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Research Strengths of the Philosophy Programme
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Logic
Victoria University has a proud history in logic. Once the home of George Hughes and Max Cresswell – best known for their introductions to modal logic and technical work in that field – Victoria now boasts several logicians working in a variety of fields. In philosophy, Edwin Mares works in relevant logic and in probability logics and Jay Shaw works in Indian logic (in particular on the Navya Nyaya, or New Logic, school).
Other logicians on campus include Rob Goldblatt (modal logic, algebraic logic, model theory), Rod Downey (recursion theory, complexity theory), and Colin Bailey (set theory) and Noam Greenberg (computability Theory, set theory) in mathematics and Neil Leslie (intuitionist logic, proof theory), Lindsay Groves (formal methods in computer science and the refinement calculus), and Ray Nickson (formal methods, refinement calculus, and automated theorem proving) in computer science.
Victoria has a Centre for Logic, Language, and Computation, which has visitors and a speakers’ programme.
Philosophy of Science
The programme’s professor, Kim Sterelny, works in philosophy of biology, philosophy of social science, and philosophy of psychology. He is also the editor of the journal, Biology and Philosophy. Nick Agar applies biological theory to problems in ethics and on moral problems that have arisen (and will arise) from the introduction of new biotechnology. Edwin Mares works on the theory of confirmation and on the philosophy of probability. Ken Perszyk works on philosophical issues connected with time travel.
Philosophy of Language
Philosophy of language is an interest of over half of the members of the philosophy department at Victoria. Cei Maslen and Edwin Mares teach courses in the philosophy of language at second and third year. Moreover, Stuart Brock, Edwin Mares, Jay Shaw and Kim Sterelny have all published important papers or books in this area. Indeed, Kim has (along with Michael Devitt) authored what many regard as the canonical introduction to the topic: Language and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Language.
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is an interest of most members of the philosophy department at Victoria. Cei Maslen and Ken Perszyk teach courses in metaphysics at second and third year. Moreover, Stuart Brock (Realism and Anti-Realism, Fictionalism), Ken Perszyk (God, Meinong), Edwin Mares (Realism and Anti-Realism), Jay Shaw (Theories of Existence), and Cei Maslen (Causation, Mental Causation Counterfactuals) have all published important papers or books in this area.
Aesthetics
The Philosophy programme’s pool of staff researching in this area has dramatically increased with the appointment of Stuart Brock and Sondra Bacharach. They and Ismay Barwell have published in this area. Ismay Barwell is currently writing a book on Narratives and she and Sondra Bacharach are collaborating on a book about the Aesthetics of Popular Culture. Sondra Bacharach is also working on a project on collaboratively produced art (with Deb Tollefsen) for which she was recently awarded a Marsden Fast-Start grant.
Contemporary Ethics and Political Philosophy
Four members of the Philosophy program have significant interests in Contemporary Ethics and Political Philosophy. Ismay Barwell’s research interests in ethics and politics focus on feminist approaches to epistemology and theories of gender and sexuality. She has published in feminist philosophy. Ramon Das’s research interests are primarily at the intersection of ethics and international relations, a topic on which he will be offering a course in 2004 (PHIL/POLS 264/364). He has published articles on the ethics of economic sanctions and global poverty, and he is currently writing a book on the ethics of globalisation. Nick Agar’s main research interest is in the ethics of the new genetics. He has a book forthcoming with Blackwell on the ethics of genetic enhancement. Joshua Glasgow has published articles on Kantian ethics and on the philosophy of race (a topic he is currently writing a book on).
Epistemology
With the addition of David Eng in 2007, the Programme expanded its research in terests in epistemology. David Eng's interests lie paticularly in social epistemology and testimony. Jay Shaw has also published recently on Indian and analytic epistemology.
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Updated: 17 September, 2007 © 2003 Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand