About
I am a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southampton and the Director of the Mind Association.
From 2019-2021, I led an international network on Higher-Order Evidence in Epistemology, Ethics, and Aesthetics, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The "core" members of the network were Elinor Mason (Edinburgh), Jon Robson (Nottingham), and Weiping Zheng (Xiamen).
Between 2013 and 2015, I was the Principal Investigator on a research project, also supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Normativity: Epistemic and Practical. My Co-Investigators were Conor McHugh and Jonathan Way. Prior to that, we led the 'Aims and Norms' workshop series, funded by the British Academy.
Research
Research interests
- Epistemology
- Ethics
- Aesthetics
- History of Philosophy
- Philosophy of Language
Current research
The aim of the second (non-historical) project is to develop and defend a comprehensive theory of aesthetic reasons.
Research projects
Completed projects
Publications
Supervision
Current PhD Students
Biography
From 2016-2019, I was Head of Department. In 2015, I spent the autumn semester as a Visiting Scholar with the Department of Philosophy at Northwestern University. I am a founding member of the European Normativity Network. Before joining Southampton in 2007, I studied and then held a lectureship at the University of Reading. Long before that, I grew up on the north coast of Cornwall.
I now live by the beach in Pokesdown (in Boscombe (in Bournemouth)). I am married to Hayley, the Heritage Archive and Research Manager for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. We have two sons - Elliot and Stanley.