Neil Gascoigne

My primary interest is in metaphilosophical issues that arise from reflections on the nature of knowledge and of the knower; that is to say, with how our theorizing about cognition relates to our understanding of what sort of creatures we are and what that in turn reveals to us about the purposes of philosophical reflection. Initially, this was expressed through work on scepticism and tacit knowledge/expertise/know-how, articulated from a broadly pragmatist standpoint. More recently I became interested in the relationship between pragmatism and so-called “conceptual engineering”. This led to work on an account of religious belief that renders it consistent with atheism/agnosticism and ongoing attempts to understand the significance of contestations over concepts relating to sex/gender. I'm working on a Euro-centric conception of pragmatism.

Metaphilosophy; Scepticism; Euro/Pragmatism; Conceptual Engineering/Change; Religious Belief; Sex/Gender distinctions; Stupidity