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Contact details

2N4, second floor, north wing, Burns Building, 95 Albany Street
Tel +64 3 479 8720
Email alex.miller@otago.ac.nz
Google Scholar
academia.edu

Academic qualifications

PhD Michigan (1995)
AM Michigan (1992)
MLitt St Andrews (1989)
MA (Hons) Glasgow (1987)

Research interests

Alex has held the Chair in Philosophy at Otago since June 2012 and served as Head Of Department 2014-16. Prior to this he was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Birmingham, and has also taught at Nottingham, Cardiff, and Macquarie. He has held external examiner appointments at many universities, including the University of London, University of Nottingham, University of Leeds, University of York, and University of Glasgow. From March 2023 he will be an Associate Editor for the Australasian Journal of Philosophy.

He took his undergraduate degree in mathematics and philosophy at the University of Glasgow (where he was awarded the Edward Caird Medal in Philosophy), and did his graduate work in philosophy at the University of St. Andrews and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (where he was Horace. H. Rackham Predoctoral Fellow).

In addition to numerous journal articles and book chapters, he is the author/editor of several books. These include Logic, Language and Mathematics: Themes from the Philosophy of Crispin Wright (Oxford University Press 2020), Philosophy of Language (Revised and Expanded 3rd Edition Routledge 2018), A Companion to the Philosophy of Language (2nd Edition, co-edited with Bob Hale and Crispin Wright, Wiley-Blackwell 2017), Contemporary Metaethics: An Introduction (Revised and Expanded 2nd Edition, Polity Press 2013), and Rule-Following and Meaning (co-edited with Crispin Wright, Acumen 2002). He has supervised PhD and Masters students from as far afield as Austria, Iran, UK, Brunei, Vietnam, China, and the USA. Details of his ongoing research, teaching and supervision can be found below.

Publications

Alex works mainly in the areas of philosophy of language and mind, metaethics and metaphysics and has published widely on these topics. A revised and expanded 3rd edition of his book Philosophy of Language was published by Routledge in 2018. A revised and expanded 2nd edition of his An Introduction to Contemporary Metaethics was published by Polity Press in 2013. He recently edited Logic, Language and Mathematics, a Festschrift volume for Crispin Wright featuring papers by Riki Heck, Neil Tennant, Ian Rumfitt, Stephen Schiffer, Bob Hale, Jim Edwards, William Demopoulos, Sanford Shieh, George Boolos, Gideon Rosen and Stephen Yablo, together with replies by Crispin Wright. This was published by Oxford University Press in 2020. He was editor of an issue of Australasian Philosophical Review to mark the centenary of the completion of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Additionally, he was co-editor (with Crispin Wright and Bob Hale) of an updated and expanded 2nd edition of A Companion to the Philosophy of Language (published by Wiley-Blackwell in April 2017). His Contemporary Metaethics: An Introduction was published in Chinese translation by Shanghai Peoples' Publishing House in 2019 (2nd edition 2024). His book Wittgenstein on the Possibility of Meaning: "To Follow a Rule Blindly" will be published by Oxford University Press in 2024.

Alex has given research presentations in New Zealand, Australia, Austria, USA, UK, Finland, Republic of Ireland, Switzerland, Poland, Germany, Norway, Netherlands, South Korea, Iran, and Canada.

Alex recently appeared on an episode of Philosophy Talk, a San Francisco radio show hosted by Stanford University philosophers Ken Taylor and John Perry.

Books

  • Forthcoming 2024 Wittgenstein on the Possibility of Meaning: “To Follow a Rule Blindly” (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
  • 2018 Philosophy of Language Revised and Expanded 3rd edition (London: Routledge).
  • 2013 Contemporary Metaethics: An Introduction Revised and Expanded 2nd Edition (Cambridge: Polity Press, xiv + 314pp).
  • 2007 Philosophy of Language Revised and Expanded 2nd Edition (London: Routledge, xviii + 393pp).
  • 2003 An Introduction to Contemporary Metaethics (Cambridge: Polity Press xi + 314pp.).
  • 1998 Philosophy of Language (London: University College London Press/Routledge, Fundamentals of Philosophy Series, xviii + 348 pp.).

Edited collections

  • 2020 Logic, Language and Mathematics: Themes from the Philosophy of Crispin Wright (Oxford University Press, xxiv + 440pp.)
  • 2018 Australasian Philosophical Review, volume 2 (3), on Wittgenstein’s Tractatus.
  • 2017 A Companion to the Philosophy of Language (co-edited with Bob Hale and Crispin Wright, Wiley-Blackwell, xvi + 1146pp.).
  • 2002 Rule-Following and Meaning (co-edited with Crispin Wright, Acumen Publishing, x + 302pp.).

Articles and book chapters

  • “Wright’s Wittgenstein”, forthcoming in A. Hossein-Khani and G. Kemp (eds.) Wittgenstein and Other Philosophers (London: Routledge).
  • 2024 "Kripke’s Wittgenstein’s Scepticism about Rules And Meaning: In Defence of the Standard Interpretation”, forthcoming in C. Verheggen (ed.) Kripke’s “Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language” at 40 (Cambridge University Press).
  • 2023 “Kripke’s Wittgenstein and Kripke’s Causal-Historical Picture of Reference”, in M. Gustafsson, O. Kuusela, and J. Mácha (eds.) Engaging Kripke with Wittgenstein: The Standard Metre, Contingent A Priori and Beyond (Routledge).
  • 2023 “A Note on Error Theory and the Refined Moral Problem” (with Seth Whittington), in Filosofiska Notiser.
  • 2023 “Belief Holism and the Scope of Doxastic Norms” (with Seyed Ali Kalantari), Acta Analytica.
  • 2022 “Rule-Following and Intentionality” (with Olivia Sultanescu), in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  • 2022 “The Normativity of Meaning and Content”, in P. Stalmaszczyk (ed) The Cambridge Handbook of the Philosophy of Language (Cambridge University Press).
  • 2020 "Ecumenical Expressivism and the Frege-Geach Problem" (with Kirk Surgener), in Belgrade Philosophical Annual.
  • 2020 “What is the Sceptical Solution?”, in Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy.
  • 2020 “Verheggen on Davidson and Kripke on Rule-Following”, in a symposium in Dialogue (edited by Olivia Sultănescu) on Robert Myers and Claudine Verheggen’s Donald Davidson’s Triangulation Argument: A Philosophical Inquiry.
  • 2019 “Rule-Following, Moral Realism and Non-Cognitivism Revisited”, in O. Kuusela and B. De Mesel (eds.) Ethics in the Wake of Wittgenstein (London: Routledge).
  • 2018 "Moral Supervenience: A Defence of Blackburn's Argument", Dialectica.
  • 2017 "Rule Following, Meaning and Primitive Normativity", Mind.
  • 2017 “Believing in Twin Earth: New Evidence for the Normativity of Belief” (with Seyed Ali Kalantari), European Journal of Philosophy.
  • 2017 “Tacit Knowledge” (revised version), in Hale, Miller and Wright (eds.) A Companion to the Philosophy of Language 2nd edition (Blackwell).
  • 2017 “Postscript: Radical Interpretation”, in Hale, Miller and Wright (eds.) A Companion to the Philosophy of Language 2nd edition (Blackwell).
  • 2017 “Postscript: Indeterminacy of Translation”, in Hale, Miller and Wright (eds.) A Companion to the Philosophy of Language 2nd edition (Blackwell).
  • 2017 “Normativity Without Normative Facts?: A Critique of Cognitivist Expressivism”, in G. Marchetti and S. Marchetti (eds.) Facts and Values: The Ethics and Metaphysics of Normativity Routledge.
  • 2016 "Moral Explanation for Moral Antirealism", in U. Lebowitz and N. Sinclair (eds.) Ethics and Explanation (Oxford University Press).
  • 2015 “Rule-Following, Error Theory and Eliminativism”, International Journal of Philosophical Studies.
  • 2015 “Blind Rule-Following and the ‘Antinomy of Pure Reason’”, Philosophical Quarterly.
  • 2015 “Davidson’s Antirealism?” (with Ali Hossein Khani), Revista de Filosofia Aurora.
  • 2015 “Wittgenstein, Quine and Dummett on Conventionalism about Logic”, Thought: A Journal of Philosophy.
  • 2014 “Rule-Following and Consciousness: Old Problem or New?” (with Ali Saboohi), Acta Analytica.
  • 2013 "The Development of Theories of Meaning: From Frege to McDowell and Beyond", in M. Beaney (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of the History of Analytic Philosophy (OUP).
  • 2013 “Minimalism About Truth and Ethics”, in H. Lafollette (ed.) The International Encyclopdedia of Ethics (Blackwell).
  • 2012 “Judgement-Dependence, Tacit Knowledge And Linguistic Understanding”, in P. Stalmaszczyk (ed) Philosophical and Formal Approaches to Linguistic Analysis (Ontos).
  • 2012 “Semantic Realism and the Argument from Motivational Internalism”, in R. Schantz (ed) Prospects for Meaning? (De Gruyter).
  • 2011 "Jackson, Serious Metaphysics and Conceptual Analysis", Analysis.
  • 2010 "Rule-Following Skepticism", in S. Bernecker and D. Pritchard (eds) The Routledge Companion to Epistemology (Routledge).
  • 2010 The Argument From Queerness and the Normativity of Meaning, in M. Grajner and A. Rami (eds.) Truth, Existence and Realism (Ontos).
  • 2010 "Kripke's Wittgenstein, Factualism, and Meaning", in D. Whiting (ed.) The Later Wittgenstein on Language (Palgrave)
  • 2010 "Non-Cognitivism", in J. Skorupski (ed) The Routledge Companion to Ethics (Routledge).
  • 2010 "Realism", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  • 2010 “Metaethics”, in Oxford Bibliographies Online.
  • 2009 "Hume: Necessary Connection and Distinct Existence", in Robin Le Poidevin, Peter Simons, Andrew McGonigal and Ross Cameron (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Metaphysics (Routledge).
  • 2009 "Moral Realism and Program Explanation: A Reply to Nelson", Australasian Journal of Philosophy.
  • 2009 "Primary Qualities, Secondary Qualities and the Truth about Intention", Synthese.
  • 2008 “Thoughts, Oughts, and the Conceptual Primacy of Belief”, Analysis.
  • 2008 Review of A.C. Grayling Truth, Meaning and Realism, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.
  • 2007 “Rules-As-Rails, Tacit Knowledge and Semantic Creativity”, International Journal of Philosophical Studies.
  • 2007 “Another Objection to Wright’s Treatment of Intention”, Analysis.
  • 2006 "Realism and Antirealism", in A Handbook of Philosophy of Language (eds. B. Smith and E. Lepore) (Oxford University Press).
  • 2006 "Russell, Multiple Relations, and the Correspondence Theory of Truth", The Monist.
  • 2006 "Meaning-Scepticism", in M. Devitt and R. Hanley eds. A Guide to the Philosophy of Language (Blackwell).
  • 2005 "Rules and Rule-following", in A. Barber and R. Stainton eds. The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (Elsevier)
  • 2004 "Differences with Wright", Philosophical Quarterly.
  • 2004 "Rule-Following and Externalism", Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.
  • 2003 "Philosophy of Language", in Fundamentals of Philosophy (ed. J. Shand) (Routledge)
  • 2003 "Objective Content", Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume.
  • 2003 "The Significance of Semantic Realism”, Synthese.
  • 2003 "What is the Acquisition Argument?, in A. Barber (ed.) Epistemology of Language (Oxford University Press).
  • 2002 "Wrights Argument Against Error-Theories", Analysis.
  • 2002 "What is the Manifestation Argument?", Pacific Philosophical Quarterly.
  • 2001 "Michael Dummett", in A Companion to Analytic Philosophy (eds. A. Martinich and D. Sosa) (Blackwell).
  • 2001 "On Wright's Argument Against Deflationism", Philosophical Quarterly.
  • 2001 "The Missing-Explanation Argument Revisited", Analysis.
  • 2000 "Disjunctions, Programming, and the Australian View of Colour" (with Duncan McFarland), Analysis.
  • 2000 "Horwich, Meaning, and Kripke's Wittgenstein", Philosophical Quarterly.
  • 1999 "Arithmetical Platonism: Reliability and Judgement-Dependence" (with John Divers), Philosophical Studies.
  • 1998 "Response-dependence Without Reduction?" (with Duncan McFarland), Australasian Journal of Philosophy.
  • 1998 "Closet Dualism and Mental Causation" (with Brian Leiter), Canadian Journal of Philosophy.
  • 1998 "Jackson on Colour as a Primary Quality" (with Duncan McFarland), Analysis.
  • 1998 "Emotivism and the Verification Principle", Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society.
  • 1998 "Objectivity", Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (ed. E.J. Craig).
  • 1998 "Response-dependence, Rule-following, and McDowell's Debate with the Anti-realists", European Review of Philosophy.
  • 1997 "Lenin's Anticipation of Bernard William's 'Integrity' Argument against Utilitarianism", Journal of Value Inquiry.
  • 1997 "Boghossian on Reductive Dispositionalism: The Case Strengthened", Mind and Language.
  • 1997 "Tacit Knowledge", Blackwell Companion to the Philosophy of Language (eds. B. Hale and C. Wright).
  • 1997 "More Responses to the Missing-Explanation Argument", Philosophia.
  • 1996 “An Objection to Smiths Argument For Internalism”, Analysis.
  • 1995 “Review article on Locke on Human Understanding by E.J. Lowe”, The Locke Newsletter.
  • 1995 "Minimalism and The Unbearable Lightness of Being" (with John Divers), Philosophical Papers.
  • 1995 "Objectivity Disfigured: Mark Johnston's Missing-Explanation Argument", Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.
  • 1995 "Platitudes and Attitudes: A Minimalist Conception of Belief" (with John Divers), Analysis.
  • 1994 "Truth, Permanence, and the Regulation of Belief: Loeb's Cartesian Argument", Ratio.
  • 1994 "Rethinking Realism" (with John Divers), Mind.
  • 1994 "Mind Doesn't Matter Yet" (with Brian Leiter), Australasian Journal of Philosophy.
  • 1994 "Best Opinions, Intention-Detecting, and Analytic Functionalism" (with John Divers), Philosophical Quarterly.
  • 1994 "Why Expressivists about Value should not love Minimalism about Truth" (with John Divers), Analysis.
  • 1993 "Some Anomalies in Kim's Account of Davidson", Southern Journal of Philosophy.
  • 1991 "Abstract Singular Reference: A Dilemma for Dummett", Southern Journal of Philosophy.
  • 1989 "An Objection to Wright's Treatment of Intention", Analysis.

Book reviews

  • 2023 Review of Marcello Musto The Last Days of Karl Marx: An Intellectual Biography, forthcoming in Capital and Class.
  • 2021 Review of Oliver Gloag Albert Camus: A Very Short Introduction, Philosophy in Review.
  • 2021 Review of Philip Pettit The Birth of Ethics: Reconstructing the Role and Nature of Morality, in International Journal of Philosophical Studies.
  • 2018 Review of M.Beaney, Analytic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction, British Journal of the History of Philosophy
  • 2018 Review of Catherine Wilson, Metaethics From a First-Person Standpoint, in Journal of Moral Philosophy
  • 2016: Review of Jose Zalabrado, Reality and Representation in Witgenstein’s Tractatus, Philosophical Quarterly.
  • 2015 Review of Paul Horwich, Wittgenstein’s Metaphilosophy, Philosophical Quarterly.
  • 2015 Review of Michael Luntley, Wittgenstein: Opening Investigations, Philosophical Quarterly.
  • 2014 Review of N. Gascgoine and T. Thornton, Tacit Knowledge, International Journal of Philosophical Studies.
  • 2011 Review of R. Shafer-Landau (ed.), Oxford Studies in Metaethics, Ethics
  • 2009 Review of Charles Travis, Thought’s Footing: A Theme in Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, Mind.
  • 2008 Review of T.Cuneo, The Normative Web: An Argument for Moral Realism, International Journal of Philosophical Studies.
  • 2005 Review of M. De Gaynesford, John McDowell, Philosophical Quarterly.
  • 2005 Review of Jose Bermudez, Thinking Without Words, Philosophical Books.
  • 2005 Review of W.Kunne, Conceptions of Truth, Mind.
  • 2003 Review of J. Dodd, The Identity Theory of Truth, Mind.
  • 2000 Review of R. Kirk, Relativism and Reality, Mind.
  • 2000 Review of J. Hornsby, Simple-Mindedness, International Journal of Philosophical Studies.
  • 1999 Review of P. Horwich, Meaning, Times Literary Supplement.
  • 1999 Review of H. Steward, The Ontology of Mind, International Journal of Philosophical Studies.
  • 1998 Review of S. Lovibond and S. Williams (eds.), Essays for David Wiggins: Identity, Truth, and Value, Philosophical Books.
  • 1997 Review of B. Hooker (ed.), Truth in Ethics, Mind.
  • 1995 Review of A. George (ed.), Mathematics and Mind, Philosophical Books.
  • 1995 Double Review of Barry Allen, Truth in Philosophy and David Weissman, Truth's Debt To Value, Philosophical Review.
  • 1994 Review of M. Hjort (ed.), Rules and Conventions: Literature, Philosophy, Social Theory, Canadian Philosophical Reviews.
  • 1990 Review of Jane Heal, Fact and Meaning: Quine and Wittgenstein on Philosophy of Language, Mind.

Teaching and supervision

Courses taught

Supervision interests

  • Philosophy of language and mind
  • Metaphysics (especially realism and antirealism)
  • Metaethics
  • Wittgenstein

Current research students

  • Natalie Sherman (BA hons): Frege on Sense
  • Rosa-Berry Vaughn (MA): Metaethical Subjectivism

Completed research students

  • Saba Ghoroori (Alan Musgrave Scholar 2023; BA hons): Hume on Causal Anti-Realism
  • Weipeng Sun: Rule-Following and Meaning (BA Hons)
  • Seth Whittington: Moral Psychology (MA)
  • Rachel Cao: Normativity and Meaning (MA, Alan Musgrave Scholar 2021)
  • Seth Whittington: Companions in Guilt Arguments (BA Hons)
  • Nathan Sampson: Macintyre on Virtue, Narrative and Normative Accord (BA Hons)
  • Finn Butler: Realism and Antirealism (MA)
  • Zachary Swindlehurst: Normativity and content (MA)
  • Christoph Lernpass: Evolutionary Debunking Arguments in Metaethics (MA, Alan Musgrave Scholar 2017-18)
  • Finn Butler: Rule-Following and Semantic Irrealism (BA Hons)
  • Zachary Swindlehurst: Rule-Following and First-Person Knowledge of Meaning (BA Hons)
  • John Keyzer: Meaning and Normativity (PhD)
  • Ali Hossein Khani: Davidson and Wittgenstein on Meaning (PhD)
  • Caitlin Fitchett: Moral Constructivism (MA, Co-supervisor)
  • Daniel Wee: Rule-Following, Individualism and Communitarianism (PhD)
  • Paul Broadbent: McDowell’s Realism (PhD)
  • Walker MacMurdo: Putnam and Wright on Realism (BA Hons)
  • Reza Mosmer: The Tractatus Paradox (PhD)
  • Seyed Ali Kalantari: Normativity and Content (PhD 2010-12)
  • Kirk Surgener: Korsgaard’s Metaethics (PhD)
  • Ali Saboohi: Theory of Meaning and Speakers’ Knowledge (PhD)
  • Andrew Field: Explanation in Metaethics (MPhil)
  • Callum Hood: Morality and Judgement-Dependence (MPhil)
  • Paul Broadbent: Davidson on Conceptual Schemes (MPhil)
  • Florian Demont: Non-Reductionism about Meaning (MPhil)
  • Kirk Surgener: Moral Particularism (MPhil)
  • Tama Coutts: Possible Worlds (BA Hons)
  • Julian Bennett: Moral Rationalism (MA)
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