Ian Rumfitt is a British philosopher currently serving as Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London.

Life

He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford

Balliol College, Oxford

Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....

 and Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

, and has taught at Keele University

Keele University

Keele University is a campus university near Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as an experimental college dedicated to a broad curriculum and interdisciplinary study, Keele is most notable for pioneering the dual honours degree in Britain...

, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and at University College, Oxford

University College, Oxford

.University College , is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2009 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £110m...

 as a tutorial fellow. His graduate studies at Oxford were supervised by Sir Michael Dummett.

His primary areas of research include the philosophy of language

Philosophy of language

Philosophy of language is the reasoned inquiry into the nature, origins, and usage of language. As a topic, the philosophy of language for analytic philosophers is concerned with four central problems: the nature of meaning, language use, language cognition, and the relationship between language...

 and the philosophy of logic

Philosophy of logic

Following the developments in Formal logic with symbolic logic in the late nineteenth century and mathematical logic in the twentieth, topics traditionally treated by logic not being part of formal logic have tended to be termed either philosophy of logic or philosophical logic if no longer simply...

; he also works in metaphysics

Metaphysics

Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...

, model theory

Model theory

In mathematics, model theory is the study of mathematical structures using tools from mathematical logic....

, and the philosophy of mathematics

Philosophy of mathematics

The philosophy of mathematics is the branch of philosophy that studies the philosophical assumptions, foundations, and implications of mathematics. The aim of the philosophy of mathematics is to provide an account of the nature and methodology of mathematics and to understand the place of...

, with an interest in the works of Gottlob Frege

Gottlob Frege

Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege was a German mathematician, logician and philosopher. He is considered to be one of the founders of modern logic, and made major contributions to the foundations of mathematics. He is generally considered to be the father of analytic philosophy, for his writings on...

. He is noted for his analysis of negation

Negation

In logic and mathematics, negation, also called logical complement, is an operation on propositions, truth values, or semantic values more generally. Intuitively, the negation of a proposition is true when that proposition is false, and vice versa. In classical logic negation is normally identified...

, and for his defense of classical logic

Classical logic

Classical logic identifies a class of formal logics that have been most intensively studied and most widely used. The class is sometimes called standard logic as well...

 against such philosophers as Crispin Wright

Crispin Wright

Crispin Wright is a British philosopher, who has written on neo-Fregean philosophy of mathematics, Wittgenstein's later philosophy, and on issues related to truth, realism, cognitivism, skepticism, knowledge, and objectivity....

 and Michael Dummett

Michael Dummett

Sir Michael Anthony Eardley Dummett FBA D.Litt is a British philosopher. He was, until 1992, Wykeham Professor of Logic at the University of Oxford...

.

He was keynote speaker at the Conference on Truth, Reference & Realism, at Central European University

Central European University

For other uses, see European University Central European University is a graduate-level, English-language university offering degrees in the social sciences, humanities, law, public policy, business management, environmental science, and mathematics...

, 28–30 April 2005.

In June 2011 his appointment to the advisory board of the New College of the Humanities

New College of the Humanities

New College of the Humanities is a proposed new private for-profit undergraduate college in London, England, the creation of which was announced in June 2011 by the philosopher A.C. Grayling, its founder and first master...

was announced.

Works

• "Plural terms: another variety of reference?" in J. L. Bermudez (ed.) Thought, Reference and Experience: Themes from the Philosophy of Gareth Evans, (OUP, 2005)
• "Meaning and understanding", in F. Jackson and M. Smith (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Philosophy (OUP, 2005)

External links

• "Ian Rumfitt", Philosophy Papers