Mark Bowker is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Philosophy at Bielefeld University. He is currently working on issues at the intersection of Philosophy and Psychology, particularly the relation between language, stereotypes, and prejudice. Other research interests include semantic underdetermination, context-sensitivity, generic generalisations, indexicals, fiction, and experimental philosophy.
His PhD in Philosophy was awarded in 2016 by the University of St Andrews, where he was supervised primarily by Patrick Greenough and Andy Egan. He was previously a Marie Skłodowska-Curie European Fellow at Lund University, Sweden, supervised by Martin Jönsson; an external researcher on the InFraMinds Project at University College Dublin; a Visiting Scholar at Andrei Cimpian's Cognitive Development Lab, NYU; a Juan de la Cierva Incorporación Fellow at LOGOS, University of Barcelona, supervised by Manuel García-Carpintero; Lecturer in Philosophy at the New College of the Humanities, London; a Government of Ireland Fellow in the School of Philosophy, University College Dublin, supervised by Maria Baghramian; and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, supervised by Kristina Liefke.
News:
Podcast appearance
Lottie Pike invited me to talk about my research on Five Minute Philosophy. You can listen to the episode here.New Paper and Blog Post
A blog post summarising my recent paper A Problem for Generic Generalisations in Scientific Communication is now available here.Postdoctoral Position at Lund University
I'm pleased to report that I will be starting a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship at Lund University in September 2022, though I am sorry to have to give up my Juan de la Cierva-incorporación fellowship at the Univeristy of Barcelona after only a few months.A Busy Conference Season:
One benefit to online conferences is the ability to present work around the world without expenses. I will be presenting at several conferences in the next few months, including talks on the cognitive sensitivity of generic generalisations at PhiLang2021 on 15th May 2021, Context21 to be held 21st-23rd June, and (Mis)Communication and Context on 1st July; a talk on generic generalisation in scientific communication at Philosophical Perspectives on Covid19 12th May 2021; and a talk on the generic bootstrapping hypothesis at XPhi Europe 2021, to be held 17th–19th June 2021.
Call for Papers:
Following our conference on indeterminacy and underdetermination, I am pleased to announce that Maria Baghramian and I are editing a Topical Collection for Synthese on those topics. Find the Call for Papers here.
Forthcoming:
Mark Bowker, Truth in Fiction, Underdetermination, and the Experience of Actuality has been accepted for publication in the British Journal of Aesthetics.
Conference: Indeterminacy and Underdetermination
Maria Baghramian and I recently held a conference on 'Indeterminacy and Underdetermination' at UCD's Humanities Institute, generously funded by UCD and the Irish Research Council. Keynote speakers were Rachel Sterken and Elizabeth Harman. A full programme is available here. Thanks to all in attendance for a wonderful and inspiring time. We plan to publish a selection of the papers presented. More details to follow.Available Online
My paper Ineliminable Underdetermination and Context-Shifting Arguments is now available in Inquiry online.Call for Abstracts:
Our upcoming conference on indeterminacy and underdetermination has a Call for Abstracts. Find it here.
New website
The .org address got expensive after two years. This one is one Euro.
Forthcoming:
Mark Bowker, Ineliminable Underdetermination and Context-Shifting Arguments is now forthcoming in Inquiry.
Available online:
Mark Bowker, Underdetermination, Domain Restriction, and Theory Choice is now available online.
Talk: CCC2, Univeristy of Warsaw
Title: Generics Without Truth-Conditions
Generics are analysed as incomplete structures that must be assigned a quanti?er to determine truthconditions. As contexts are regularly consistent with di?erent assignments, generics are consistent with di?erent truth-conditional interpretations.
Available online
Mark Bowker, Saying a Bundle: Meaning, Intention, and Underdetermination is now available online.
Forthcoming
Mark Bowker, Saying a Bundle: Meaning, Intention, and Underdetermination has now been accepted for publication in Synthese.
Forthcoming
Mark Bowker, paper Underdetermination, Domain Restriction, and Theory Choice has now been accepted for publication in Mind & Language.
Talk: PLM4
Title: Semantic Restrictivism.
I present the restrictivist approach to semantics, on which the words, structure, and context of utterances restrict their propositional interpretations without determining a unique propositional content. The view is deployed to explain Travis-style cases of lexical underdetermination, nonsentential assertion, and generics.
Talk: ECAP9
Title: Reviving Semantic Descriptivism.
I argue that Kripke misinterprets Russellian descriptivism. Russell's actual theory avoids Kripke's objections.
Insults, Lies, and Bullshit
Module outline now available. Teaching starts 25 April.
Forthcoming
Rich Situated Attitudes, a joint paper by Kristina Liefke and Mark Bowker has been accepted for publication in Lecture Notes in Computer Science/Artificial Intelligence.
Workshop: Situations, Information, and Situated Content
From 16th-18th December, Kristina Liefke and Mark Bowker hosted a workshop at the MCMP: Situations, Information, and Situated Content. Speakers included Robin Cooper, Nikola Kompa, Sebastian Löbner, Roussanka Loukanova, Friedrike Moltmann, Floris Roelofsen, Markus Werning, and Thomas Ede Zimmermann.
Talk: LENLS 13
On 15th November, Mark presented a paper written in collaboration with Kristina Liefke at LENLS 13 in Tokyo, Japan.
The paper was titled Rich situated propositions: the 'right' objects for the content of propositional attitudes.
Legal
Unrelated to my philosophical work, I link a legal decree that should serve as a warning for people thinking of doing business with Alberto Wieske.