Tim Kenyon
Associate Professor (Chair)

PhD, University of Western Ontario
MA, Carleton University
BA, University of British Columbia

Office: HH 359
Extension: 32650
Email: tkenyon@uwaterloo.ca
Webpage: http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~tkenyon/

Recipient of Distinguished Teacher Award 2012
http://arts.uwaterloo.ca/arts-professors-lead-distinguished-teachers-waterloo

Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Language

Academic Biography
First, my early work and interests:  My Master's thesis was an attempt to synthesize Daniel Dennett's theory of the self and Derek Parfit's account of diachronic personal identity.  My PhD was an exploration of the realism-antirealism debate, in various manifestations.

More recently my research interests have widened to include a range of topics centering on language use, such as assertion, naming, the epistemology of testimony, and the pragmatics of capitulation.  I also work on metaphysics (especially in philosophy of mind) and philosophical logic (especially issues relating to epistemic and doxastic logic). 

Moreover, my teaching and course development experience has contributed to my growing interest in critical thinking -- what it is, and how to teach it.  I regularly teach undergraduate courses in critical thinking, the philosophy of language, metaphysics, the philosophy of mind and introductory philosophy.  My graduate teaching has focused more on the philosophy of language.

Selected Publications
Please see my personal webpage for links to papers in progress.
2010: 'Assertion and capitulation', Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 91.3
2007:  Clear Thinking in a Blurry World (Nelson).
2006:  A Logical Approach to Philosophy (Co-edited with Dave DeVidi.  Springer).
2005:  ‘Non-sentences, implicature and success in communication’, in Ellipsis and Non-Sentential Speech. (R.Elugardo and R.Stainton (eds.), Springer).
2003:  “Cynical assertion:  Convention, intention, and saying ‘Uncle,’” American Philosophical Quarterly 40:3,
241-8.
2003: ‘Analogues of knowability’.  (With Dave DeVidi)  Australasian Journal of Philosophy 81.4: 481-95.

Selected Grants, Fellowships & Awards
2005:  Collaborator, SSHRC Standard Research Grant: ‘The Semantics-Pragmatics Boundary from the Perspective of Cognitive Science’.  (PI:  R. Stainton).
2004:  Primary investigator, SSHRC Standard Research Grant:  ‘Assertion, Truth and Relevance’

Current Research
I am currently interested in a few interrelated issues regarding testimony-based belief.  These include the justificatory relevance of background and contextual information; the plausibility of non-inferentialism in this domain; and the epistemic significance of shared or convergent testimony.  I have also continued to work on questions of the nature of coerced speech and the nature of sincerity.

Recent Graduate Supervision and Teaching

MA Research Papers:

• "Local Reduction and the Science of the Mind"
• "Perplexities in Williamson's Anti-Luminosity Argument"
  

MA Theses:

• Practical Reasoning and Rationality
• The Pregnant Self
• Rigid Designation, The Modal Argument, and the Nominal Description Theory
• Moral Evaluations Entailed by Frankfurt's and Dennett's Compatibilisms

PhD Research Courses, Seminars, and Areas:

• "Justification and Norms of Assertion"
• "Persons"
• "Belief Ascriptions and the Semantics of Belief Ascription"
• "Assertion, Justification and Pragmatics"
• "Language Pragmatics"
• "Names and Naming"

PhD Dissertations:

• An Examination of the Moral Authority of Use of Advance Directives with the Alzheimer's Dementia Population