Philosophy

Research Group

Differential Psychology

Edinburgh is home to the world's largest group dedicated to Differential Psychology. We use individual differences in behaviour as a window onto psychological mechanisms including the genetic and environmental origins of individual differences in intelligence and personality. We work with diverse data, from brain imaging to reaction time; massive twin and epidemiology datasets, and high-throughput genetic sequencing. Our empirical research is translated into world-leading research on longevity, health, education, social behavior, positive psychology and well-being and animal personality.

Several members of the individual differences group work in the Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology (CCACE), funded to research healthy ageing, targeting the major determinants of health and wellbeing over the whole life course and reducing dependency in later life.

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Human Cognitive Neuroscience

HCN home orbHuman Cognitive Neuroscience (HCN) is comprised of academic staff and research fellows with core interests in memory, attention, executive function, visual memory, sensory integration, and perceptuo-motor control in both normally functioning adults and people with a variety of neurological disorders and conditions. The group uses a range of methodological tools including traditional behavioural measures, neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI and ERP, eyetracking, motion tracking, computational modelling, and clinical assessment.

Some members of HCN are affiliated with The Centre for Cognitive and Neural Systems, The Centre for Functional Imaging Studies, The Scottish Funding Council Brain Imaging Research Centre, and the Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology. HCN staff train postdoctoral fellows, PhD, MSc, MA, and BSc students.

The MSc in Human Cognitive Neuropsychology web page provides the course and application information. Information about the Masters and Doctoral programmes in HCN is provided from the Psychology Postgraduate home page.

HCN Information Areas

HCN Information Areas

Our contact details

Human Cognitive Neuroscience
University of Edinburgh
7 George Square
Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ

Tel: +44 (0)131 651 3231
Fax: +44 (0)131 650 3461

Building Location

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Language Cognition & Communication

The Language Cognition and Communication Research Group is internationally recognized for its cutting-edge work on the psychology of language. We have wide expertise in spoken and written comprehension, production and dialogue, from sub-lexical processes to the discourse level. The research paradigms we use include psychophysical, electrophysiological, perceptual, neuropsychological, cognitive, computational modelling, and social approaches.

Edinburgh has one of the largest and most varied communities of natural language researchers in the world, bringing together psychologists, computer scientists, linguists, and philosophers, and we actively participate in many aspects of its work, including teaching and research training at all levels.

Facilities

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CCACE

The Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology is a centre of excellence to advance research into how ageing affects cognition, and how mental ability in youth affects health and longevity.

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Ethics @ Edinburgh

Ethics is one of the central areas of philosophy and one in which there have been numerous exciting recent developments. Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh has a unique wealth of research talent in this area. Ethical theory therefore forms part of one of its four research 'clusters' which represent its research strengths. In particular, it has faculty members doing important work in central areas of meta-ethics, normative theory, and political philosophy. The ethical theory research cluster at Edinburgh regularly hosts research events in this area, such as international conferences, workshops, reading groups and the hosting of visiting scholars (for more details, see below). It also has substantial research links with the other five research clusters in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh: ancient philosophy, epistemology, ethics, mind and cognition and philosophy of science.

Research questions

Here are some research issues that are of particular interest to those working in ethical theory at the University of Edinburgh:

  • What do moral (and, more generally, normative) sentences mean? What, for example, does it mean to say that an action is morally wrong?
  • In what sense, if any, are moral and other values 'objective'?
  • Is morality well understood in terms of general principles and systematic theories, or does it transcend any suitable codification?
  • In what senses, if any, are reasons for action context-dependent?
  • In what ways, if any, can moral and normative theory be enriched by the formal tools of decision theory and economics?
  • Is morality well understood in terms of promoting the best outcome?
  • What is the most plausible formulation of so-called "rule-consequentialist" moral theories, and are any such indirect forms of consequentialism defensible?
  • How, if at all, can moral responsibility and free will be reconciled with a plausible naturalistic conception of agency in the world?
  • What role should equality play in play in a plausible theory of justice?
  • How might obligations to provide reparations for historical injustices be best understood?
  • What is the relevance of collective agency for moral and political philosophy?

Forthcoming Ethics Events

Conferences

Ethics Reading Group

Ethics @ Edinburgh hosts the Ethics Reading Group.

Work in progress sessions

Staff will present their work in progress in the hope of useful feedback. We are holding the session in room 1.01 (DSB), which is smallish. All staff and postgraduate students welcome. Please let Elinor Mason know if you plan on coming.

People

The core members of faculty who work in ethical theory are:

  • Matthew Chrisman joined the department in August 2006 after finishing his Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His work is primarily in meta-ethics and meta-epistemology. His work explores both traditional expressivist and inferentialist approaches to the relevant discourses. Much of Dr Chrisman's work is at the intersection of meta-ethics, meta-epistemology, and the philosophy of language.
  • David Levy works on the nature of understanding, particularly of morals, ethics and people. He is puzzled by the difference between philosophical and ordinary understandings of the experience of necessity, especially moral necessity. The account of moral understanding that he is developing counters impersonal tendencies in contemporary moral theorising with the idea of critical authority: the authority given to and recognised by those with whom one shares moral understanding about inter-personal relationships. His historical interests are principally in Plato and Wittgenstein.
  • Elinor Mason joined the department in 2004. Previously she was an assistant professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and before that at Arizona State University. Dr Mason got her PhD at Reading. She is currently working on a book-length defense of consequentialism, and is also doing work on the idea of moral responsibility.
  • Michael Ridge originally joined the department as a lecturer in 2001. Previously he held a post-doctoral fellowship at the Australian National University, and got his PhD at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Professor Ridge's primary work is in meta-ethics. In a series of articles he has developed and defended a new form of meta-ethical expressivism ("Ecumenical Expressivism") which attempts to incorporate important cognitivist elements while preserving the main advantages of expressivism. He is currently writing a book-length defense of this view. Professor Ridge also had done considerable work on the debate over moral particularism and moral generalism, culminating in his co-authored (with Sean McKeever) book in that area, Principled Ethics: Generalism as a Regulative Ideal (OUP). He intends to do more work on this topic in the future. He has also done work on a number of side projects, ranging from duties of reparation for historical injustices to the development of new ways of understanding rule consequentialism. In future work he intends to work more on the intersection of meta-ethics and meta-epistemology, possibly leading to collaborative work with Dr Chrisman and Professor Pritchard.

In addition, there are a number of other members of faculty whose work is directly relevant for the moral philosophy group. Professor Duncan Pritchard's work on epistemic value, in particular, is of direct relevance to the work of Dr Chrisman and Professor Ridge, for example. Professor Andy Clark's work on embodied cognition is also relevant to Professor Ridge's work on moral particularism insofar as that debate touches on how real agents might use principles in their everyday moral deliberation.

Research affiliations

There are a number of research affiliations between the Ethics research cluster at Edinburgh and other research bodies. For example, Professor Ridge and Dr Brown were both co-applicants (with colleagues from Stirling and Glasgow) for a recently awarded grant from the Carnegie Institute to host a series of workshops in normative theory and to reform the Scottish Ethics Network (SEN) and Dr Elinor Mason served as an officer and conference organizer for the British Society of Ethical Theory in 2008.

Postgraduates

There are a number of postgraduate researchers interested in ethical theory-related topics at Edinburgh, including:

Anyone interested in doing postgraduate research in Ethics at Edinburgh should contact whichever of the above listed members of staff in the ethics cluster you deem to be the most well suited to supervising your work here.

Contact Ethics @ Edinburgh administrator

Ancient Philosophy @ Edinburgh

Ancient Philosophy @ Edinburgh includes research interests in: Ancient Metaphysics, Ancient Ethics, Contemporary Metaphysics; Ancient and Medieval Philosophy and Science, Aristotelian Tradition; Greek society and ethics, emotions; Hellenistic Political Philosophy; Late Antiquity, and Early Christian Thought; Presocratics, Papyrology; Plato, Aristotle, Greek Ethics; Presocratics, Early Academy, Hellenistic Philosophy; Plato’s Moral and Political Theory, Political Utopias; Ancient Ethics and Politics, Moral Philosophy.

Teaching staff

Name Area of research & supervision
Professor Theodore Scaltsas Ancient Metaphysics, Ancient Ethics, Contemporary Metaphysics (Philosophy)
Dr Inna Kupreeva Ancient and Medieval Philosophy and Science, Aristotelian Tradition (Philosophy)
Professor Douglas Cairns Greek society and ethics, emotions (Classics)
Professor Andrew Erskine Hellenistic Political Philosophy (Classics)
Dr Michael Lurie Late Aniquity, and Early Christian Thought (Classics)
Dr Simon Trepanier Presocratics, Papyrology (Classics)
Dr Sara Parvis Early Christian philosophy, Patristics (Divinity)

Research staff

Name Research interests
David B. Robinson Plato, Aristotle, Greek Ethics (Plato Text Unit, Honorary Fellow, Classics)
Christopher G. Strachan Plato, Presocratics, Early Academy, Hellenistic Philosophy (Plato Text Unit, Hon. Fellow, Classics)
Dr Stephen Watt Ancient Ethics and Politics, Moral Philosophy

Postgraduate degrees open to students with an interest in ancient philosophy

Plato text unit

Plato text unit imageA new edition of Volume I of the Oxford Classical Text of Plato (Oxford 1995) was produced by a team of scholars. The same scholars, W.S.M. Nicoll, D.B. Robinson and J.C.G. Strachan, joined by F.G. Hermann (Wales) and M. Joyal (Newfoundland), are continuing this project with a view to publication of Volume II in the near future. Three of these scholars work on this Project as Honorary Fellows in the Classics Department, while the Alan Coxon Library for this Project is housed in Philosophy. For more information about the Plato Text Unit please contact Prof Theodore Scaltsas.

Archelogos research projects

Archlogos imageWith the collaboration of fifty classical philosophers internationally, and artificial intelligence scientists, Archelogos creates databases of philosophical arguments for the purposes of philosophical research, teaching, and for the wider promotion of ancient philosophy. For information about Archelogos please contact the project director, Prof Theodore Scaltsas.

Archelogos database

The Arguments in Plato’s and Aristotle’s Works are published on the web at: www.archelogos.com

Ancient philosophy reading groups

Faculty from Scottish and Northern English universities who specialise in ancient philosophy meet in Edinburgh three times a year to read together selected ancient philosophy texts (currently, Plato, Timaeus).

Events

A. E. Taylor Lecture

This is an annual lecture on ancient philosophy given by a distinguished academic. This year, the 17th A.E. Taylor Lecture will be given by Professor Richard Sorabji (King's College London and Wolfson College, Oxford) (details TBA). Last year, Stephen Makin (University of Sheffield) delivered the 16th A.E. Taylor Lecture.

Scots Philosophical Association Centenary Fellow 2010

Victor Caston, Professor of Philosophy and of Classical Studies at the University of Michigan, was the Scots Philosophical Association Centenary Fellow 2010 and visited Edinburgh Philosophy in October (16th - 24th) 2010.

Postgraduates

There are a number of Philosophy postgraduates at Edinburgh who specialise or have strong research interests in ancient philosophy:

Contact

General inquiries about studying ancient philosophy at Edinburgh should be directed to Prof Theodore Scaltsas or Dr Inna Kupreeva. Specific inquiries about the MSc in Philosophy with specialisation in Ancient Philosophy should be directed to Dr Alasdair Richmond, and about the MSc in Ancient Philosophy should be directed to Dr Inna Kupreeva.

Contact Ancient Philosophy @ Edinburgh administrator

Early Modern Philosophy @ Edinburgh

The history of modern philosophy is an integral part of the ongoing debates that constitute philosophical practice. An understanding of the sometimes radically different ways in which figures from the past conceived human nature and the world is important not only in itself, but also insofar as it deepens and questions current analyses. Our core expertise is in early modern philosophy (Hobbes to Hume), but our interests also extend to subsequent developments from the German Romantics to British Hegelians. Within these periods, Early Modern Philosophy members address issues in metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind and language, philosophy of nature, philosophy of science, as well as moral and political theory.

Our research intersects with that of clusters in Philosophy @ Edinburgh. Early modern reactions to the ancients and our work on early modern theories of causation, perception and ideas underpin our research links to the Ancient Philosophy and Epistemology specialisation areas. Our research on the moral and political philosophy of Hobbes and Locke maintains close synergies with the Ethics cluster and work on language and mind-body relations with the Philosophy of Mind and Cognition cluster. The History of Modern Philosophy’s interdisciplinary research project on Embodied Values resonates with Embodied Cognition themes in the Mind and Cognition cluster and members of both recently organised a major international conference on historical and contemporary approaches to the ‘Metaphysics of Consciousness’.

The History grouping also maintains close links with faculty in the Departments of History, English and Science Studies and with the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities. It plays an active part in REMSIS (Renaissance and Early Modern Studies in Scotland). The Early Modern Philosophy grouping hosts research events in this area, such as international conferences, workshops, reading groups and the hosting of visiting scholars (for more details, see below).

Research projects

Research events

Recent and forthcoming events hosted by this research grouping include:

Seminars

Conferences and Workshops

Reading Groups

Past Events

A rich feast of University events to commemorate the tercentenary of the birth of David Hume took place throughout 2011. These included public lectures, theatre performances, exhibitions as well as academic lectures and seminar series. Further information about the various events.

The 38th International Hume Society Conference, Hume After 300 Years, was held at Old College, University of Edinburgh, 18 - 23 July 2011.

People

The core members of faculty who work in the history of modern philosophy are:

  • Allan Hazlett is at work on a book, the first part of which discusses (briefly) and is inspired (greatly) by Hume's discussion of pride in the Treatise, and is working on a paper examining Hume's asymmetrical treatment of beliefs and passions. In the past he has taught courses on "Locke, Hume, and Reid" and on Hume and Kant's aesthetics.
  • Andrew Mason is interested in 18th Century Scottish Philosophy, particularly ethics, aesthetics and philosophy of religion. He teaches a course on Hume's first Enquiry, and has recently launched a course on Philosophy of the Scottish Enlightenment.
  • Michela Massimi is the author of "Kant and Philosophy of Science Today" (CUP, 2008). She works in both philosophy of science and early modern philosophy, especially Kant, and a series of themes at the intersection between history of philosophy and history of science. She is currently the Principal Investigator for a Leverhulme Trust international network grant on "Kant and the laws of nature. Lessons from the Physical and the Life Sciences of the Eighteenth Century", whose research activities (workshops, public lectures and conference) will span over a three-year period (November 2012 - October 2015), and will involve eight institutions, nationally and internationally.
  • Pauline Phemister is author of Leibniz and the Natural World and The Rationalists: Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz and has recently completed an abridged edition of John Locke's Essay concerning Human Understanding for Oxford World Classics. She is currently working on a book on seventeenth century philosophy and a book on philosophy of nature from the early modern period to the present day.
  • Alasdair Richmond is author of the Reader's Guide to Berkeley's Principles of Human Knowledge (Continuum). His recent research has focused on the metaphysics of time but he retains interests in philosophy of science, the British empiricists, epistemology and the philosophy of explanation. His forthcoming papers include an application of probabilistic Doomsday-style reasoning to Cartesian dualism and Descartes' conception of immortality. He is currently investigating Bayesian interpretations of Hume's account of miracles, Hume's probabilistic psychology and compatibilism and Berkeley’s immaterialism.
  • Michael Ridge works primarily in moral theory, with an emphasis on metaethics. His current research focuses on the defence of a novel form of expressivism, a view which finds inspiration in the work of David Hume. He has published previously on the intersection of Hume's moral theory and his epistemology.

Other staff in philosophy and in the wider university community at Edinburgh interested in the history of modern philosophy include Dr Jeremy Dunham (Philosophy), Dr John Henry (Science Studies), Dr Nicholas Phillipson (History), Dr Thomas Ahnert (History), and Dr Emily Brady (Geography), Professor David Fergusson (Divinity), Professor Charlie Withers (Geography), Professor John Cairns (Law), Dr Hannah Dawson (History).

Visiting Scholars in Philosophy

2010-11

2009-10

2007-08

2005-07

Visiting Scholars in the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, 2010-11

  • Professor Lorraine Code, York University, Toronto (January - April 2011)
  • Professor Don Garrett, Carnegie Centenary Professor, New York University (May - August 2011)
  • Dr Axel Gelfert, National University of Singapore (January - June 2011)
  • Dr Peter Millican, IASH David Hume Illumni Fellow, Hertford College, University of Oxford (January - June 2010 and January - July 2011)
  • Professor Daniel Schulthess, University of Neuchatel (February - May 2011)
  • Professor Kiyoshi Shimokawa, Gakushuin University, Tokyo (July - September 2011; January - March 2012)

Previous fellows include:

  • Professor John Haldane, (University of St. Andrews), September - December 2008.
  • Dr Tom Toremans, (Katholieke Universiteit Brussel), October - December 2008.
  • Dr Lívia Guimaraes, (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil), December 2008 - March 2009.
  • Dr Leemon McHenry, (California State University), January - June 2009.
  • Dr Axel Gelfert, (National University of Singapore), May 2009 - July 2009.
  • Professor Peter Loptson, (University of Guelph), 2007.

Research affiliations

The History of Modern Philosophy grouping’s interests fit closely with research themes at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH), particularly Dialogues of Enlightenment and the Science of Man. Edinburgh University’s Renaissance and Early Modern Studies in Scotland (REMSIS) group hosts regular seminars on renaissance and early modern themes.

Drs Dawson and Phemister serve on the Executive Committee of the British Society for the History of Philosophy.

Postgraduates

Postgraduates may study for the Philosophy Taught MSc specialisation in early modern philosophy or conduct research in a topic in early modern philosophy, registering for either the PhD in Philosophy or the Research MSc in Philosophy.

If you are interested in doing research in history of modern philosophy at the University of Edinburgh then contact Dr Pauline Phemister who will be pleased to help.

Contact Early Modern Philosophy @ Edinburgh administrator

Epistemology @ Edinburgh

Portrait of a female scholarEpistemology is one of the central areas of philosophy and also one of the most exciting in terms of the contemporary philosophical landscape. The University of Edinburgh has a unique wealth of research talent in this area and as a result epistemology forms part of one of its five research 'clusters' which represent its research strengths. In particular, it has faculty members which are interested in such epistemological issues as scepticism (including its history), epistemic value, contextualism, social epistemology, epistemic responsibility, perceptual knowledge, rationality, the nature of cognitive of processes, and virtue epistemology.The epistemology research cluster at Edinburgh regularly hosts research events in this area (including international conferences, workshops, and reading groups) as well as visiting scholars (see below). It also has research links with the other research clusters in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh: ancient philosophy, ethics, mind and cognition and philosophy of science.

This page:

Research questions

Here are some research issues that are of particular interest to those working in epistemology at the University of Edinburgh:

  • Why, if at all, are epistemic standings valuable?
  • What constitutes a cognitive process?
  • How should one best understand, and respond to, the problem of scepticism?
  • How should one understand the notion of an epistemic virtue and what role, if any, does it play in a theory of knowledge?
  • What, if anything, ought I to believe?

Epistemology research group

The Epistemology Research Group meets regularly for research presentations on issues in contemporary epistemology, from internal and external speakers.

Reading groups

The epistemology research cluster organises two on-going reading groups in epistemology:

Upcoming Conferences and Workshops

12-13

11-12

People

The core members of faculty who work in epistemology are:

  • Dr Matthew Chrisman joined the department in 2006 after finishing his PhD at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In conjunction with his work in ethics, he is interested in the nature of epistemic normativity and the semantics of knowledge attributions. His publications in epistemology include 'From Epistemic Contextualism to Epistemic Expressivism' (Philosophical Studies, 2007), 'Ought to Believe' (Journal of Philosophy, 2008). 'The Normative Evaluation of Beliefs and the Aspectual Classification of Belief and Knowledge Attributions' (Journal of Philosophy, forthcoming), 'Epistemic Expressivism' (Philosophy Compass, 2012), and 'Is Epistemic Expressivism Incompatible with Inquiry?' (with J. Adam Carter, Philosophical Studies, 2012).
  • Dr Jesper Kallestrup joined the department in 2005 and is also an associate fellow of Arche at the university of St. Andrews. In epistemology he has worked extensively on epistemological contextualism, scepticism, and various epistemic paradoxes. His publications in epistemology include 'Knowledge-Wh and the Problem of Convergent Knowledge' (Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 2009). Dr Kallestrup recently published a monograph entitled Semantic Externalism (Routledge, 2011).
  • Dr Allan Hazlett joined the department in 2010, having taught previously at Fordham and Texas Tech Universities. In epistemology he has worked on scepticism, knowledge attributions, disagreement, and epistemic normativity. He has just completed A Luxury of the Understanding: On the Value of True Belief (Oxford University Press, 2013), and he is currently engaged in a 2-year AHRC-funded project on Intellectual Virtue and the Good Life: Ethical and Epistemic Values.
  • Dr Aidan McGlynn, who joined the department in 2012 as a Chancellor’s Fellow, specializes in epistemology, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mind. His papers have appeared in Analysis, Noûs, and Philosophical Studies, and he is at work on a book entitled Knowledge First? (Palgrave-Macmillan, forthcoming).
  • Prof Duncan Pritchard joined the department in 2007. He has worked extensively in epistemology, covering all the main topics in this area, including: the problem of scepticism, the epistemic externalism/internalism distinction; the rationality of religious belief; testimony; the relationship between epistemic and content externalism; virtue epistemology; epistemic value; modal epistemology; the history of scepticism; and epistemological contextualism. His publications include Epistemic Luck (Oxford UP, 2005), What Is This Thing Called Knowledge? (Routledge, 2006). The Nature and Value of Knowledge: Three Investigations (with A. Haddock & A. Millar, Oxford UP, 2010), and Epistemological Disjunctivism (Oxford UP, 2012). He is the editor-in-chief of Oxford Bibliographies Online: Philosophy and (with Diego Machuca) International Journal for the Study of Skepticism, and he is the series editor (with V. F. Hendricks) of the New Waves in Philosophy book series.
  • Dr Nick Treanor, joined the department in 2012 as a Chancellor's Fellow, specializes in epistemology, metaphysics and the philosophy of mind. His research centres on the nature of belief, on the nature of the propositional space that is the object of thought, and on the question of what it is to have greater cognitive contact with reality. His papers include "The Measure of Knowledge" (Noûs, forthcoming) and "Trivial Truths and the Aim of Inquiry" (Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, forthcoming).

Other members of faculty interested in epistemology include: Dr Alasdair Richmond (early modern epistemology), Prof Mike Ridge (epistemic value), Prof Dory Scaltsas (ancient epistemology), and Dr Anders Schoubye (formal epistemology).

Research affiliations

Professor Pritchard is one of the project leaders (with Crispin Wright) of the AHRC Basic Knowledge Project, which was previously based at the Arché research centre and is now based at the Northern Institute of Philosophy. He is an Associate Fellow of Arché, the Northern Institute of Philosophy and the University of Copenhagen's Social Epistemology Research Group. He is one of the leaders (with Rene van Woudenberg and Igor Douven) of the Knowledge, Belief and Normativity Project, he is on the steering committee (with Pascal Engel, Igor Douven, Rene van Woudenberg, Klemens Kappell and Erik Olsson) of the new European Epistemology Network. He was previously one of the project leaders of the Knowledge, Mind and Value Project.

Dr Kallestrup is an Associate Fellow of Arché, the Northern Institute of Philosophy and the University of Copenhagen's Social Epistemology Research Group. He was previously a fellow on the NAMICONA Project.

Postgraduates and placement

Current PhD students

There are a number of PhD students working on epistemology-related topics at Edinburgh, including:

Visiting research students

At any one time, there are also several visiting postgraduate researchers working on epistemology-related topics (the current list of visiting postgraduate students who meet this description can be found above). If you are interested in doing research in epistemology at the University of Edinburgh then contact Duncan Pritchard who will be pleased to help.

Recently completed PhD students and graduate placement

PhD students from this research cluster who have completed their degrees, and their academic positions:

  • Orestis Palermos, completed 2012, examined by Dr Richard Menary (Macquarie University), currently a postdoctoral fellow on the Extended Knowledge Project at the University of Edinburgh.
  • Emma Gordon, completed 2012, examined by Dr Stephen Grimm (Fordham University), currently on the academic job market.
  • Manuel Bermudez, completed 2011, examined by Dr Neil Gascoigne (University of London), currently at the University of Cordoba, Spain.
  • Evan Butts, completed 2011, examined by Prof Sanford Goldberg (Northwestern), currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Geneva.
  • Joseph Kuntz, completed 2011, examined by Prof Markus Lammarenta (Helsinki), currently a researcher at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch.
  • Adam Carter, completed 2009, examined by Prof Ernest Sosa (Rutgers), currently a postdoctoral fellow on the Extended Knowledge Project at the University of Edinburgh.
  • Conor McHugh, completed 2008, examined by Prof Quassim Cassam (Warwick), currently a Lecturer in Philosopohy at the University of Southampton.

We are committed to graduate placement in this area, as part of our general placement strategy for postgraduates in philosophy.

Contact Epistemology @ Edinburgh administrator

Logic & Language @ Edinburgh

Logic, language and related topics (syntax, semantics, foundations of mathematics, the nature of meaning, truth and reference) are central areas of philosophy. The School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences at the University of Edinburgh has a wealth of research talent in this area.

The Logic and Language grouping has faculty members interested in such issues as Godel's results, theories of truth deflationism, semantic paradoxes, the applicability of mathematics, proof theory, theoretical syntax, pragmatics, proof theory, and non-classical logic. The logic and language research grouping at Edinburgh regularly hosts research events in this area (an international conference in 2006, a workshop on realism in 2009), and bi-weekly research seminars). It also has research links with the other five research clusters (ancient philosophy, epistemology, ethics, mind and cognition and philosophy of science) and with other researchers working in the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, in Informatics, and at other universities.

Research questions

Here are some research issues that are of particular interest to those working in logic and language at the University of Edinburgh:

  • What philosophical insights can be gained from formalized and axiomatic treatments of truth?
  • How are we to approach the semantic paradoxes?
  • Should one understand the notion of meaning in terms of truth conditions or assertibility conditions?
  • How are mathematical claims to be analysed? What implications does the applicability of mathematics have for such questions?
  • More generally, what light can be shed on philosophical problems - in semantics, metaphysics, epistemology and the philosophy of language - by the use of mathematical methods?

Logic & Language Research Seminar

The Logic & Language research group meets regularly for the Logic & Language Research Seminar.

People

The core members of faculty whose work relates to the Logic & Language grouping:

In addition, there are a number of other members of faculty who are interested in logic & language-related topics, including:

Research affiliations

There are research affiliations between the Logic & Language research grouping here at Edinburgh and other research bodies. Dr Kallestrup is an Arché Associate Fellow. In addition, he was a fellow on the NAMICONA Project.

Postgraduates

Current research students

There are a number of postgraduate researchers interested in logic & language-related topics at Edinburgh, including:

Contact Logic & Language @ Edinburgh administrator

Mind & Cognition @ Edinburgh

The intersection between philosophy of mind and the cognitive sciences is one of the most exciting and fast-moving contemporary interdisciplinary arenas. Within this field, the Edinburgh research team ranks among the world leaders, and specializes in the study of embodiment, consciousness, perception, action, and situated reason. In the 2009 Philosophical Gourmet (Leiter) report, the Edinburgh department ranked as UK number 2 (beaten only by Oxford) in the area of philosophy of cognitive science.

Focal topics include the debates concerning extended and embodied cognition, the nature of perception and perceptual experience, the nature of computation, agency and the will, phenomenology and consciousness, the metaphysics and epistemology of mind, bounded and situated reason, predictive coding and neurocomputational approaches to mind, and (in an emerging synergy with the Epistemology research cluster) the epistemological ramifications of extended cognition.

Context

The Mind and Cognition grouping benefits hugely from research and faculty in the nearby School of Informatics (ranked number 1 in the last two UK Research Assessment Exercises) which brings together research in Computer Science, Cognitive Science, Computational Linguistics and Artificial Intelligence. The group also enjoys regular contact with Psychology, Linguistics (especially the unique and world-leading Language Evolution and Computation Unit), Human Cognitive Neuroscience, and Music (especially the Institute for Music and Human Development). To promote such contacts the group organizes one of the university's most diverse interdisciplinary reading group: a bi-weekly interdisciplinary seminar uniting Philosophy, Psychology, Neuroscience, Linguistics and Informatics (the PPIG series). The Mind and Cognition group regularly hosts research events in this area, such as international conferences, workshops, and reading groups. Historical context is provided by a major interdisciplinary development in environmental philosophy (led by Pauline Phemister) on "Embodied Values".

What's Hot in...

...Mind and Cognition

This is an occasional feature brought to you by the Mind and Cognition group.

Core faculty

  • Andy Clark works on the philosophical foundations of cognitive science and studies mind as an embodied and situated phenomenon.
  • Jesper Kallestrup, working on mind and metaphysics, helps cement links with the Epistemology grouping led by Duncan Pritchard.
  • Aidan McGlynn works on issues in the intersection of epistemology and the philosophies of language and mind, including the nature and importance of knowledge and belief, self-knowledge, and assertion and implicature.
  • Mark Sprevak joined the group in January 2011, and works on Philosophy of Mind and Philosophy of Cognitive Science.
  • Nick Treanor works on mental representation, on the nature of the propositional space that is the object of thought, and on how these issues connect to normative questions concerning cognitive success and cognitive value.
  • Tillman Vierkant works on agency and the will and provides a bridge to the world-class Ethics grouping led by Mike Ridge.
  • Dave Ward works on the relationships between perception, agency and understanding.

Affiliated faculty

In addition, there are a number of other members of faculty with interests in mind and cognition, including Matthew Chrisman, Pauline Phemister, Mike Ridge, and Duncan Pritchard. Key extra-departmental contacts include Miranda Anderson, Jim Hurford, Simon Kirby, Robert McIntosh, Jon Oberlander, Katie Overy, Paul Schweizer, Richard Shillcock, Alan Smaill, Mark Steedman, and Barbara Webb.

Externally funded research activity

In 2006 the group (PI Andy Clark) secured major funding for a three-year ESF/AHRC project on the core topics of consciousness, agency and embodiment. The Edinburgh project formed (along with a Bristol University team, initially led by Susan Hurley, then by Finn Spicer) the UK part of the CONTACT (Consciousness in Interaction) collective, comprising 8 teams from four European countries (plus external members from the USA) whose joint expertise spanned cognitive psychology, philosophy of mind, history and philosophy of science, neuroscience and artificial intelligence. External members of the Edinburgh project included Alva Noë, Michael Wheeler, Mark Rowlands, and Paco Calvo-Garzon. The Edinburgh grant supported a post-doctoral fellow, a run of conferences and workshops, and a PhD studentship. The group also secured additional ESF funding for two 'networking meetings' ('Sense of Agency' and 'Self and Other') held in 2007.

Vierkant is a co-operating partner of the VW sponsored project Willenshandlungen

Clark was Co-investigator on an AHRC Speculative Research Grant 'Extending the Senses and Self Through Novel Technologies' (PI Yvonne Rogers, Open University). This grant ran 2008-2009.

Clark is currently co-investigator on an EPSRC funded project (PI Alan Smaill, Informatics, Edinburgh, 2008-2011) "A cognitive model of axiom formulation and reformulation with application to AI and software engineering" .

Research groups and events

The Mind and Cognition cluster supports a large array of student and faculty events, a sample of which follow:

Regular research groups

Upcoming and recent conferences and workshops

Postgraduates

Masters

The Masters specialization in Mind, Language and Embodied Cognition

Faculty from the Mind and Cognition grouping provide dedicated courses for the cross-disciplinary masters specialization in Mind, Language and Embodied Cognition. This benefits from an international advisory panel that includes Daniel Dennett, Alva Noë, Jesse Prinz, Sean Kelly, and Thomas Metzinger, as well as leading representatives from neuroscience, robotics, cognitive and developmental psychology, and cognitive anthropology.

Postgraduate students

There are around 30 postgraduate students working on mind and cognition at the University of Edinburgh, making the Edinburgh group the largest in the UK outside of Oxford.

Contact Mind & Cognition @ Edinburgh administrator

Syntax and Semantics Research Group

The Syntax and Semantics Research Group conducts research in both of these core areas of linguistic theory, and in the interfaces between them and other areas, such as pragmatics and morphology. Members of the group work as individuals, in collaboration with each other, and in a number of collaborations with other researchers in Edinburgh and at other universities.

The research group aims to provide a regular forum for discussion of work being carried out by the various members of the group and work in this area more generally. It also constitutes a grouping for planning and organising collaborative research.

Researchers and students currently associated with the group

Researchers Research Students    
Peter Ackema Laura Arnold    
Ronnie Cann Elspeth Edelstein    
Nikolas Gisborne Golda Fischer    
Caroline Heycock Zoltan Galsi    
Mirella Lapata Zakaris Hansen    
Alex Lascarides Christoph Hesse    
Geoffrey Pullum Aristeidis Palamaras    
Martha Robinson Manuela Rocchi    
Hannah Rohde Laura-Andreea Sterian    
Antonella Sorace Darryl Turner    
Mark Steedman Jie Yang    
Gary Thoms      

Prospective Students

The Syntax and Semantics Research Group in Linguistics and English Language at the University of Edinburgh is eager to encourage applications from students wishing to carry out postgraduate research leading to a PhD in any of the areas represented in the group.

It is possible to register for an MSc by Research in the first instance. The MSc would count as the first year of the PhD.

The department provides information about postgraduate study, including how to apply, and what sources of funding are available.

For information beyond what can be found in these places, please contact Caroline Heycock.

Meeting Schedule

The Syntax and Semantics group generally meets at 4pm (note this is a change of time from previous years) on Wednesdays, roughly every two weeks, to discuss theoretical issues of common interest, work in progress or published papers. There are also occasional informal presentations by invited speakers from outside Edinburgh.

In addition to meetings of the full Syntax and Semantics Research Group, there are a number of more specialised reading groups which meet informally throughout the semester. These include:

  • Dynamic Syntax reading group (contact Martha Robinson for details)
  • Minimalist reading group (contact Gary Thoms for details)
  • Construction Grammar reading group

If you'd like to subscribe to the group's mailing list, please go to https://mlist.is.ed.ac.uk/lists/info/synsem and click on 'subscribe'. If you'd like more information on the group's activities, or if you'd like to present, or for any other inquiry, please email Aristeidis Palamaras or Laura Sterian.

Contact Syntax and Semantics Research Group administrator

Phonetics and Phonology Research Group

The Phonetics and Phonology Research Group (or 'P-Group') brings together researchers who are working to understand the phonetics and phonology of human language. We come at these issues from formal, experimental, and engineering perspectives, with interests in synchrony, diachrony and acquistion. Members of the group work as individuals, in collaboration with each other, and in a number of collaborations with other researchers in Edinburgh and at other universities.

The main forum of the group is the P-Workshop, which meets on Thursdays at 1.10pm:

Members of the P-Group also organise other discussion groups:

People

The majority of members of the group are primarily affiliated with Linguistics & English Language, but others come from the Centre for Speech Technology Research, from Informatics, and from Speech and Hearing Sciences at Queen Margaret University. We combine a broad range of expertise and interests, ranging from acoustic and articulatory phonetics, sociophonetics, phonological dialectology, speech recognition and speech synthesis, speech perception, laboratory phonology, historical phonology, developmental phonology to formal phonological theory. Group members are listed at the bottom of this page.

Postgraduate study in the P-Group

We offer a supportive and stimulating environment for postgraduate study in almost any area of phonetics and phonology. Recent PhDs completed by members of the P-Group include:

Facilities

The lab facilities for phonetic and experimental work are exceptional. Our School hosts facilities for sound recording, perception experiments, eye-tracking, electromagnetic articulometry (EMA) and electroencephalography (EEG). Our technical staff have a wide range of relevant skills, including audio and articulatory recording, stimulus presentation for perception experiments, and script writing for data analysis and processing.

History

Research in phonetics and phonology at Edinburgh has long roots in several areas. Edinburgh was the second university in the UK to establish a phonetics department, led from 1948 by David Abercrombie. This was the first department in Europe to acquire a sound spectrograph, and established an enduring tradition of laboratory- and applications-based research into linguistic questions. Edinburgh also became the second UK university to create a chair of Linguistics when Angus McIntosh was appointed professor of English Language and General Linguistics in 1948. He established an equally enduring ‘English Language’ tradition of research into phonological dialectology and historical phonology. Work on the acquisition of phonology has roots in the School of Applied Linguistics (the UK’s first), founded by Ian Catford in 1957. Subsequent departmental mergers and splits led to research in phonetics and phonology being carried out in a number of units in the university. The Centre for Speech Technology Research was established in 1984, in part by researchers in linguistics and phonetics. Phonological theory was developed in the departments of Linguistics and of English Language, where Dependency Phonology was developed during the representational phonology boom of the 1980s. In 2005, the current department of Linguistics and English Language was established, uniting many of these strands in one unit. Current work continues all these traditions, and adds to them.

Contact Phonetics and Phonology Research Group administrator

English Language Research Group

The English Language Research Group defines itself by its interest in a single language, rather than by a shared subdiscipline of linguistics. The group profits from an enormous body of collectively-available knowledge about English at Edinburgh, where research into the synchronic and diachronic linguistics of English has a long tradition, as has work on Scots. We consider how linguistic theory can be developed in relation to English and how English can be better understood through the insights offered by linguistic theory, and we work on aspects of historical and variational linguistics, in part under the aegis of the Institute for Historical Dialectology, a research institute dedicated to aspects of English Language research, maintaining some of the traditions started here by Angus McIntosh.

The Research Group runs a regular research seminar series, and members are all active in publishing their research, and in organising and presenting at conferences. Further details about individuals' research interests in English Language can be found below. Some of the details of relevant research which is being carried out by postgraduates in the department can also be found there. We regularly attract visiting scholars, who benefit from and contribute to the research environment (Roger Lass, one of the world's leading authorities on the history of English, has recently been awarded an Honorary Fellowship).

People

Academic staff

Name Main research interests Contact
Rhona Alcorn Research Assistant, Institute for Historical Dialectology Email
Ronnie Cann Formal syntax, semantics, and pragmatics and the interaction between them Email
Claire Cowie Morphology, Early Modern English, World Englishes, English in India Email
Heinz Giegerich Phonological and morphological theory in relation to English Email
Nikolas Gisborne English Syntax, lexical/conceptual semantics, argument structure Email
Lauren Hall-Lew Sociolinguistics; phonetic variation and change in English Email
Caroline Heycock Theoretical syntax Email
Patrick Honeybone Phonological theory, historical phonology, variation in English in Northern England Email
Margaret Laing Research Fellow, Institute for Historical Dialectology Email
Roger Lass
Honorary Fellow		 Institute for Historical Dialectology Email
Warren Maguire History of English, sociolinguistics, variation in English in Northern England, Ulster and Scotland Email
Geoffrey Pullum English Syntax and Morphology, Mathematical or Computational Linguistics, Syntactic Typology and Universals, Interaction of Syntax and Phonology Email
Hannah Rohde Pragmatics; psycholinguistics Email
Graeme Trousdale Social variation in English, Cognitive Grammar Email
Linda van Bergen History of English (especially Old and Middle English) Email
Keith Williamson Research Fellow, Institute for Historical Dialectology Email

Current and recent postgraduates carrying out research in English Language

Name Research
Will Barras Historical Sociophonology of Lancashire English
Lynn Clark A Cognitive Grammar approach to sociolinguistic variation in Modern Scots
Tanya Ekanayaka Theorising the practice of language mixing in music
Wojtek Gardela Aspect in present participle and verbal noun constructions in Older Scots and Northern Middle English
Lauren McDermott (nee Stewart) The representation of Northern English and Scots in seventeenth century drama
Sara Myers TBA
Manuela Rocchi TBA
Marton Soskuthy TBA
Marleen Spaargaren Change in laryngeal specifications in the history of English
Penny Thompson Old English morphophonologcal change in Optimality Theory

Conferences

Members of the ELRG host academic conferences here at Edinburgh, and also co-organise conferences which are held elsewhere. Details of some of these conferences can be found here:

Related Links

Postgraduate study in English Language

Contact English Language Research Group administrator

Institute for Historical Dialectology

The Institute continues an extensive research programme into variation in medieval written vernaculars that was started in the early 1950s by Professor Angus McIntosh of Edinburgh University and Professor Michael Samuels of Glasgow University (later joined by Professor Michael Benskin, now of Oslo University). This resulted in the publication in 1986 of A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English. Laing and Williamson have since investigated (1) written English (ca. 1150-1300) over the two or three generations preceding the material in LALME; (2) Older Scots (ca. 1350-1700), which was given only token coverage in LALME. These projects resulted in A Linguistic Atlas of Early Middle English (LAEME) and A Linguistic Atlas of Older Scots (LAOS). Since then IHD has been engaged on a project using the LAEME corpus as a data source. A Corpus of Narrative Etymologies from primitive Old English to early Middle English aims to account for the shape of all the variant spellings of all the Germanic vocabulary appearing in LAEME.

People

Director

Prof Heinz Giegerich

Research Fellows

We announce with great sadness the death of Derek Britton, former Director of the IHD.

Collaborating Scholars

Name Affiliation
Professor Michael Benskin University of Oslo
Professor Emeritus Roger Lass University of Cape Town
Dr Anneli Meurman-Solin University of Helsinki

Projects

  • A Linguistic Atlas of Early Middle English [1 January 2008 - ] Version 2.1 [1 December 2008 - ]
  • A Linguistic Atlas of Older Scots Version 1.1 [ 1 January 2008 - ]
  • A revised and corrected on-line edition of A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediæval English (eLALME) [forthcoming 2011]
  • A Corpus of Narrative Etymologies from Primitive Old English to early Middle English [in preparation]

Methodology

The LALME project was largely carried out before the computer age. It was made using filing slips and paper, pen or pencil. It collected data using the tool traditionally employed by dialectologists, the questionnaire. By 1987 computer technology had progressed to the point where we were able to use computers from the inception of the daughter projects and in a way that is integral to the methodology. Instead of completing questionnaires comprising a set of predetermined 'items', we are developing a method whereby entire texts are transcribed and keyed onto computer disk and are analysed linguistically using programs written in-house.

Each word or morpheme in a text is tagged according to its lexical meaning and grammatical function and each newly tagged text is added to the corpus of such texts. Programs then allow information on particular 'items' (defined by one or more tags) to be abstracted from the corpus to identify spatial or temporal distributions of the forms associated with the item. Output may be produced in different formats including concordances, text profile comparisons, time charts and maps. Professor Lass is engaged in compiling an etymological corpus, which will contain a narrative etymology of every form-type that appears in the LAEME database. This will be extended in due course also to the LAOS corpus.

This corpus method of analysis has considerable advantages over the traditional questionnaire. Selection of items for a questionnaire must be made before analysis begins, or very early in the investigation, on a trial-and-error basis. Results are restricted and provide only a fraction of the information achievable by the corpus method. Tagged texts in the corpus are immediately and constantly available to be processed and compared. Not all the material will be of use for dialectal work but this method allows items to be selected from a complete inventory of linguistic forms rather than from some predetermined sample.

The method shortcircuits Gilliéron's paradox that for results to be optimal a questionnaire ought to be devised after the investigation. The tagged corpora provide a detailed lexical-grammatical taxonomy that is useful not just for dialect mapping but for the historical study of phonology, morphology, syntax or semantics. The implementation of the corpus approach to linguistic analysis makes feasible a dynamic, interactive concept of dialect atlas. The corpus can be on CD or on a website for scholars to search the data themselves and make their own linguistic maps and timecharts.

Funding

The Institute for Historical Dialectology has received financial support for the LAEME and LAOS projects from the Leverhulme Trust, the British Academy and the Carnegie Trust as well as from individuals. We here also acknowledge with gratitude two consecutive three-year grants from the Arts and Humanities Research Board.

From September 2007 to August 2010, the IHD, in collaboration with Michael Benskin, was engaged on an AHRC-funded Resource Enhancement Scheme project to produce an extensively revised and corrected on-line edition of A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English (e-LALME).

In 2010, the AHRC awarded the IHD a three-year grant to produce A Corpus of Narrative Etymologies from Primitive Old English to early Middle English. PI: Roger Lass; RAs Margaret Laing, Rhona Alcorn and Keith Williamson.

Publications

Margaret Laing

Keith Williamson

  • 1992/93 'A Computer-aided Method for Making a Linguistic Atlas of Older Scots'. Scottish Language 11/12: 138 - 73
  • 1995/96 'A Maze of Words. The William Will Fellowship Data-base Project'. Review of Scottish Culture no. 9: 128 - 38
  • 2000a 'Changing Spaces. Linguistic Relationships and the Dialect Continuum'. In Irma Taavitsainen, Terttu Nevalainen, Päivi Pahta and Matti Rissanen (eds.), Placing Middle English in Context, Topics in English Linguistics series, pp. 141 - 79. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter
  • 2000b 'Lexico-grammatical tags and the phonetic and syntactic analysis of medieval Texts'. In Christian Mair and Marianne Hundt (eds.), Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, Language and Computers: Studies in Practical Linguistics, no. 33, pp. 385 - 95. Amsterdam, Atlanta GA: Rodopi
  • 2001 'Spatio-temporal aspects of linguistic variation in Older Scots texts'. Scottish Language 20: 1 - 19.
  • 2002 'The dialectology of “English” north of the Humber, c. 1380-1500'. In Teresa Fanego, Belén Méndez-Naya and Elena Seoane (eds.), Sounds, Words, Texts and Change. Selected Papers from 11 ICEHL, Santiago de Compostela, 7?11 September 2000, Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 224, pp. 253 - 86. Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins
  • 2004 'On Chronicity and Space(s) in Historical Dialectology'. In M. Dossena and R. Lass (eds.) Methods and Data in English Historical Dialectology, pp. 97 - 136. Bern: Peter Lang
  • 2005 'DOST and LAOS? A Caledonian Symbiosis?’. In ed. Christian J. Kay and Margaret A. Mackay (eds.), Perspectives in the Older Scottish Tongue, pp. 179 - 98. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
  • 2006 Review article: 'A.J. Aitken, The Older Scottish Vowels, A History of the Stressed Vowels of Older Scots from the Beginnings to the Eighteenth Century, ed. Caroline Macafee (Edinburgh: Scottish Text Society, 2002)’. Notes and Queries NS vol. 53, no. 4: 559 - 60.

Margaret Laing and Keith Williamson

  • 1994 Speaking in our Tongues: Proceedings of a Colloquium on Medieval Dialectology and Related Disciplines, Edinburgh, 10–12 April 1992 edited by Margaret Laing and Keith Williamson. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer. ca. 231 pp.
  • 2004 'The Archaeology of Middle English Texts'. In Christian J. Kay and Jeremy J. Smith (eds.), Categorization in the History of English, Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 261, pp. 85 - 145. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Contact Institute for Historical Dialectology administrator

Developmental Linguistics Research Group

The Developmental Linguistics Research Group undertakes theoretical and experimental research on linguistic development. Our research investigates the different stages in language acquisition and loss in both first and second language, as well as bilingualism.

Information Areas:

The objective of this research group is to provide a regular forum for discussion of work in progress and a natural grouping for collaborative research. The group is particularly keen to promote interdisciplinary research with people working on developmental topics within neighbouring disciplines.

We hold regular meetings to discuss our work. This term we meet in room 3.10 of the Dugald Stewart Building. To receive email announcements for these meetings, contact John-Sebastian Schutter or Francesca Filiaci.

Contact Developmental Linguistics Research Group administrator

Language Variation and Change Research Group

The Language Variation and Change Research Group is open to anyone at the university who is interested in quantitative methods and linguistic variation. We meet for an hour every other week to discuss recent and/or important articles in LVC, particularly with respect to statistical methods. Participants from Honours-level undergraduates and higher are welcome, although it is expected that all group members will be engaged in their own empirical research projects.

Meetings are held on occasional Wednesdays from 13:00 - 14:00 in room 1.17 (DSB). Please contact the convenor to find out specific dates for this semester.

Further Information

Previous Meetings

Contact Language Variation and Change Research Group administrator

Language In Context Research Group

The Language in Context Research Group consists of staff, postgraduate research students and academic visitors to the University of Edinburgh who are interested in studying how the social, interpersonal and discursive context of language shapes its forms and uses.

Language in Context meets on Wednesday at 15:00 - 16:30, room 3.11 (Dugald Stewart Building) in alternation with the Language Variation and Change research group.
If you would like to present your research, hold a workshop, dry run a paper for a conference, or simply share your thoughts on any of the LinC-related topics please email Rowan Mackay to discuss possible dates.
Language in Context events are announced on the website and by e-mail. If you would like to receive Language in Context emails, please go to https://mlist.is.ed.ac.uk/lists/info/lg-context and subscribe.

We welcome discussion of topics in sociolinguistics, discourse analysis and stylistics. The research projects of members of this group encompass topics related to language ideologies, language and identity, language shift, attitudes to language, discourse analysis, and language contact.

We regard the communicative and symbolic functions of language variation and language use as fundamental to a comprehensive theory of human linguistic production and interpretation, not as adjuncts to it. We believe that quantitative and qualitative methods complement each other in the study of linguistics and we encourage research that explores productive ways of combining the qualitative and quantitative, just as we encourage research that connects descriptions of language use with theory in linguistics and related disciplines.

Information for prospective students

The Language in Context Research Group welcomes and encourages applications from postgraduate students. You may be interested in a PhD position investigating the history of regional variation in English or a taught Masters programme dealing with current issues in speech technology, for example. Linguistics and English Language provides an excellent multi-disciplinary environment, ideally suited to accommodate teaching and research in the twenty-first century.

Want to know more?

For more information, please consult our information pages for prospective postgraduate students, where you will find answers to many frequently asked questions.

Contact Language In Context Research Group administrator

Philosophy of Science @ Edinburgh

Philosophy of Science imagePhilosophy of Science is a thriving field of research at the key juncture between philosophy and cutting-edge research in the sciences at large (from the physical sciences to the neurosciences). The University of Edinburgh has recently established a new research cluster in Philosophy of Science, which is uniquely placed to pursue interdisciplinary research in the field, in synergy with other research clusters such as Mind & Cognition, Epistemology, and Early Modern Philosophy

Key areas and topics covered by faculty members in Philosophy of Science include: metaphysical issues in science (philosophy of time and time-travel; realism and antirealism; natural kinds; causation; laws of nature); history and philosophy of science (especially, the history and philosophy of natural sciences); philosophy of psychology; philosophy of neuroscience, and philosophy of cognitive sciences. The research cluster has also links with History at Edinburgh, with the Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation, and with the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities.

Research questions

These are some of the research questions that faculty members in Philosophy of Science are interested in:

  • What is time? Is time-travel possible?
  • Is truth the aim of science?
  • What is a law of nature?
  • Do natural kinds carve nature’s joints or are they human constructions?
  • What is causation?
  • Should we be relativist about science?
  • What is the nature of scientific explanation?
  • Is fictionalism about science viable?

People

Faculty members working in Philosophy of Science:

  • Dr Alistair Isaac joins Philosophy @ Edinburgh in September 2013. Dr Isaac gained his PhD at Stanford University (2010) and was postdoctoral fellow in the Philosophy Department at the University of Pennsylvania, working with Gary Hatfield on a NSF project "Measurement and Isomorphism in the Psychology of Perception". Dr Isaac specializes in Philosophy of Psychology and Philosophy of Cognitive Science.
  • Dr Suilin Lavelle joins Philosophy @ Edinburgh in June 2013, having previously been a Teaching Fellow in Philosophy at Edinburgh (2011-2013). Dr Lavelle’s PhD was from Sheffield, and her primary research area is philosophy of psychology and the philosophy of neuroscience, as well as general philosophy of science (scientific explanation, in particular).
  • Dr Michela Massimi joined Philosophy @ Edinburgh in September 2012, having previously taught for seven years in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at UCL. Dr Massimi works on realism and antirealism in science, laws of nature, natural kinds and causation. She has extensively written on the history and philosophy of the physical sciences. Her publications include Pauli’s Exclusion Principle (CUP, 2005) and Kant and Philosophy of Science Today (CUP, 2008). She is the Co-Editor in Chief of The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, and the PI on a Leverhulme international network grant on "Kant and the Laws of Nature" (2012-2015) which is hosted by the Eidyn Research Centre.
  • Dr Alasdair Richmond has been teaching Philosophy of Science in Edinburgh since 2003. His area of research is at the intersection of metaphysics and philosophy of science, and he has extensively published on time travel, the topology of time, and the anthropic principle, as well as on early modern philosophy.
  • Dr Mark Sprevak joined Philosophy @ Edinburgh in 2011, having previously been the recipient of a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship and of a Junior Research Fellowship at King’s College, University of Cambridge. Dr Sprevak’s work is at the intersection of philosophy of mind and philosophy of cognitive science. He is currently working on a Routledge textbook on computational theories of mind, and on fictionalism in science.

Other members of staff interested in Philosophy of Science include: Prof Andy Clark (philosophy of mind and embodied cognition); Dr Jesper Kallestrup (metaphysics of science, emergence and reductionism); Dr Pauline Pheminster (history and philosophy of life sciences, especially the 18th century); Prof Duncan Pritchard (scientific explanation and understanding, the epistemology of scientific knowledge); and Dr Nick Treanor (the metaphysics of science, the relation between physics and the special sciences, physicalism).

Philosophy of Science Research Seminars

"Philosophy of Science: Contemporary Debates" is a new dedicated research seminar series with external speakers coming on a fortnight basis (in both semester 1 and 2).

The research seminar series is part of our new MSc specialization in Philosophy of Science.

Reading Group

Currently, we have an ongoing reading group in Philosophy of Science, associated with the Leverhulme Trust-funded project "Kant and the Laws of Nature", and run in collaboration with both St Andrews and Cambridge:

Upcoming events

2012 - 2013

Postgraduate and visiting research students

Philosophy of Science@Edinburgh is the latest addition to our Philosophy research clusters. We welcome new applications both for our MSc specialization in Philosophy of Science and for our PhD program.

Current and recent students, with research interests in Philosophy of Science:

  • Cameron Boult (PhD)
  • James Collin (PhD)
  • Joseph Dewhurst (PhD)
  • Keith Heard (PhD)
  • Orestis Palermos (PhD)
  • Tony Pasqualoni (PhD)
  • Andrea Polonioli (PhD)
  • Francesca Rossi (PhD)
  • Selina Sadat (PhD)
  • Kyle Scott (PhD)
  • Ellie Shackleton (PhD)
  • Richard Stöckle-Schobel (PhD)
  • Alex Whalen (PhD)

Contact Philosophy of Science @ Edinburgh administrator

Start a new group