The Illumni David Hume Fellow |
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The Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities is delighted to announce the appointment of Dr. Peter Millican as the Illumni David Hume Fellow. He will be taking up his Fellowship in the Spring Semester 2010. Peter Millican is Reader in Early Modern Philosophy at the University of Oxford, and Gilbert Ryle Fellow in Philosophy at Hertford College, Oxford. Since 2005, he has been Co-Editor of Hume Studies (the first from outside North America). Prior to his appointment at Oxford, he taught for 20 years at the University of Leeds, where he was Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Computing, and Founder Director of the Leeds Electronic Text Centre. Peter's main work at Edinburgh will be to research for the third volume of Hume's Chief Argument, which will concern the implications of Hume's fundamental theory for science and religion (especially miracles and the Design Argument). He will also be working on Hume's Dialogues. Both lines of research will be very much concerned with the dialogues across disciplines that took place within the Edinburgh community in Hume's day, involving "natural philosophers" and theologians as well as those we now think of as philosophers. Hence this will not only connect with the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) theme "Dialogues of Enlightenment", but has significant resonances with the theme on "The Humanities in the 21st Century University". Peter is also interested in pursuing this dialogue between disciplines in a contemporary setting, given his keen interest in Computing and the potential of computer modeling to shed new light on the "moral sciences" (e.g. Political Theory and Economics) as well as the Biological, Cognitive and Physical Sciences. Such developments are, he believes, entirely in the Humean spirit, since they focus on testing of models against experience - based on a view of humans as imperfectly rational agents within a causal nexus - rather than on aprioristic or rationalistic assumptions. Being in Edinburgh will therefore be particularly stimulating, not only for the wealth of Early Modernists there, but also the strength in Philosophy of Cognitive Science and Informatics. Peter is likewise very much looking forward to interacting personally with the Illumni and (through lectures) the wider Edinburgh public, believing strongly that philosophers have much to learn from the insights and experience of those in other walks of life. He also remembers with particular fondness (from his extramural teaching at Glasgow in the 1980s) the distinctive Scottish intellectual culture that is so lively and enthusiastic. The Institute is most grateful to the Illumni for their generosity in funding this Fellowship. |