edu: Richard Price philosophers and teachers, or will have studied their 16 A Mind Still Valid: Katherine Parkinson works. In my own case, I think particularly of Rom Harré and John Lucas, who were amongst my very first teachers 15 AI Ethics at Oxford: Peter Millican in philosophy of physics (I, conversely, would have been 22 Minds That Speak: Philip Pettit amongst the very last of the students they taught in Oxford). Both played a very significant role in establishing the 25 Recent Books joint schools of Maths and Philosophy and Physics and 26 Obituaries Philosophy in the late 1960s. The very first edition of this magazine, back in 2009, carried a piece about the then-anticipated move of the Faculty to a large, new Humanities building to be built on the Radcliffe Observatory site. This building project ran aground shortly thereafter, in large part a victim to fallout of the 2008 I hope this finds you and yours as well as may be in these financial crisis. A combined Humanities building remained coronavirus-blighted times. Lockdown began a week after an ambition for the Humanities Division, however, and the end of Hilary Full Term. By then the term’s teaching had planning for it was revived over the last couple of years. finished, as had the Hilary Term examinations in philosophy Last June we were delighted to hear of a £150 million (for Psychology, Philosophy, and Linguistics Prelims, and donation from Stephen Schwarzman to fund this new Classics Mods). The great majority of students, following building, which will house seven Humanities Faculties— University and Government guidance, had already gone including Philosophy—and a combined Humanities library. —or were going—out of residence; those unable to do In addition, there will be graduate study spaces, flexible so (including those self-isolating with symptoms) were research space, lecture theatres and performance spaces. looked after in their colleges. Colleagues, both academic The architects (Hopkins) have now been appointed and are and non-academic, worked tremendously hard over the finalising the detailed design, in consultation with Faculties. CONTACT US CREDITS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Easter vacation to adjust to home working, and to the needs We still anticipate that the building will open in 2024. As for remote teaching and remote examination in Trinity. well as to us, it will be a home to new activities, some of Oxford Philosophy Editor Paul Lodge The Faculty would like to thank the Library staff in particular pulled off extraordinary feats in which have already begun, including a new initiative in Faculty of Philosophy following people for their kind help making great quantities of study and research material Ethics and AI, which is planned to lead to the foundation Radcliffe Humanities Art Direction Keiko Ikeuchi and assistance: available online, at very short notice. I am very proud of of a new Institute for Ethics in AI within the Faculty. Peter Radcliffe Observatory Quarter & Design www.keiko.camera how everyone has responded. These are testing times, most Millican writes about current Ethics and AI activities at Woodstock Road Jo Kay, Mark Starling, Printed by Oxuniprint especially for our students, who have shown courage and Oxford later in the magazine. Oxford, OX2 6GG UK Bronwyn Travers, Elina Cotterill resilience. As I write, our finalists are embarking on the Chris Timpson first ever online set of exams. Our thoughts are with them, email: [email protected] Professor of the Philosophy of Physics Views expressed in this publication are especially those in the most difficult circumstances, as they Tutorial Fellow in Philosophy, Brasenose College tel: +44 (0)1865 276926 not necessarily those of the Faculty of face up to this unfamiliar challenge. www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk Philosophy or the University of Oxford. 2 | Oxford Philosophy Oxford Philosophy | 3 NEWS NEW PEOPLE Catharine Abell The Queen’s College Catharine joins the Faculty from the University of Manchester, where she was Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and then Reader in Philosophy. From 2006-2010, she was a Macquarie University Research Fellow. She has a PhD from Flinders University and an undergraduate degree from The University of Adelaide. Her research focusses on aesthetics. She has written on the nature and value of art, the expression of emotion, and the nature of genre and its interpretative and evaluative roles. Her research also addresses issues specific to the representational arts, including the nature of depiction, and of cinematic and photographic representation. She has recently completed a book, Fiction, in which she develops an account of fiction as a social practice. Her next research project will address the nature and importance of artistic style. Alexander Bown Balliol College Jake Quilty-Dunn Martin Pickup Amia Srinivasan Rafal Banka Before joining the faculty, Alex had already spent a couple of years at Oxford, as a Career wins the 2020 William wins the Marc Sanders elected as the Chichele joins the Faculty as Development Fellow at The Queen’s College. He was also an undergraduate at Oxford, but James Prize Prize in Metaphysics Professor of Social and recipient of an received his PhD in 2018 from the University of Geneva. He mainly works on issues related to Political Theory ERC Starter Grant logic, epistemology and ontology in ancient philosophy; he is especially interested by the views of at All Souls Hellenistic philosophers and Aristotle on these topics. In recent years, most of his research has focused on the Epicurean school and their attempts to deal with problems such as the status of future contingents, the truth conditions of conditionals, and (something like) the problem of Jake Quilty-Dunn, a Martin Pickup, Turpin Amia Srinivasan, previously The Faculty is delighted induction. postdoctoral research fellow Junior Research Fellow Associate Professor of to begin hosting Rafal on the European Research at Oriel College, has won Philosophy and Tutorial Banka’s three-year research Council-funded project, the Marc Sanders Prize in Fellow at St John’s College, project in comparative Will Davies St Anne’s College Metacognition of Concepts, Metaphysics, a biennial prize was recently elected as the philosophy, which is funded has won the 2020 William awarded by the Marc Sanders Chichele Professor of Social by a prestigious European Will joins the Faculty from the University of Birmingham, where he was Lecturer in Philosophy from James Prize. Foundation to philosophers and Political Theory at All Research Council Starter 2017-19. He studied for the BPhil and DPhil at Balliol College, during which time he was appointed as a Junior Research Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge. He later held postdoctoral positions who are within 15 years of Souls College. Grant. at the Universities of Antwerp and Oxford. Will’s main research interests are in the philosophy The prize is awarded by the the completion of their PhD. of mind, broadly construed. His main focus is on colour perception; in particular, the nature of Association for the Scientific She is the first woman Rafal, who has expertise colour constancy, and the relationship between colour and form. He is also working on a project Study of Consciousness for Martin was awarded the to hold this prestigious in Chinese philosophy, concerning social explanation in psychiatry. “the most outstanding single prize for his paper ‘The chair, which was previously has joined the Faculty as published contribution to the Situationalist Account of occupied by Isaiah Berlin, a research fellow for the empirical or philosophical Change’. He received a cash Charles Taylor, and Jerry duration of the project from study of consciousness”. prize of $5000 and his paper Cohen. After a BA at Yale, the Jagiellonian University in Marion Durand Corpus Christi College Jake’s winning paper, ‘Is will be published in Oxford Amia completed her BPhil and Cracow. His project aims to Marion joins the faculty from the University of Toronto, where she spent seven years, first as a Iconic Memory Iconic?’, is Studies in Metaphysics. DPhil in Philosophy at Oxford, bring contemporary analytic PhD student and then as a lecturer in the Department of Classics and the Collaborative Program published in Philosophy and More information and a copy initially as a Rhodes Scholar, metaphysics into dialogue in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy. Before that, she had studied Classics as an undergraduate at Phenomenological Research of the paper is available at and then as a Prize Fellow with Chinese philosophy Cambridge. Marion’s primary research is in Stoic philosophy of language with forays into ancient logic and grammar as well as contemporary philosophy of language.
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