•  17
    Distributional semantics is an area of corpus linguistics and computational linguistics that seeks to model the meanings of words by producing a semantic space that captures the distributional properties of those words within a corpus. In this paper, I provide an overview of distributional semantic models, including a broad sketch of how such models are constructed. I then outline the reasons for and against the claim that distributional semantic models can serve as a theory of meaning, paying s…Read more
  •  27
    In this paper, I outline and defend a traditional yet controversial view of conceptual analysis, particularly as it is used in epistemology. I will defend the view against a number of objections, all of which focus on the idea that conceptual analysis relies upon linguistic intuitions. Rather than trying to deny this claim, I will seek to vindicate the use of conceptual analysis within epistemology even given its reliance on linguistic intuitions. To do so, I first outline the view of conceptual…Read more
  •  52
    Anti-skepticism under a linguistic guise
    Topoi 42 (1): 163-174. 2023.
    In this paper I consider the plausibility of developing anti-skepticism by framing the question in linguistic terms: instead of asking whether we know, we ask what falls within the extension of the word “know”. I first trace two previous attempts to develop anti-skepticism in this way, from Austin (particularly as presented by Kaplan) and from epistemic contextualism, and I present reasons to think that both approaches are unsuccessful. I then focus on a more recently popular attempt to develop …Read more
  •  25
    Justification: insights from corpora
    Episteme 1-25. forthcoming.
    In this paper I use insights from exploratory analyses on large English language corpora to consider the extent to which there is a widely-used ordinary notion of justification that attaches to beliefs. I will show that this has ramifications for one broad approach to theorising about justification – the folk justification approach. I will argue that the corpus-based findings presented pose a challenge to the folk justification approach insofar as they suggest that “justify” is not widely-used t…Read more
  •  7
    Epistemic Standards and Value: A Puzzle
    Logos and Episteme 13 (3): 265-272. 2022.
    In this paper, I present a puzzle that arises if we accept i) that knowledge is more valuable than mere true belief and ii) that whether a person counts as knowing is dependent upon a context-sensitive epistemic standard. Roughly, the puzzle is that if both claims are true, then we should always seek to keep the epistemic standard as low as possible, contrary to what seems like appropriate epistemic behaviour. I consider and reject a number of different ways of avoiding this consequence before p…Read more
  •  64
    Wrongful ways to raise the epistemic standard
    Episteme (3): 1-15. 2020.
    This paper is concerned with identifying and accounting for cases where the epistemic standard is raised inappropriately. The first section is concerned with identifying a notion of a variable epistemic standard that is neutral regarding a range of theoretical issues. The second section argues that the possibility the epistemic standard could be raised in some epistemic inappropriate way warrants further investigation. The third section outlines and provides a partial explanation of such a case:…Read more
  •  27
    Computational beliefs
    Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy. 2019.
    In this paper, I outline and investigate the notion of computational beliefs: beliefs formed on the basis of a deliverance from a machine learning algorithm. Given the increased usage of such algorithms through smart devices, such beliefs are becoming increasingly common in everyday life. First, I argue that such beliefs can be successful (i.e. justified and true) by outlining particular examples that possess epistemic properties taken to be indicative of successful beliefs (i.e. being a reason …Read more
  •  38
    The Dizzying Turn of Epistemic Contextualism
    Metaphilosophy 51 (1): 87-96. 2020.
    The debate concerning epistemic contextualism represents a kind of linguistic turn in epistemology, where the focus has shifted from theorising about knowledge to theorising about knowledge attributions. Such a shift may well prove valuable, but only if we are clear on what the relationship is between a semantic analysis of knowledge attributions and a philosophical analysis of knowledge. One plausible approach is to claim that the semantic analysis entails and is entailed by the philosophical a…Read more
  •  24
    Computational beliefs
    Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 1-22. 2019.
    In this paper, I outline and investigate the notion of computational beliefs: beliefs formed on the basis of a deliverance from a machine learning algorithm. Given the increased usage of such algorithms through smart devices, such beliefs are becoming increasingly common in everyday life. First, I argue that such beliefs can be successful by outlining particular examples that possess epistemic properties taken to be indicative of successful beliefs. I then outline how computational beliefs are b…Read more
  •  102
    Depth, value, and context
    Ergo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy 6 (24). 2019.
    In this paper, I will consider the repercussions that epistemic contextualism has on capturing the distinctive value of knowledge. I will argue that the way that contextualist views capture the value of knowledge depends on the depth of the contextualism involved. To do so, I distinguish between superficial and deep contextualism, and I show how the latter is forced to contextualist epistemic value in a way the former is not. However, I then argue that if the superficial contextualist view does …Read more
  •  171
    Questions under discussion and the semantics/pragmatics divide
    with Emma Borg
    Philosophical Quarterly 69 (275): 418-426. 2019.
    The ‘question under discussion’ (or ‘QUD’) framework is a pragmatic framework that draws on work in the semantics of questions to provide an appealing account of a range of pragmatic phenomena, including the use of prosodic focus in English and restrictions on acceptable discourse moves (Roberts 1996). More recently, however, a number of proposals have attempted to use the framework to help to settle issues at the semantics/pragmatics boundary, fixing the truth-conditions of what is said by a sp…Read more
  •  24
    Epistemic contextualism as a linguistic thesis
    Dissertation, University of Reading. 2017.
    This thesis is concerned with the linguistic plausibility of epistemic contextualism. Epistemic contextualism can be (roughly) characterised as the view that the truth conditions of knowledge attributions are sensitive to the context of utterance. As such, it is a linguistic claim that is usually defended on the basis of certain context-shifting experiments and is then usually integrated into a semantic theory that captures this context-sensitivity. The linguistic challenge for epistemic context…Read more
  •  666
    In the past few years there has been a turn towards evaluating the empirical foundation of epistemic contextualism using formal (rather than armchair) experimental methods. By-and-large, the results of these experiments have not supported the original motivation for epistemic contextualism. That is partly because experiments have only uncovered effects of changing context on knowledge ascriptions in limited experimental circumstances (when contrast is present, for example), and partly because ex…Read more