91社区

David Davies

Academic title(s): 

Professor

David Davies
Contact Information
Address: 

855 Sherbrooke St. W.
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 2T7

Phone: 
514-398-6066
Email address: 
david.davies [at] mcgill.ca
Office: 
Leacock 941
Research areas: 
Philosophy of Art
Philosophy of Language
Metaphysics
Philosophy of Mind
Biography: 

David Davies has taught at 91社区 since 1987. He has a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Western Ontario (1987), following a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics (Wadham College, Oxford, 1970) and an MA in Philosophy (Manitoba 1979). His doctoral research and much of his research for the following few years was on the Realism/Anti-Realism debate in contemporary metaphysics, and on related issues in the Philosophy of Mind and Philosophy of Language. For the past 20 years his research has focused mainly on metaphysical and epistemological issues in the Philosophy of Art, where he has also published widely on topics relating to literature, film, photography, music, dance, performance, and the visual arts. He has been a director, since 1998, of the annual Philosophy of Science conference held at the Inter-University Centre in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and is a founding director of the Philosophy of Art conference held in the same location starting in 2012. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2015, and served as President of the American Society for Aesthetics from 2021-23.

Selected publications: 

Please see link to Research CV for full details.

Books and Monographs

An Ontology of Multiple Artworks (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024)

Philosophy of The Performing Arts (Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, 2011)

Aesthetics and Literature (London: Continuum/Bloomsbury, 2007). [Albanian translation forthcoming]

Art as Performance (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004) [Chinese translation by Fong Jun (Nanjing: Jiangsu Meishu Chubanshe (Jiangsu Fine Arts Publishing House), 2008]

Edited books

Blade Runner, co-edited with Amy Coplan, edited collection of original papers in the series 鈥楶hilosophers on Film鈥, (London: Routledge, 2015).

The Thin Red Line, edited collection of original papers in the series 鈥楶hilosophers on Film鈥. (London: Routledge, August 2008).

Contemporary Readings in the Philosophy of Literature, anthology co-edited with Carl Matheson, (Toronto, April 2008).

Articles Published, Forthcoming, or In Progress

鈥楢nalytic Aesthetics since 2000', to appear in Garry Hagberg, ed., Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, in progress.

鈥楽ibleyan objectivism about aesthetic properties鈥, with Elisabeth Schellekens, in progress.

鈥榃hat is the mode of being of the artwork?, in Noel Carroll, ed., Controversies in Contemporary Aesthetics (London: Routledge). In progress.

鈥楶hilosophical aspects of fictional discourse鈥, in Keith Brown, ed., The Encyclopaedia of Language and Linguistics 3rd Edition, Vol. 4 (Elsevier: Oxford, forthcoming).

鈥榃hat should a nominalist say about multiple artworks?鈥, forthcoming in Joshua Brown and Otavio Bueno, eds., The Philosophy of Jody Azzouni (Dordrecht: Springer).

鈥楾heatrical works, theatrical performances, and performance practice鈥, forthcoming in Philosophy, Analytic Aesthetics, and Theater (Routledge) edited by Michael Y. Bennett.

鈥楥reativity and imagination in dance鈥, co-authored with Anna Pakes, forthcoming in Amy Kind & Julie Langkau, eds., Oxford Handbook on the Philosophy of Imagination and Creativity.

鈥楥ollingwood on 鈥減ainting imaginatively鈥 and the expressive nature of the artwork鈥, forthcoming in David Collins and Christopher Williams, eds., Interpreting R. G. Collingwood (Cambridge: Cambridge UP), 204-22.

鈥楴ine explananda in search of an explanans鈥, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 81.4 (Fall 2023), 444-53.

鈥楽culpture鈥, in Noel Carroll and Jonathan Gilmore, eds., Routledge Companion to the Philosophies of Painting and Sculpture (New York: Routledge, 2023), 17-27.

鈥楶erformance art鈥, in Noel Carroll and Jonathan Gilmore, eds., Routledge Companion to the Philosophies of Painting and Sculpture (New York: Routledge, 2023), 59-68.

鈥榃here is the (art)world is Martin Creed?鈥, in Elisabeth Schellekens and Davide Dal Sasson, eds., Aesthetics, Philosophy, and Martin Creed (London: Bloomsbury, 2022), 9-26.

鈥楾he anthropology of art鈥, in Lydia Goehr, Jonathan Gilmore, and Jonathan Fine, eds., A Companion to Arthur C. Danto (New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2022), 102-10.

鈥楧efinition of Fiction: State of the Art鈥, British Journal of Aesthetics 62.2 (April 2022), 241-55.

鈥楢ppreciating Improvisations as Art鈥, in Alessandro Bertinello and Marcello Ruta, eds., Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Improvisation in the Arts (London: Routledge, 2021), 145-58.

鈥淧uy on 鈥楴ested Types鈥欌, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 79.2 (2021), 251鈥255.

鈥楧ance and Technology鈥, in Rebecca Farinas and Julie van Camp, eds., The Bloomsbury Handbook of Dance and Philosophy (London: Bloomsbury, 2021), 321-29.

鈥楢nalytic philosophy of music鈥, in Tomas Macauley, Jerrold Levinson, and Nanette Nielsen, eds., Oxford Handbook of Western Music and Philosophy (Oxford: OUP, 2020), 65-88.

鈥業magination in the Philosophy of art鈥, in Anna Abrahams, ed, Cambridge Handbook of the Imagination (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020), 565-77.

鈥楶erformance in Anglo-American Philosophy鈥, co-written with Anna Pakes, in Laura Cull O鈥橫aoilearca and Alice Lagaay, eds., Routledge Companion to Performance Philosoph y (London: Routledge, 2020), 77-87.

鈥樷淐ategories of Art鈥 for contextualists鈥, in a symposium celebrating the 50th anniversary of Kendall Walton鈥檚 鈥楥ategories of art鈥, in Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 78.1 (2020), 75-9.

鈥楧ance seen and dance-screened鈥, Midwest Studies in Philosophy vol. 43 (2019), 117-32.

鈥楢nimation鈥, in Noel Carroll, Laura Teresa Di Summa, and Shawn Loht, eds., The Palgrave Handbook for the Philosophy of Film and Motion Pictures (Basingstoke: Palgrave-McMillan, 2019), 165-87.

鈥楳aking sense of 鈥減opular art鈥濃, Croatian Journal of Philosophy XIX, no. 56 (2019), 205-27.

鈥楢rtistic crimes and misdemeanours鈥, British Journal of Aesthetics 59.3 (2019), 305-21.

鈥楶hilosophical dimensions of film experience鈥, in Christina Rawls, Diana Neiva, and Steven Goveia, eds. Philosophy and Film: Bridging Divides (London: Routledge, 2019), 135-56.

鈥楢 moderately pessimistic perspective on 鈥渃ooperative naturalism鈥濃, Projections 12(2) (Winter 2018), 9-18.

鈥楳isreading Emma鈥, in E. M. Dadlez, ed., Jane Austen鈥檚 Emma: Philosophical Perspectives, in the series Oxford Studies in Philosophy and Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), 184-215.

鈥淓vidence of facture and the appreciative relevance of artistic activity鈥, in Alberto Voltolini and Jerome Pelletier, eds., The Pleasure of Pictures (London: Routledge, 2018), 286-302.

鈥淎rt and thought-experiments鈥, in Michael T. Stuart, Yiftach Fehige, and James Robert Brown, eds., The Routledge Companion to Thought Experiments (London: Routledge, 2018), 512-25.

鈥楾he semantics of Sibleyan aesthetic judgments鈥, in James Young, ed., Semantics of Aesthetic Judgments (Oxford: OUP, 2017), 106-20.

鈥楧escriptivism and its discontents鈥, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 75.2 (2017), 117-29.

鈥楢pplied aesthetics鈥, in Kasper Rasmussen, Kimberley Brownlee, and David Coady, (eds), Blackwell Companion to Applied Philosophy (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2016), 487-500.

鈥楾he function of generalisation in art history: understanding art across traditions鈥, in Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 36.1 (Spring 2016), 8-19.

鈥楩ictional truth and truth in fiction鈥, in Noel Carroll and John Gibson, eds., Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Literature (2015), 372-81.

鈥楽ibley and the limits of everyday aesthetics鈥, Journal of Aesthetic Education 49.2 (2015), 50-65.

鈥楩ictive utterance and the fictionality of narratives and works鈥, British Journal of Aesthetics 55.1 (2015), 39-55.

鈥楤lade Runner and the cognitive values of cinema鈥, in Amy Coplan and David Davies, eds., Blade Runner (London: Routledge, 2015), in the series 鈥楶hilosophers on Film鈥, 134-54.

鈥榁arying impressions鈥, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 73.1 (2015), 81-92.

鈥樷淭his is your brain on art鈥: what can philosophy of art learn from neuroscience?鈥, in Gregory Currie, Matthew Kieran, Aaron Meskin, and Jon Robson, eds., Aesthetics and the Sciences of Mind (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 57-74.

鈥榃atching the unwatchable: Irr茅versible, Empire, and the paradox of intentionally inaccessible art鈥, in Jerrold Levinson, ed., Suffering art gladly: the paradox of negative emotions (London: Macmillan Palgrave, 2013), 246-66.

鈥楥ategories of art鈥, in Routledge Companion to Aesthetics 3rd ed. (London: Routledge, 2013), 224-34.

鈥楧ancing around the issues: prospects for an empirically grounded philosophy of dance鈥, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 71.2 (2013), 195-202.

鈥榃hat type of 鈥榯ype鈥 is a film?鈥, in Christy Mag Uidhir, ed., Art and Abstract Objects (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 263-283.

鈥楶ornography, art, and the intended response of the receiver鈥, in Hans Maes and Jerrold Levinson, eds., Aesthetics and Pornography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 61-82.

鈥楾he dialogue between words and music in the composition and comprehension of song鈥, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 71.1 (2013), 13-22.

鈥楥an philosophical thought experiments be 鈥渟creened鈥?鈥, in Melanie Frappier, Letitia Meynell, and James Robert Brown, , eds., Thought Experiments in Philosophy, Science, and the Arts (London: Routledge, 2012), 223-38.

鈥楨nigmatic variations鈥, The Monist 95.4 (2012), 644-63.

鈥樷淚鈥檒l be your mirror鈥?: embodied agency, dance, and neuroscience鈥, in Peter Goldie and Elisabeth Schellekens, eds., The Aesthetic Mind: Philosophy and Psychology (Oxford: OUP, 2011), 346-56.

鈥楧igital technology, indexicality, and cinema鈥, Rivista di estetica 46 (2011), special edition on Ontology of Cinema, 45-60.

鈥楳edium in music鈥, in Theodore Gracyk and Andrew Kania, eds., Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Music. (London: Routledge, 2011), 48-58.

鈥楳ultiple instances and multiple 鈥渋nstances鈥濃, British Journal of Aesthetics 50.4 (2010), 411-26.

鈥楲earning through fictional narratives in art and science鈥, in Roman Frigg and Matthew Hunter, eds., Beyond Mimesis and Convention: Representation in Art and Science (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science 262), (Dordrecht: Springer, 2010), 51-70.

鈥楨luding Wilson鈥檚 鈥渆lusive narrators鈥濃, Philosophical Studies 147.3 (2010), 387-94.

鈥楽cruton on the inscrutability of photographs鈥, British Journal of Aesthetics 49 (2009), 341-55.

鈥楾he primacy of practice in the ontology of art鈥, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 67.2 (2009), 159-71.

鈥楧odd on the 鈥榓udibility鈥 of musical works鈥, British Journal of Aesthetics 49.2 (2009), 99-108.

鈥楾he artistic relevance of creativity鈥, in K. Bardsley, D. Dutton. M. Krausz, eds., The Concept of Creativity in Science and Art, 2nd ed. (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 213-33.

鈥極n the very idea of 鈥淥utsider Art鈥濃, British Journal of Aesthetics 49.1 (2009), 25-41.

鈥楽usan Sontag, Diane Arbus, and the ethical dimensions of photography鈥, in Garry Hagberg, ed., Art and Ethical Criticism (Oxford: Blackwell, 2008), 211-28.

鈥楥ollingwood鈥檚 鈥榩erformance鈥 theory of art鈥, British Journal of Aesthetics 48.2 (2008), 162-74.

鈥楬ow photographs 鈥渟ignify鈥 the world鈥, in Scott Walden (ed.), Photography and Philosophy (Oxford: Blackwell, 2008), 167-86.

鈥楾elling pictures: The place of narrative in late-modern visual art鈥, in Peter Goldie and Elisabeth Schellekens (eds)., Philosophy and Conceptual Art (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 138-56.

鈥楢rts and intentions: reflections on Currie鈥檚 interdisciplinary turn鈥, British Journal of Aesthetics 46.2 (2006). 192-203.

鈥楢gainst 鈥渆nlightened empiricism鈥濃, in Matthew Kieran, ed., Contemporary Debates in Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005), 22-34.

鈥楾he imaged, the imagined, and the imaginary鈥, in Matthew Kieran and Dominic Lopes, eds., Imagination, Philosophy and the Arts (London: Routledge, 2003), pp. 225-44.

鈥楳edium鈥, in Jerrold Levinson, ed., Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 181-91.

鈥楩iction鈥, in Berys Gaut and Dominic Lopes, eds., Routledge Companion to Aesthetics (London: Routledge, 2000), pp. 263-73.

鈥楢rtistic intentions and the ontology of art鈥, British Journal of Aesthetics 39.2 (1999), pp. 148-62.

鈥極n gauging attitudes鈥, Philosophical Studies 90 (1998), pp. 129-54.

鈥楬ow sceptical is Kripke's 鈥渟ceptical solution鈥?鈥, Philosophia (1998), pp. 119-140.

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