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phil DOT corkum AT ualberta DOT ca

Office: Assiniboia Hall 3-64
Phone: (780) 492-0621

Area of Specialization

Ancient Philosophy

Areas of Competence

                Metaphysics, Philosophy of Logic

Academic Employment

                Assistant Professor, University of Alberta, 2005-
                Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2004-5

Education

                Ph.D., Philosophy, University of California, Los Angeles, 2006  

M.A., Philosophy, University of London, United Kingdom, 1996

M.A., Classics, Dalhousie University, Canada, 1994

B.A., Classics, Dalhousie University, 1991

Dissertation

Aristotle on Logical Consequence

Committee: Calvin Normore (chair), David Blank, Terry Parsons.

Under the standard reading of the Prior Analytics, Aristotle does not and cannot provide an analysis of logical consequence. Rather, he must take the validity of the first figure syllogisms (such as Barbara: ‘A belongs to all B; B belongs to all C; so A belongs to all C’) as obvious and not needing justification; he then establishes the validity of the other syllogisms by showing that they stand in a suitable relation to the first figure syllogisms. I argue that Aristotle does provide an account of logical consequence - in terms of part-whole relations. For example, he defends the status of Barbara as a syllogism by appeal to the transitivity of containment. This account is plausible given certain assumptions Aristotle holds in the philosophy of language and metaphysics. A result of this account is that Aristotle would deny that syllogisms are valid solely in virtue of their form and so independently of the way the world is. Rather, syllogisms are valid in virtue of highly general features of the world - namely, mereological features. I discuss the implications of this result for such recent scholarly debates as whether the syllogistic is a logic or a theory and whether syllogisms are implications or inferences.

Publications

2. “Aristotle on Nonsubstantial Individuals.” Ancient Philosophy (2009) 29: 289-310.

1. “Aristotle on Ontological Dependence.” Phronesis (2008) 53: 65-92.

Reviews

2. Review of C. Kahn, Essays on Being, OUP (2009) Journal of Hellenic Studies, forthcoming.

1. Review of Gisela Striker, Aristotle’s Prior Analytics Book 1, Clarendon (2009) Journal of the History of Philosophy, forthcoming.

Papers

22. "Aristotle on Reference and Generality." Paper to be delivered to the American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meeting, San Francisco, April 2010.

20.-21. "Is Aristotle an Aristotelian Realist?" (1) Invited Paper, Workshop Conference on Ontological Dependence, Colorado, March 2009. (2) Paper to be delivered to the American Philosophical Association Eastern Division Meeting, New York, December 2009.

18.-19. “Are Aristotle’s Universals Sortals?” (1) Paper delivered at the American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meeting, Vancouver, April 2009. (2) Paper delivered at the 2008 International Conference on Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Fordham University, October 2008.

17. “Apriority and Logical Constancy.” Paper delivered to the Society for Exact Philosophy, Vancouver, May 2007.

15.-16. “Aristotle on Mathematical Existence.” (1) Paper delivered at the American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meeting, San Fransisco, April 2007. (2) Paper delivered to the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy at the American Philosophical Association Central Division Meeting, Chicago, April 2007.

12.-14. “Aristotle on Consciousness.” (1) Symposium Paper delivered at the American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meeting, Portland, Oregon, March 2006. (2) Paper delivered at the Canadian Philosophical Association Annual Congress, University of Western Ontario, May 2005. (3) Paper delivered to the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy at the American Philological Association Annual Meeting, Boston, January 2005.

11. “Aristotle's Place in the History of Logic.” Invited Paper, History of Logic Series, Simon Fraser University, January 2006.

5.-10.“Aristotle on Logical Consequence.” (1) Invited Paper, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, February 2005. (2) Invited Paper, University of Alberta, January 2005. (3) Paper delivered at the Canadian Philosophical Association Annual Congress, Winnipeg, Manitoba, May 2004. Under the title “Is the Syllogistic a Logic?” (4) Paper delivered at the American Philosophical Association Central Division Meeting, Chicago, April 2004. (5) Paper delivered at the 2003 International Conference on Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Fordham University, November 2003. (6) Paper delivered at the Twenty-Sixth Annual Workshop in Ancient Philosophy at Texas A&M University, March 2003.

2.-4. “Ontological Independence in Aristotle’s Categories.” (1) Paper delivered to the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy at the American Philosophical Association Eastern Division Meeting, Washington, D.C., December 2003. (2) Paper delivered at the Berkeley-Stanford Graduate Philosophy Conference, Stanford, May 2003. (3) Paper delivered at the Fourth Annual Rutgers-Princeton Graduate Conference in Philosophy, Princeton, April 2003.

1. “Parts and Properties in Aristotle’s Categories.” Paper delivered to the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy at the American Philosophical Association Eastern Division Meeting, Philadelphia, December 2002.

Courses Taught

Assistant Professor, University of Alberta, Department of Philosophy 2005-

Introduction to Philosophy: Winter 2007-10

Greek Philosophy to Plato [intermediate]: Fall 2005-6

Metaphysics [intermediate]: Fall 2005-8, Winter 2010

Aristotle and the Aristotelian Tradition [intermediate]: Winter 2008-9, Fall 2009

Topics in Ancient Philosophy: Aristotle's metaphysics [advanced undergraduates and graduates]: Winter 2006-7, Fall 2008

Topics in Ancient Philosophy: Aristotle's De Anima [advanced undergraduates and graduates]: Fall 2007

Topics in Metaphysics: Parts [advanced undergraduates and graduates]: Fall 2009

Instructor, University of Colorado at Boulder, Department of Philosophy 2004-5

Aristotle's Organon [graduate seminar]: Fall 2004

Plato [advanced undergraduates and graduates]: Spring 2005

History of Ancient Philosophy [crosslisted with Classics]: Fall 2004, Spring 2005

Instructor, University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Philosophy 2003-4

Beginnings of Western Philosophy: Summer 2003, Summer 2004

Academic Service

Library Officer 2008-9
Undergraduate Committee 2008-9
Visiting Speaker Officer 2005-8
Graduate Student Committee 2006-7, 2009-
Reviewer for: CPA, WCPA, Canadian Journal of Philosophy

Some comments on research

I ascribe to Aristotle the view that universals are mereological sums of individuals. This thesis has significance for Aristotle’s philosophy of language, philosophy of logic and philosophy of science, as well as his metaphysics, and extends my earlier work on Aristotle’s views on individuals, ontological dependence and logical consequence. The project is supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Standard Research Grant.