Professor John Preston
Responsibilities
Departmental Study Abroad Coordinator.
Part Two Teaching:
Convenor of the Ignorance, Doubt & Relativism modules.
Part Three Teaching:
Convenor of the Chinese Philosophy module, and the module Is Philosophy Nonsense?
Areas of Interest
Professor Preston is qualified in artificial intelligence, as well as philosophy, and his main research interests are in the history of philosophy (especially Ludwig Wittgenstein, Ernst Mach, and associated late nineteenth and early-to-mid-twentieth-century philosophers and philosopher-scientists, such as Ludwig Boltzmann and Heinrich Hertz), Michael Polanyi, Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn, Paul Feyerabend, philosophy of science, epistemology, and classical Chinese philosophy.
He is the author of Feyerabend: Philosophy, Science and Society, Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: A Reader's Guide, and editor of Thought and Language, Views into the Chinese Room, Wittgenstein and Reason, as well as the third volume of Paul Feyerabend’s Philosophical Papers.
Ongoing research:
Interpreting Ernst Mach: Critical Essays (forthcoming with Cambridge University Press during 2020).
Wittgenstein, Natural Science, and the Great Philosopher-Physicists (ongoing book project).
Ludwig Wittgenstein - A Chronology of his Life and Work (ongoing book project associated with my website: www.wittgensteinchronology.com and Facebook page 'Wittgenstein Day-by-Day').
I am engaged in a collaborative and inter-disciplinary project, under construction, on the notion of nonsense and associated ideas (such as absurdity, incongruity, and gross falsehood) in philosophy.
PhD supervision:
I am happy to supervise doctoral research projects in the following areas: Wittgenstein, Ernst Mach, late nineteenth and early-to-mid-twentieth-century philosophy and the philosophy of science (natural, social and cognitive).
Undergraduate Teaching:
In my Chinese Philosophy module, we look at the ‘classical’ Chinese philosophers (Confucius, Mencius, Mozi, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, etc.) and themes from their works, including human nature, the proper organisation of society, moral education, rituals, music, and the nature of heaven.
In my module Is Philosophy Nonsense? we look at the history of accusations that philosophy, or some special part of philosophy such as metaphysics, is literally nonsensical. The explosion in such diagnoses in the early 20th century, under Russell and Wittgenstein, is our primary focus. We investigate recent and powerful objections to the very idea of such accusations, and what it would take for such an accusation to be sustained.
Research groups / Centres
Academic Work outside Reading University:
I was the first ever Secretary of the British Wittgenstein Society, from October 2007 until November 2010, at which point I accepted membership of their Honorary Committee. I was a member of the Council of the Royal Institute of Philosophy from 2009 until 2017. I have served as external examiner for cohorts of undergraduate students at the University of Oxford and the University of Exeter, for MA cohorts at Oxford Brookes University, and for PhD or MLitt students at the Universities of Oxford, Manchester, Sheffield, Durham, Bristol, Düsseldorf, and King's College, London.
Publications
2019
- Schroeder, S. and Preston, J. (2019) Explication, description and enlightenment. Logical Analysis and History of Philosophy. (In Press)
2016
- Preston, J. (2016) Wittgenstein, Hertz and Boltzmann. In: Glock, H.-J. and Hyman, J. (eds.) A companion to Wittgenstein. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 9781118641163
- Preston, J. (2016) The rise of Western rationalism: Paul Feyerabend’s story. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 57. pp. 79-86. ISSN 0039-3681 doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2015.11.013
2015
- Preston, J. (2015) Logical space and phase-space. In: Mind, language and action: proceedings of the 36th International Wittgenstein Symposium. Publications of the Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein society – New Series (N.S.) (22). De Gruyter, pp. 35-44. ISBN 9783110378795
2014
- Preston, J. (2014) Positivist and post-positivist philosophy of science. In: Gardner, A., Lake, M. and Sommer, U. (eds.) The Oxford handbook of archaeological theory. Oxford University Press, Oxford. ISBN 9780199567942 doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199567942.013.031
2012
- Preston, J. (2012) What are computers (if they're not thinking things)? In: Cooper, S. B., Dawar, A. and Lowe, B. (eds.) How the World Computes: Turing Centenary Conference and 8th Conference on Computability in Europe, CIE 2012, Cambridge UK June 2012 Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 7318. Springer-Verlag, Berlin and Heidelberg, pp. 609-615. ISBN 9783642308697 doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30870-3_61
2010
- Preston, J. M. (2010) The extended mind, the concept of belief, and epistemic credit. In: Menary, R. (ed.) The extended mind. MIT Press, Cambridge, USA, pp. 355-369. ISBN 9780262014038
2009
- Preston, J. (2009) Review: Bradley Monton, (Ed.) Images of empiricism: essays on science and stances with a reply from Bas Van Fraassen. Oxford University Press, 2007. The European Legacy, 14 (3). pp. 362-364. ISSN 1470-1316 doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10848770902931743
- Preston, J. (2009) Review: A W Carus, Carnap and twentieth century thought: explication as enlightenment. Cambridge University Press, 2007. The European Legacy, 14 (6). pp. 759-761. ISSN 1470-1316 doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10848770903259276
2008
- Preston, J. (2008) Review: Marie McGinn, Elucidating the tractatus: Wittgenstein's early philosophy of logic & language. Clarendon Press, 2006. Philosophical Investigations, 31 (3). pp. 268-272. ISSN 1467-9205 doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9205.2008.00349.x
- Preston, J. (2008) Kuhn's the structure of scientific revolutions: a reader's guide. Reader's Guides. Continuum, London, pp126. ISBN 9780826493750
- Preston, J., ed. (2008) Wittgenstein and reason. Wiley-Blackwell , Oxford, pp160. ISBN 9781405180955
- Preston, J. (2008) Mach and Hertz's mechanics. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 39 (1). pp. 91-101. ISSN 0039-3681 doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2007.11.007
- Preston, J. (2008) Hertz, Wittgenstein and philosophical method. Philosophical Investigations, 31 (1). pp. 48-67. ISSN 1467-9205 doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9205.2008.00333.x
- Preston, J. (2008) Review: Andrew Brook and Kathleen Akins, Cognition and the brain: the philosophy and neuroscience movement. Cambridge University Press, 2005. Philosophical Books, 49 (1). pp. 68-71. ISSN 1468-0149 doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0149.2008.456_12.x
- Preston, J. (2008) Hertz, Wittgenstein and the instrumentalist turn in the philosophy of science. In: Wolfschmidt, G. (ed.) Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894) and the development of communication: proceedings of the Symposium for History of Science. Norderstedt, Hamburg: Institute for History of Science, pp. 80-93. ISBN 9783837031317
2007
- Preston, J. (2007) Review: James Marcum, Thomas Kuhn's revolution: an historical philosophy of science. Ratio, 20 (3). pp. 352-4. ISSN 0034-0006 doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9329.2007.00371.x
- Preston, J. (2007) Lutzen on Hertz's mechanics. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 38 (1). pp. 260-7. ISSN 0039-3681 doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2006.12.017
- Preston, J. (2007) Review: Christine Sypnowich (ed.), The egalitarian conscience: essays in honour of G. A. Cohen. The European Legacy, 12 (5). pp. 644-5. ISSN 1470-1316 doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10848770701443742
2006
- Preston, J. (2006) Review: Alfred Nordmann, Wittgenstein's Tractatus: an introduction. Cambridge University Press, 2005. The European Legacy, 11 (6). p. 706. ISSN 1470-1316 doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10848770600919545
- Preston, J. (2006) Review: Duncan Richter, Historical dictionary of Wittgenstein's philosophy. The European Legacy, 11 (4). pp. 467-468. ISSN 1470-1316 doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10848770600766359
- Preston, J. (2006) Harre on Hertz and the Tractatus. Philosophy, 81 (2). pp. 357-364. ISSN 1469-817X doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031819106316087
- Preston, J. (2006) Is your mobile part of your mind? In: Nyiri, K. (ed.) Mobile understanding: the epistemology of ubiquitous communication. Passagen Verlag, Vienna, pp. 67-77. ISBN 9783851657425
- Preston, J. (2006) Janik on Hertz and the early Wittgenstein. Grazer Philosophische Studien, 73. pp. 83-95. ISSN 0165-9227
- Preston, J., ed. (2006) Knowledge, science and relativisim. Philosophical Papers, 3. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp244. ISBN 9780521641296
2004
- Preston, J. M. (2004) Bird, Kuhn and positivism. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 35 (2). pp. 327-335. ISSN 0039-3681 doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2003.05.001
2003
- Preston, J. M. (2003) Kuhn, instrumentalism, and the progress of science. Social Epistemology, 17 (2-3). pp. 259-265. ISSN 1464-5297 doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/0269172032000144261
- Preston, J. M. (2003) Review of 'Kuhn: philosopher of scientific revolution' by W. Sharrock and R. Read. Philosophical Books, 44. pp. 292-493. ISSN 1468-0149
- Preston, J. M. (2003) Review of 'Thomas Kuhn: a philosophical history for our times' by S. Fuller. The European Legacy, 8 (6). pp. 833-834. ISSN 1470-1316