I was educated at the universities of Durham, York and Cambridge, where I obtained my PhD in 1989, under the supervision of Jeremy Butterfield and the late Hugh Mellor.
I then worked in in the University of London for 20 years (at King's College London for 1 year, then at UCL for 19 years).
In 2005 I founded the Institute of Philosophy in the University of London, and was its first director until 2008.
In 2009 I moved to the Faculty of Philosophy in the University of Cambridge, where I was the Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy and a fellow of Peterhouse for 8 years.
In 2017 I moved to Budapest to become professor of philosophy at the Central European University. The CEU is an independent, private, English-language university, founded by George Soros in 1991.
In September 2020, the CEU moved to its campus in Vienna. This is because the Hungarian government of Viktor Orbán passed a law in 2017 designed to make the CEU illegal in Hungary.
In 2023, I became the Director of Research of the Austrian 'Cluster of Excellence', Knowledge in Crisis (www.knowledgeincrisis.com). This is a collaboration between CEU (the lead institution) and the universities of Graz, Salzburg and Vienna. This project is funded by the Austrian Science Fund, the FWF. It is one of the largest grants ever awarded for philosophy in Europe.
For most of the decade 2010-2020, I was the Philosophy Consultant Editor of the TLS, and the General Editor of the Routledge Encylopedia of Philosophy.
In the academic year 2016-17, I was President of the Aristotelian Society. I gave the Seybert Lectures (University of Pennsylvania) in 2008, the Burman Lectures (University of Umeå) in 2010, the Carnap Lectures (University of Bochum) in 2011 and the Frege Lectures (University of Tartu) in 2017. In April 2021, I was a visiting professor at the Università della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano. In 2024-25 I will give the Agnes Cuming Lectures at University College Dublin.
My work has been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish and Swedish.
I am #251 on this list.
A brief description of my philosophical views is here.
A complete list of publications is here.
I am married to the philosopher Katalin Farkas.
Contact details and links to philpapers, google scholar and Amazon on the bottom right hand side of this page
(Note that the papers on philpapers are the same as those here and here.)
I then worked in in the University of London for 20 years (at King's College London for 1 year, then at UCL for 19 years).
In 2005 I founded the Institute of Philosophy in the University of London, and was its first director until 2008.
In 2009 I moved to the Faculty of Philosophy in the University of Cambridge, where I was the Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy and a fellow of Peterhouse for 8 years.
In 2017 I moved to Budapest to become professor of philosophy at the Central European University. The CEU is an independent, private, English-language university, founded by George Soros in 1991.
In September 2020, the CEU moved to its campus in Vienna. This is because the Hungarian government of Viktor Orbán passed a law in 2017 designed to make the CEU illegal in Hungary.
In 2023, I became the Director of Research of the Austrian 'Cluster of Excellence', Knowledge in Crisis (www.knowledgeincrisis.com). This is a collaboration between CEU (the lead institution) and the universities of Graz, Salzburg and Vienna. This project is funded by the Austrian Science Fund, the FWF. It is one of the largest grants ever awarded for philosophy in Europe.
For most of the decade 2010-2020, I was the Philosophy Consultant Editor of the TLS, and the General Editor of the Routledge Encylopedia of Philosophy.
In the academic year 2016-17, I was President of the Aristotelian Society. I gave the Seybert Lectures (University of Pennsylvania) in 2008, the Burman Lectures (University of Umeå) in 2010, the Carnap Lectures (University of Bochum) in 2011 and the Frege Lectures (University of Tartu) in 2017. In April 2021, I was a visiting professor at the Università della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano. In 2024-25 I will give the Agnes Cuming Lectures at University College Dublin.
My work has been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish and Swedish.
I am #251 on this list.
A brief description of my philosophical views is here.
A complete list of publications is here.
I am married to the philosopher Katalin Farkas.
Contact details and links to philpapers, google scholar and Amazon on the bottom right hand side of this page
(Note that the papers on philpapers are the same as those here and here.)