Professor David Papineau

I did a BSc in mathematics at the University of Natal, followed by a BA and PhD in philosophy at Cambridge. After academic posts at Reading, Macquarie, Birkbeck, and Cambridge, I joined King's College London in 1990. From 2015-21 I spent half of each year at the Graduate Center of CUNY in New York. I was President of the Mind Association in 2009 and the Aristotelian Society in 2014.

I have written widely on epistemology, metaphysics and the philosophy of science and mind. My books include: For Science in the Social Sciences (1979), Theory and Meaning  (1990), Reality and Representation (1987), Philosophical Naturalism (1992), Thinking about Consciousness (2002), Philosophical Devices (2012), Knowing the Score (2017), and The Metaphysics of Sensory Experience (2021).

Research interests and PhD supervision

• Metaphysics
• Philosophy of Mind
• Philosophy of Science

I am happy to supervise across a wide range of philosophical topics. I am currently myself working mainly on causation, mental representation, and consciousness.

Selected publications

• The Metaphysics of Sensory Experience 2021 OUP
• ‘Essential Properties are Super-Explanatory: Taming Metaphysical Modality’ 2019 Synthese
• ‘The Disvalue of Knowledge’ 2019 Synthese
• ‘The Problem of Consciousness’ The Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Consciousness U Kriegel (ed)2019 OUP
• Knowing the Score 2017 Constable

Teaching

Metaphysics, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Science

Expertise and public engagement

I write frequently for the Times Literary Supplement, Wall Street Journal and other general publications. My Knowing the Score on sport and philosophy was published in 2017 and generated much media coverage as listed here: http://www.davidpapineau.co.uk/news.html.

My website also has links to a range of video and podcasts for a general audience.