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728Trust and the appreciation of artRatio 35 (2): 133-145. 2021.Does trust play a significant role in the appreciation of art? If so, how does it operate? We argue that it does, and that the mechanics of trust operate both at a general and a particular level. After outlining the general notion of ‘art-trust’—the notion sketched is consistent with most notions of trust on the market—and considering certain objections to the model proposed, we consider specific examples to show in some detail that the experience of works of art, and the attribution of art-rele…Read more
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674The Artistic Expression of FeelingPhilosophia 49 (1): 315-332. 2020.In the past 60 years or so, the philosophical subject of artistic expression has generally been handled as an inquiry into the artistic expression of emotion. In my view this has led to a distortion of the relevant territory, to the artistic expression of feeling’s too often being overlooked. I explicate the emotion-feeling distinction in modern terms, and urge that the expression of feeling is too central to be waived off as outside the proper philosophical subject of artistic expression. Restr…Read more
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381Autonomy and privacy in Wittgenstein and BeckettPhilosophy and Literature 27 (1): 164-187. 2003.No abstract available.
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360Editors' IntroductionIn Frederique Janssen-Lauret & Gary Kemp (eds.), Quine and His Place in History, Palgrave. pp. 1-7. 2014.Editors' introduction which discusses Quine's place in the history of analytic philosophy and the content of the papers collected in this volume.
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294Pushing Wittgenstein and Quine Closer TogetherJournal for the History of Analytical Philosophy 2 (10). 2014.As against the view represented here by Peter Hacker and John Canfield, I urge that the philosophies of Quine and Wittgenstein can be reconciled. Both replace the orthodox view of language as resting on reference: Quine with the notion of linguistic disposition, Wittgenstein with the notions of grammar and forms of life. I argue that Wittgenstein's insistence, in the rule-following discussion, that at bottom these are matters of practice, of ‘what we do’, is not only compatible in a rough sort o…Read more
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193Critical Thinking: A Concise GuideRoutledge. 2001._Critical Thinking_ is a much-needed guide to thinking skills and above all to thinking critically for oneself. Through clear discussion, students learn the skills required to tell a good argument from a bad one. Key features include: *jargon-free discussion of key concepts in argumentation *how to avoid confusions surrounding words such as 'truth', 'knowledge' and 'opinion' *how to identify and evaluate the most common types of argument *how to spot fallacies in arguments and tell good reasonin…Read more
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169Reply to Heck on meaning and truth-conditionsPhilosophical Quarterly 52 (207): 233-236. 2002.Richard Heck has contested my argument that the equation of the meaning of a sentence with its truth-condition implies deflationism, on the ground that the argument does not go through if truth-conditions are understood, in Davidson's style, to be stated by T-sentences. My reply is that Davidsonian theories of meaning do not equate the meaning of a sentence with its truth-condition, and thus that Heck's point does not actually obstruct my argument
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143Critical Thinking: A Concise Guide. 5th EditionRoutledge. 2019.Now with Venn Diagrams, expanded Extended Examples (nice work, Robert), and the latest trends in Rhetoric, post-truth etc. (nice work, Tracy).
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134Introduction to Philosophy and Museums: Essays in the Philosophy of MuseumsRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 79 1-12. 2016.Museums and their practices—especially those involving collection, curation and exhibition—generate a host of philosophical questions. Such questions are not limited to the domains of ethics and aesthetics, but go further into the domains of metaphysics, epistemology and philosophy of religion. Despite the prominence of museums as public institutions, they have until recently received surprisingly little scrutiny from philosophers in the Anglo-American tradition. By bringing together contributio…Read more
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126What is This Thing Called Philosophy of Language?Routledge. 2013.Philosophy of language explores some of the fundamental yet most technical problems in philosophy, such as meaning and reference, semantics, and propositional attitudes. Some of its greatest exponents, including Gottlob Frege, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell are amongst the major figures in the history of philosophy. In this clear and carefully structured introduction to the subject Gary Kemp explains the following key topics: the basic nature of philosophy of language and its historica…Read more
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116II—Hyperintensional Truth ConditionsAristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 88 (1): 57-68. 2014.A response to certain parts of Rumfitt : I defend Davidson's project in semantics, suggest that Rumfitt's use of sentential quantification renders his definition of truth needlessly elaborate, and pose a question for Rumfitt's handling of the strengthened Liar.
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107Quine Versus Davidson: Truth, Reference, and MeaningOxford University Press. 2012.Gary Kemp presents a penetrating investigation of key issues in the philosophy of language, by means of a comparative study of two great figures of late twentieth-century philosophy. He reveals unexplored tensions between the views of Quine and Davidson, and presents a powerful argument in favour of Quine and methodological naturalism.
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92Samesaying, propositions and radical interpretationRatio 14 (2). 2001.Davidson's paratactic account of indirect quotation preserves the apparent relational structure of indirect speech but without assuming, in the Fregean manner, that the thing said by a sayer is a proposition. I argue that this is a mistake. As has been recognised by some critics, Davidson's account suffers from analytical shortcomings which can be overcome by redeploying the paratactic strategy as a means of referring to propositions. I offer a quick and comprehensive survey of these difficultie…Read more
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91Observation Sentences RevisitedMind 131 (523): 805-825. 2021.I argue for an alternative to Quine’s conception of observation sentences, one that better satisfies the roles Quine envisages for them, and that otherwise respects Quinean constraints. After reviewing a certain predicament Quine got into in balancing the needs of the intersubjectivity of observation sentences with his notion of the stimulus meaning of an observation sentence, I push for replacing the latter with what I call the ‘stimulus field’ of an observation sentence, a notion that remains …Read more
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88The Reference Book. By John Hawthorne and David ManleyPhilosophical Quarterly 63 (253): 827-830. 2013.© 2013 The Editors of The Philosophical QuarterlyMany moons ago, Bertrand Russell thought of reference in epistemic terms: to mean an object—to refer to it—one had to be acquainted with it; for it is ‘scarcely conceivable’ that one should judge without knowing what one is judging about. The rest of the relation between language and the world is conceived as denoting, a feature of linguistic expressions and bits of the world which crucially holds or fails to hold without affecting the reference o…Read more
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87Propositions as Made of WordsErkenntnis 89 (2): 591-606. 2022.I argue that the principal roles standardly envisaged for abstract propositions can be discharged to the sentences themselves (and similarly for the meanings or senses of words). I discuss: (1) Cognitive Value: Hesperus-Phosphorus; (2) Indirect Sense and Propositional Attitudes; (3) the Paradox of Analysis; (4) the Picture Theory of the Tractatus; (5) Syntactical Diagrams and Meaning; (6) Quantifying-in. (7) Patterns of Use. I end with comparisons with related views of the territory.
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85The Croce‐Collingwood Theory as TheoryJournal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 61 (2): 171-193. 2003.
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83The Themes of Quine’s Philosophy: Meaning, Reference, and Knowledge, by Edward Becker.: Book Reviews (review)Mind 122 (488): 1061-1065. 2013.
University of California, Santa Barbara
Department of Philosophy, University of California, Santa Barbara
PhD, 1993
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Language |
Aesthetics |
20th Century Philosophy |
Metaphysics and Epistemology |