Staff Profile:Professor John Preston
- Name:
- Professor John Preston
- Job Title:
- Head of Department
- Responsibilities:
Departmental Director of Teaching & Learning
Part Two Teaching:
Lecturer on the Theory of Knowledge module
Convenor of the Philosophy of Science module.Part Three Teaching:
Convenor of the History of Political Philosophy module.- 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, and associated late nineteenth and early-to-mid-twentieth-century philosophers), philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, and in epistemology.
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 and Views into the Chinese Room.
Ongoing research:
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').
PhD supervision:
I am happy to supervise doctoral research projects in the following areas: Wittgenstein, late nineteenth and early-to-mid-twentieth-century philosophy, philosophy of science (natural, social and cognitive), epistemology, and philosophy of mind.
Undergraduate Teaching:
In my Theory of Knowledge module, I discuss theories of knowledge and justification. This will cover the nature of knowledge and knowledge-claims, different views about knowledge (knowledge as justified true belief, causal theories, reliabilist theories, contextualism, etc.), and the two main accounts of justification, foundationalism and coherentism.
In my Philosophy of Science module, we look at great debates in the philosophy of science, many of them deriving from the opposition between 'realist' and 'anti-realist' interpretations of scientific theory.
- Research groups / Centres:
- University of Reading's Centre for Cognition Research.
- Health Humanities Research Grouping.
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 have been a member of the Council of the Royal Institute of Philosophy since September 2009. 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:
-
YNumber of items: 28.
2016
- 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: 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
- Preston, J. (2015) Wittgenstein, Hertz and Boltzmann. In: Glock, H.-J. and Hyman, J. (eds.) A companion to Wittgenstein. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 9781118641163 (In Press)
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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 10.1080/10848770600766359
- Preston, J. (2006) Harre on Hertz and the Tractatus. Philosophy, 81 (2). pp. 357-364. ISSN 1469-817X doi: 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: 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: 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
