Department of Philosophy
Directory
Brett Sherman
Title: | Associate Professor Director of Graduate Studies |
Department: | Philosophy College of Arts and Sciences |
Email: | shermab3@mailbox.sc.edu |
Office: | Close-Hipp 516 |
Resources: | Department of Philosophy Personal Web Page Linguistics Program |
Education
Ph.D. Princeton University, 2008
A.B. Harvard University, 2000
Research Interests
My research focuses on questions in the philosophy of language and epistemology. I am currently working on a project concerning the relation between open questions and modal concepts (those that pertain to what is possible and what is necessary). I am also interested in the ways in which linguistic meaning depends on the context in which linguistic expressions are used. I have defended a position that I call Context Constructivism, according to which the context in which an indexical gets its content is constructed by the conversational participants. In epistemology, I am interested in the connection between what we know and what we trust to be the case.
Regularly Taught Courses
- PHIL 114 - Introduction to Formal Logic I
- PHIL 115 - Introduction to Formal Logic II
- PHIL 350 - Knowledge and Reality
- PHIL 351 - Mind and Nature
- PHIL 719 - Semantic Theory
- PHIL 763 - Epistemology
Recent Publications
- "Ambivalence, Uncertainty, and Modality." (with Barry Lam.) In Berit Brogaard and Dimitria Electra Gatzia (eds.), Being of Two Minds: The Philosophy and Psychology of Ambivalence. New York: Routledge. 2021.
- "Open Questions and Epistemic Necessity." The Philosophical Quarterly. Vol. 68, Num. 273, 819-840. 2018.
- "'According to' Phrases and Epistemic Modals." Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. Vol. 36, Num. 2, 627-636. 2018.
- "Constructing Contexts." Ergo. Vol. 2, Num. 23, 581-605. 2015.
- Metasemantics. (co-edited with Alexis Burgess.) New York: Oxford University Press. 2014.
- "Knowledge and Assumptions." (with Gilbert Harman.) Philosophical Studies. Vol. 156, Num. 1, 131-140. 2011.