BA (UEA), BPhil (Oxon)

Previous posts include Lecturer/Senior Lecturer at the University of Stirling (1972-1994) and Ferens Chair of Philosophy at the University of Hull (1995-2000)

Research interests

Aesthetics, Philosophy of Literature, Fictionality, Philosophy of Language

Editorial Work

Editor of British Journal of Aesthetics: (1995-2008),

Member of editorial boards of British Journal of Aesthetics, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism; Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics ; Cuadernos de música, artes visuales y artes escénicas

Teaching

Spinoza & Leibniz; Analytic Aesthetics; Imagination; Sartre’s Existentialism

Selected Publications

Books

• The Philosophy of Literature , Blackwell, 2008
• Truth, Fiction, and Literature (with Stein Haugom Olsen), Clarendon Press, 1994 (paperback 1996)
• Fictional Points of View , Cornell UP, 1996
• Co-editor (with Stein Haugom Olsen) Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art: The Analytic Tradition: An Anthology, Blackwell, 2003
• Editor Concise Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Language, Elsevier Press, 1997
• Editor Philosophy and Fiction: Essays in Literary Aesthetics, Aberdeen U P, 1983 (reissued in Cybereditions, 2000, with new Preface)

Selected papers since 2001

• ‘Aesthetic Essentialism’, in Aesthetic Concepts: Essays After Sibley, ed. J. Levinson & E. Brady, Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 100-122
• ‘Work and Object’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Vol. CII, pt. 2, 2002, pp. 141-162
• ‘Appreciation and Literary Interpretation’, in Is There a Single Right Interpretation? ed. Michael Krausz, Penn State Press, 2002, pp.285-306
• ‘ Fiction’, in Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics , ed. Jerrold Levinson, Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 377-391
• ‘How To Create a Fictional Character’, in Berys Gaut and Paisley Livingston , eds., The Creation of Art, Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. 33-52
• ‘The Philosophy of Literature: Pleasure Restored’ (with Stein Haugom Olsen), in Blackwell Guide to Aesthetics, ed. Peter Kivy, Blackwell, 2003, pp. 195-21
• ‘On Not Expecting Too Much From Narrative’, Mind & Language, Vol. 19, no. 4, 2004, pp.393-408
• ‘Palaeolithic Cave Painting: A Test Case for Trans-Cultural Aesthetics’, in Thomas Heyd and John Clegg, eds., Aesthetics and Rock Art, Ashgate, 2005, pp. 21-35
• ‘ Distinctness and Indiscernibility in the Allographic Arts’, in Claes Entzenberg and Simo Säätelä, eds. Perspectives on Aesthetics, Art and Culture: Essays in Honour of Lars-Olof Åhlberg, Stockholm : Thales, 2005
• ‘Cognitive Values in the Arts: Marking the Boundaries’, in Contemporary Debates in Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art, ed. Matthew Kieran, Blackwell, 2006, pp.127-139
• ‘The Intentional Fallacy’, in Patricia Waugh, ed., Oxford Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism , Oxford University Press, 2006, pp. 177-188
• ‘On Perceiving Conceptual Art’, in Peter Goldie & Elisabeth Schellekens, eds. Philosophy and Conceptual Art, Oxford University Press, 2007, pp. 3-17
• ‘On the Distance Between Literary Narratives and Real-Life Narratives’, in Dan Hutto, ed., Narrative and Understanding Persons. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 117-132
• ‘Aesthetics and Literature: a Problematic Relation?’ Philosophical Studies, vol. 135, no. 1 (2007), pp. 27-40
• ‘On Bringing a Work into Existence’, in Karen Bardsley, Denis Dutton, & Michael Krausz, eds. The Idea of Creativity, Brill, 2008

Work in Progress

• Work and Object: Explorations in the Metaphysics of Art

Administration

RAE 2008 Philosophy Sub-panel, Promotions Committee (University); Research Committee (Department); Graduate Studies Committee (Department)