Thomas McKay is an American philosopher

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 currently Professor of Philosophy and Director of Graduate Studies at the Department of Philosophy of Syracuse University

Syracuse University

Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...

. He was chairman of the Department there from 1995-2002. He received his B.A. from Swarthmore College

Swarthmore College

Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,500 students. The college is located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia....

 in 1969, his M.A. from University of Massachusetts

University of Massachusetts

This article relates to the statewide university system. For the flagship campus often referred to as "UMass", see University of Massachusetts Amherst...

 in 1972, and his Ph.D., also from the University of Massachusetts, 1974, for a dissertation on "Essentialism and Quantified Modal Logic: Quine's Argument and Kripke's Semantics"

His work has primarily concerned the philosophy of logic and language. In 2006, Oxford University Press

Oxford University Press

Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...

 published his book, Plural Predicates a, in which he gives an account of a semantics for a plural logic. In particular he develops a Russellian account of plural definite descriptions.

He is also the author of the following textbooks:

• Modern Formal Logic (Macmillan, 1989; second edition, Thomson, 2006),
• Reasons, Explanations and Decisions (Wadsworth, 2000)

and the following journal articles:

• "Essentialism in Quantified Modal Logic," Journal of Philosophical Logic 4 (1975), 423-438.
• "Counterfactuals with Disjunctive Antecedents," with Peter van Inwagen, Philosophical Studies 31 (1977), 353-356.
• "The Principle of Predication," Journal of Philosophical Logic 7 (1978), 19-26.
• "Natural Kind Terms and Standards of Membership," with Cindy Stern, Linguistics and Philosophy 3 (1979), 27-34.
• "On Proper Names in Belief Ascriptions," Philosophical Studies 39 (1981), 287-303.
• "On Showing Invalidity," Canadian Journal of Philosophy 14 (1984), 97-100.
• "Critical Review of Michael Devitt's Designation, Noûs 18 (1984), 357-367.
• "Actions and De Re Beliefs," Canadian Journal of Philosophy 14 (1984), 631-635.
• "On Critical Thinking," American Philosophical Association Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy, Spring-Summer 1985, 19-20.
• "His Burning Pants," Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 27 (1986), 393-400.
• "Lowe and Baldwin on Modalities," Mind 95 (1986), 499-505.
• "he himself: Undiscovering an Anaphor," Linguistic Inquiry 22 (1991), 368-373.
• "Representing de re Beliefs," Linguistics and Philosophy 14 (1991), 711-739.
• "Analogy and Argument," Teaching Philosophy, 20 (1997), 49-60.
• "A reconsideration of an argument against compatibilism," Philosophical Topics, 24 (1996), 113-121. (Actually published in late 1997.)

He also wrote the encyclopedia chapters on "Modal Logic, Philosophical Issues," for the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and "Propositional Attitude Reports," Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is a freely-accessible online encyclopedia of philosophy maintained by Stanford University. Each entry is written and maintained by an expert in the field, including professors from over 65 academic institutions worldwide...

, 2000, 2005. (2005 version co-authored with Michael Nelson), and many book chapters and other presentations.

External links

• Professor McKay's homepage on the Syracuse University website