Howard Robinson
Curriculum Vitae
Publications
Recent Courses

 

CURRICULUM VITAE

Name: Howard Robinson
Born: 2:10:45

Education

  • 1957-64 Manchester Grammar School (School Captain, 1963-4)
  • 1964-67 Corpus Christi College, Oxford, (Exhibition, 1966-7)
  • 1967 B.A Class II, Philosophy, Politics and Economics
  • 1967-68 University of Nottingham: postgraduate research for M.Phil (Degree awarded 1971).
  • 1968-70 Corpus Christi College, Oxford: postgraduate research.
  • 2000 Ph.D., Liverpool, 'Staff Doctorate', for published work.

Employment

  • 1970-74 Oriel College, Oxford: full-time stipendiary lecturer in philosophy.
  • 1974-83 Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Liverpool
  • 1983-96 Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Liverpool.
  • 1994-96 Soros Professor of Philosophy, (full time) Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest.
  • Reader in Philosophy, University of Liverpool: 1998-2000, Head of Dept.
  • Extended term as Soros Professor, Eotvos Lorand, (second semester of each year).
  • 2000 - present, Professor of Philosophy, Central European University

Recent papers and lectures

(a) Non-conference papers:

in Paris (CNRS), Prague (Jan Hus Foundation/Flying University), Budapest (Eotvos Lorand University, Technical University), Oxford (Philosophy Society and Ockham Society), Cambridge (Moral Sciences Club); Universities of Birmingham, Bradford (2), Durham, Keele, Kings College London, Lampeter(2), Lancaster, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Queens College Belfast (Joint with the Ulster branch of the Royal Institute of Philosophy) Sheffield, Sussex, Trinity College Dublin, York(2), Hertford, University of Belgrade.

(b) Conference papers:

  • British Comparative Literature Association conferences in 1987, (item 28) and 1990 (unpublished paper 'D. H. Lawrence, Jung and the Psychology of Fascism').
  • Anglo-Indian Convivium, Kent, 1991. (item 35)
  • Inter-University Center, Bled, Slovenia, 1995, 'Vagueness and the metaphysics of realism', as part of a conference on metaphysics.
  • Swiss Francophone annual postgraduate conference; on epistomology, at University of Neuchatel; paper 'Externalism and epistemology', Nov. 1995.
  • Budapest A.I. conference, Godolo; 'The supposed externalism of cognitive content', (Item 51), Jan.1996.
  • Miskolc conference on 'Science and Representation'; (item 49) June 1996.
  • Bled, 1997, 'Some problems with the combinatorial theory of possibility',(item 50) as part of a conference on modality.
  • Invited paper at a conference on 'Varieties of Dualism', Notre Dame University, Illinois, March 1998; entitled 'The simplicity of the self'. Ernest Sosa replied.
  • European Society for Analytical Philosophy; Central and East European divisional Conference, Noszvoj, Hungary, 1998: 'World maps and the theory of reference'.
  • European Conference for Analytical Philosophy; Maribor, 1999; 'The ascent from non-reductive physicalism to substance dualism'.
  • Conference on Mental Phenomena, Inter University Centre, Dubrovnik, 1999; 'Causal semantics, self-knowledge and externalism'.
  • Bled, 2001: 'Plotinus, Locke and Hume on the existence of individual substances'.
  • ECAP IV, Lund, 2002, 'Plato, Aristotle and Frege on universals and their relation to Divine Nous'

Current and recent teaching

  • Liverpool: undergraduate lecture courses in philosophy of mind; Plato; Aristotle's metaphysics and philosophy of mind; philosophy of religion; the empiricists; elementary logic.
  • Budapest, 1994-8: undergraduate courses in the philosophy of mind; philosophy of science; the philosophy of perception; Berkeley; epistemology; analytical philosophy of religion; general introduction to analytical philosophy; the empiricists: graduate course in Aristotle's Metaphysics. Also responsible for staff and graduate reading seminar and research seminar.
  • CEU, 2000-: Doctoral courses on; the empiricists; metaphysics; the philosophy of mind.

I have been involved in doctoral supervision in the philosophy of mind at Liverpool, Oxford (1992-4) and Budapest.

External Examining

  • 1991-3, B. A. Philosophy, London University.
  • 1991-4, External B. A. Philosophy, London University.
  • Doctorates at Oxford (4), Cambridge, London, Edinburgh (2), Nottingham. Masters at L. S. E. and Keele.
  • Examiner for a habilitatio at ELTE.

Other Activities and Duties

  • 1998(-2000) Head, Department of Philosophy, Liverpool and member of Senate, University of Liverpool. The Department is a Budget Centre, and the Headship involves management of the Departmental budget.
  • 1989-2000 Warden, Derby and Rathbone Hall of Residence (17 tutors, 550 students; the University's largest Hall of Residence).
  • 1996- East European committee of the European Society for Analytical Philosophy
  • 1999- Member Steering Committee of European Society for Analytical Philosophy.
  • 2002 - Member of the Senate, Central European University

Current Research

Books in progress

(i) Working title, Externalism in Semantics and the Philosophy of Mind. I discuss all the current grounds for externalism, including those that start from Putnam, from Burge, from a general preference (often based on A. I.) for causal semantics, and from the theory of de re reference. The book is a defence of internalism.

(ii)The second project is a book of general metaphysics, with the working title Understanding and Ontology. It is both a defence of mental substance, and an attempt to prove the that the world can exist objectively only if it is the object of an understanding or mind. I argue this on the grounds that the physical world is intelligible only if seen in relation to a realm of abstract entities (such as properties, possibilities and facts) and these are best thought of as modes or features of understanding. Although this conclusion has some affinities with neo-platonism and idealism, the discussion is wholly contemporary and analytic in style. I discuss, for example; the logic of vagueness and its consequences for the philosophy of language and mind; reductionism in science; the nature of universals and possibilia; contemporary accounts of the unity of the self. (Items 49, 50, 53, 54 in the publications are directly relevant to this project.)

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