A wide range of organisms engage in behaviour that looks like signalling. Yet there seems to be something rich and distinctive about the human capacity for meaning and communication. What is it that distinguishes these human capacities from those of other sorts of animals? The dominant answer to this question is: one or another form of cooperativity. In contrast, I will argue that what marks off human meaning and communication from that of simpler animals and even our nearby primate cousins is a capacity for sophisticated forms of dissembling—e.g.lying, misleading, and the use of strategic ambiguity.
Professor Eliot Michaelson, Professor of Philosophy
14 April 2026
Eliot Michaelson awarded Leverhulme Fellowship
Eliot Michaelson, Professor of Philosophy receives Major Fellowship.
The Leverhulme Trust announced the winners of its 2025 Major Research Fellowships, and three philosophy professors are among them including King's Professor Eliot Michaelson. Professor Michaelson is awarded for his project Meaning and Dissembling.
The prizes are awarded by the Leverhulme Trust, an independent charity that seeks to fund ambitious research and scholarship that has the potential to generate new ideas and research breakthroughs that benefit society.
Twenty-seven fellowships were awarded in total. You can view the complete list of them here.