![Professor Michael Beaney Professor Michael Beaney](/img/200x200/staffpages/uploads/s02mb0/Beaney2019a_head.png)
Regius Chair of Logic
- About
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- Email Address
- michael.beaney@abdn.ac.uk
- Office Address
50-52 College Bounds, Room CB405
Mailing address:
University of Aberdeen
School of Divinity, History and Philosophy
50-52 College Bounds
AberdeenAB24 3UB
- School/Department
- School of Divinity, History, Philosophy & Art History
Biography
I came to Aberdeen as Regius Professor of Logic in June 2020, a post that I hold jointly with a half-time position as Professor of History of Analytic Philosophy at the Humboldt University in Berlin (2016–). Before moving to Aberdeen, I was Professor of Philosophy at King's College London (2016–20, part-time), and before that Reader (2005–09) and then Professor of Philosophy (2009–15) at the University of York. I have also worked at the Open University (2000–05), University of Manchester (1998–99), University of Leeds (1992–98), Birkbeck College London (1990–92) and University of Sheffield (1986–88).
In Germany I have held Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowships at the University of Jena (2006–07) and University of Erlangen-Nürnberg (1999–2000).
I have been visiting China regularly since 2011, when I was Visiting Professor at Peking University (Winter Semester). I have taught short courses at Beijing Normal University (2013, 2014), Renmin University (2017), and Capital Normal University, Beijing (2018), and am currently Visiting Chair Professor at Tsinghua University. Since 2016 I have been Chair of the British Committee of the Summer School in China Programme (established 1988), which is organized in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of the Social Sciences.
I originally studied PPE as an undergraduate (1978–81) at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford, where I did my B.Phil. (1985) and D.Phil. (1990) in Philosophy. I also have an MA from the University of Keele (1983).
External Memberships
I am currently President of the Society for the Study of the History of Analytical Philosophy (SSHAP).
I was Editor of the British Journal for the History of Philosophy (BJHP) from 2011 to 2020, and remain on the Editorial Board as an Associate Editor. I served on the Management Committee of the British Society for the History of Philosophy (BSHP) from 1995 to 2020. I am also on the Editorial Board of Russell: the Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies and on the Advisory Boards of the Journal of Chinese Philosophy and the Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy.
I am General Editor of a book series on the history of analytic philosophy published by Palgrave Macmillan (30+ volumes) and Co-Editor (with Rosa Antognazza and Mogens Laerke) of a new book series entitled 'New Texts in the History of Philosophy' published by Oxford University Press.
I have been a member of the AHRC Peer Review College since 2010 and am a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
- Research
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Research Overview
- History of analytic philosophy, especially the work of Frege, Wittgenstein, Stebbing, Collingwood
- Chinese philosophy, focusing on ancient Chinese philosophy of language and logic and Chinese analytic philosophy
- Philosophical methodology, with particular reference to analysis and creativity throughout the history of philosophy
- Historiography of philosophy, especially analytic historiography, Chinese historiography
- Comparative philosophy, focusing on Chinese–Western comparisons and the philosophy of comparison
- Philosophical translation, especially German-English and English-Chinese
I welcome applications from students wishing to work in any of these areas.
Research Areas
Accepting PhDs
I am currently accepting PhDs in Philosophy.
Please get in touch if you would like to discuss your research ideas further.
Research Specialisms
- Philosophy
- Chinese Studies
Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
Current Research
I am currently preparing a new translation into English of Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus to appear next year (2021) in the Oxford World's Classics (published by Oxford University Press).
Collaborations
Collaboration with Prof. Karyn Lai (UNSW) about ancient Chinese epistemology.
- Teaching
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Teaching Responsibilities
Ancient Chinese Philosophy; Creativity
Courses that I have taught over the last decade include introductory courses on Chinese Philosophy and History of Analytic Philosophy, and higher-level courses on Analogy and Metaphor in Philosophy, Ancient Chinese Philosophy of Language and Logic, Arguments in Ancient Chinese Philosophy, Creativity, Foundations of Mathematics, Frege, Paradoxes, Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Museums, Philosophical Historiography, Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Anthropology, Wittgenstein's On Certainty, and Wittgenstein's Tractatus.
- Publications
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Editorial: British Journal for the History of Philosophy - Volume 24, Issue 2
British Journal for the History of Philosophy, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 193-193Contributions to Journals: Editorials- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09608788.2016.1161125
Editorial: British Journal for the History of Philosophy - Volume 24, Issue 1
British Journal for the History of Philosophy, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 1-2Contributions to Journals: Editorials- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09608788.2015.1126141
Susan Stebbing and the Early Reception of Logical Empiricism in Britain
Influences on the Aufbau. Damböck, C. (ed.). Springer, pp. 233-256, 24 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21876-2_12
Editorial: British Journal for the History of Philosophy - Volume 23, Issue 3
British Journal for the History of Philosophy, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 401Contributions to Journals: Editorials- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09608788.2015.1046250
Soames on Frege: Provoking Thoughts
Philosophical Studies, vol. 172, no. 6, pp. 1651-1660Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-015-0483-4
Editorial: British Journal for the History of Philosophy - Volume 23, Issue 1
British Journal for the History of Philosophy, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 1-2Contributions to Journals: Editorials- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09608788.2015.1017965
Gottlob Frege
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Entries for Encyclopedias and Dictionaries- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780195396577-0209
Editorial: British Journal for the History of Philosophy: Volume 22, Issue 2
British Journal for the History of Philosophy, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 195Contributions to Journals: Editorials- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09608788.2014.910041
Editorial: British Journal for the History of Philosophy: Volume 22, Issue 1
British Journal for the History of Philosophy, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 1-3Contributions to Journals: Editorials- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09608788.2014.882060
British Journal for the History of Philosophy 21st Anniversary Editor’s Choice Collection
Books and Reports: Anthologies