•  607
    Social Inconsistency
    Ergo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy 9 (n/a). 2022.
    Though the social world is real and objective, the way that social facts arise out of other facts is in an important way shaped by human thought, talk and behaviour. Building on recent work in social ontology, I describe a mechanism whereby this distinctive malleability of social facts, combined with the possibility of basic human error, makes it possible for a consistent physical reality to ground an inconsistent social reality. I explore various ways of resisting the prima facie case for socia…Read more
  •  483
    The Metaphysical Commitments of Logic
    Dissertation, University of Leeds. 2013.
    This thesis is about the metaphysics of logic. I argue against a view I refer to as ‘logical realism’. This is the view that the logical constants represent a particular kind of metaphysical structure, which I dub ‘logico-metaphysical structure’. I argue instead for a more metaphysically lightweight view of logic which I dub ‘logical expressivism’. In the first part of this thesis (Chapters I and II) I argue against a number of arguments that Theodore Sider has given for logical realism. In Chap…Read more
  •  366
    Prospects for a Cognitive Norm Account of Logical Consequence
    In Pavel Arazim & Michal Dancak (eds.), The Logica Yearbook 2014, College Publications. pp. 13-32. 2015.
    When some P implies some Q, this should have some impact on what attitudes we take to P and Q. In other words: logical consequence has a normative import. I use this idea, recently explored by a number of scholars, as a stepping stone to a bolder view: that relations of logical consequence can be identified with norms on our propositional attitudes, or at least that our talk of logical consequence can be explained in terms of such norms. I investigate the prospects of such a cognitive norm accou…Read more
  •  347
    Hybrid collective intentionality
    Synthese 199 (1-2): 3367-3403. 2021.
    The theory of collective agency and intentionality is a flourishing field of research, and our understanding of these phenomena has arguably increased greatly in recent years. Extant theories, however, are still ill-equipped to explain certain aspects of collective intentionality. In this article we draw attention to two such underappreciated aspects: the failure of the intentional states of collectives to supervene on the intentional states of their members, and the role of non-human factors in…Read more
  •  186
    A paradox of rejection
    Synthese 191 (18): 4451-4464. 2014.
    Given any proposition, is it possible to have rationally acceptable attitudes towards it? Absent reasons to the contrary, one would probably think that this should be possible. In this paper I provide a reason to the contrary. There is a proposition such that, if one has any opinions about it at all, one will have a rationally unacceptable set of propositional attitudes—or if one doesn’t, one will end up being cognitively imperfect in some other manner. The proposition I am concerned with is a s…Read more
  •  147
    Two-Dimensional Theories of Art
    Thought: A Journal of Philosophy 11 (3): 142-149. 2022.
    What determines whether an object is an artwork? In this paper I consider what I will call ‘social’ theories of art, according to which the arthood of objects depends in some way on the art-related social practices that we have. Though such a dependence claim is plausible in principle, social theories of art tend to unpack the determining link between artworks and social practices in terms of intentional relations between the objects in question and the people involved in the relevant practices.…Read more
  •  55
    Book Review: Alex Oliver and Timothy Smiley, Plural Logic (review)
    with Casper Storm Hansen
    Studia Logica 103 (5): 1095-1100. 2015.
  •  9
    Two-Dimensional Theories of Art
    Thought: A Journal of Philosophy 11 (3): 142-149. 2022.
    What determines whether an object is an artwork? In this paper I consider what I will call ‘social’ theories of art, according to which the arthood of objects depends in some way on the art-related social practices that we have. Though such a dependence claim is plausible in principle, social theories of art tend to unpack the determining link between artworks and social practices in terms of intentional relations between the objects in question and the people involved in the relevant practices.…Read more