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Murray Clarke, PhD

Professor, Philosophy


Murray Clarke, PhD
Phone: (514) 848-2424 ext. 2519
Email: Murray.Clarke@concordia.ca
Availability: On Sabbatical 2023-2024.

Murray Clarke is Professor of Philosophy at Concordia University and was Visiting Scholar at Rutgers University and Western University. Twice Chair of Philosophy and Graduate Program Director, he works in contemporary epistemology and philosophy of mind and psychology. Concerning the former topic, he has written a series of papers defending Tracking Theories of Knowledge and has written on the impact of recent empirical psychology concerning various issues in epistemology. On the latter topic, he has written on the nature of rationality and our natural inferential capacities, and on the nature and origin of concepts and our cognitive architecture. He also has an interest in various issues in philosophy of science. He is a member of the FQRSC-funded Groupe de recherche interuniversitaire sur la normativite (GRIN) led by Professor Aude Bandini of Universite de Montreal.

Education:
Ph.D.
, University of Western Ontario 
M.A., Dalhousie University
Hons. B.A., University of Western Ontario


Publications

Most significant and recent research contributions

His book, Reconstructing Reason and Representation (Bradford Books, The MIT Press, Hardcover Edition, June 2004; Paperback Edition, June 2022), received Honourable Mention for the William James Prize of the American Psychological Association (2005). The book  has been the subject of extensive interest and many reviews, including a symposium  in Philosophiques, 2007, 34/2, 353-402 . A SSHRC and FQRSC winner, he has delivered 90 papers world-wide and has 28 other publications. These publications have appeared in leading Journals such as the Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Philosophical Studies, Synthese, and Philosophy of Science, and in the monograph series, Boston Studies in Philosophy of Science. Recent papers include: “Concepts, Intuitions, and Epistemic Norms,” Logos and Episteme, 2010, 1/ 2, 2010, 269-286; "Critical Notice: Jose Zalabardo's Scepticism and Reliable Belief," in Teorema, Volume XXXIII/3, 93-105, 2014; "Two Non-Counterexamples To Truth-Tracking Theories of Knowledge", (with F.Adams) Logos and Episteme, VII, 1 (2016): 67-73; "Rejoinder to Haze," Logos and Episteme, VII, 2 (2016): 227-230; "Beat The (Backward) Clock," (with F.Adams and J.A. Barker) Logos and Episteme, VII, 3 (2016): 280-292, "Methods Matter: Beating the Backward Clock," (with F.Adams and J.A.Barker) Logos and Episteme, VIII, 1 (2017): 99-112; "Knowledge as Fact-Tracking True Belief," (with F. Adams and J.A. Barker) Manuscrito, Vol.40 (2017), 4, 1-30; "Seeing Things: Defending Direct Perception," (with F. Adams and G. Fuller) in J. Smythies and R.French (eds.), Direct versus Indirect Realism, 2018, Elsevier Press: 260-278; "Late Pleistocene Dual Process Minds," in A. Killin and S. Hermanson (eds.), Explorations in Archaeology and Philosophy, 2021, Vol. 433, Ch.9, pp.149-169,  Synthese Library, Springer Press.


Teaching activities

Courses Taught Regularly:
Introduction to Epistemology, PHIL 263
Introduction to Metaphysics, PHIL 265
Intermediate Philosophy of Science, PHIL 328
Honours Seminar in Epistemology, PHIL 463/634

Courses Taught Less Frequently:
Intermediate Epistemology, PHIL 364
Honours Seminar in Metaphysics, PHIL 465/643
Advanced Philosophy of Science, PHIL 420/644
Philosophy of Mind:Cognitive Science, PHIL 425/647
Contemporary Analytic Philosophy, PHIL 488/656

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