Dr Alex Silk

Department of Philosophy
Associate Professor in Philosophy

Contact details

Email
a.silk@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
ERI Building
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
B15 2TT
UK

I specialise in philosophy of language, ethics, and metaethics. My main research projects include work on context-sensitive language and normative and evaluative discourse. I also have projects on Nietzsche, predication, philosophy of law, and mood.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Philosophy (University of Michigan, 2013)
  • MA in Philosophy (University of Michigan, 2010)
  • BA in Philosophy (Wheaton College, 2008)

Biography

I'm an Associate Professor in Philosophy. I joined the philosophy department in 2013 after completing my PhD at the University of Michigan. I specialise in philosophy of language, ethics, and metaethics. 

My research is driven by a deep commitment to mutually informed philosophical and linguistic inquiry. My 2016 book, Discourse Contextualism (OUP) – developed under grants from the British Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Leverhulme Trust – examines how speakers use context-sensitive language in coordinating their attitudes about how the discourse should evolve. The work on normative discourse ("Normative Language in Context," Oxford Studies in Metaethics, Vol. 12) was awarded the Marc Sanders Prize in Metaethics. 

My Context Pronouns project integrates the previous treatment of context-sensitive expressions in a wider investigation of how linguistic form and interpretation depend on context. I am examining the prospects for a linguistic theory that posits representations of context in the structure and meaning of natural language. My 2021 book, Semantics with Assignment Variables (CUP), develops the formal framework and applies it to diverse phenomena with modal expressions, quantifiers, anaphora, relativization, and questions. 

I also have projects on Nietzsche, predication, and philosophy of law. 

My CV can be found here.

Teaching

Classes taught:

  • Nietzsche
  • Philosophy of Language
  • Moral and Political Philosophy
  • Problems of Philosophy
  • Metaethics
  • Global Justice (postgraduate)
  • Research Skills and Methods (postgraduate)
  • Human Rights (postgraduate)
  • Global Ethics (postgraduate)

Postgraduate supervision

I'm happy to supervise graduate students in philosophy of language, ethics, and metaethics.

Find out more - our PhD Philosophy  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

Research

  • Philosophy of Language, Metaethics, Ethics, Nietzsche

Grant projects:

  • Leverhulme Research Fellowship: “Context-Sensitivity in Normative Language and Discourse,” 2019–2020
  • AHRC Early Career Research Grant: “Context-Sensitivity in Natural Language,” 2016–2018

Publications

Highlight publications

Silk, A 2021, Semantics with assignment variables. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108870078

Silk, A 2016, Discourse Contextualism: a framework for contextualist semantics and pragmatics. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198783923.001.0001

Silk, A 2022, Weak and strong necessity modals: on linguistic means of expressing “a primitive concept ought”. in B Dunaway & D Plunkett (eds), Meaning, decision, and norms: themes from the work of Allan Gibbard. Michigan Publishing, pp. 203-245. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.9948199

Silk, A 2019, 'Evaluational Adjectives', Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. https://doi.org/10.1111/phpr.12635

Silk, A 2017, Normative Language in Context. in Oxford Studies in Metaethics, Volume 12. Oxford University Press.

Recent publications

Article

Silk, A 2022, 'Challenges for independence-driven and context-repair responses to the proviso problem', Natural Language Semantics, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 363-377. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11050-022-09194-6

Silk, A 2019, 'Expectation biases and context management with negative polar questions', Journal of Philosophical Logic, pp. 1-42. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10992-019-09512-0

Silk, A 2019, 'Theories of vagueness and theories of law', Legal Theory, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 132-152. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1352325219000028

Silk, A 2018, 'Commitment and states of mind with mood and modality', Natural Language Semantics, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 125-166. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11050-018-9144-4

Silk, A 2017, 'How to embed an epistemic modal: attitude problems and other defects of character', Philosophical Studies, vol. 174, no. 7, pp. 1773–1799. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-016-0827-8

Silk, A 2017, 'Modality, Weights, and Inconsistent Premise Sets', Journal of Semantics, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 683-707. https://doi.org/10.1093/jos/ffx014

Silk, A 2016, 'The progressive and verbs of creation', Journal of Semantics, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 19–48. https://doi.org/10.1093/jos/ffu013

Silk, A 2015, 'How to be an ethical expressivist', Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, vol. 91, no. 1, pp. 47-81. https://doi.org/10.1111/phpr.12138

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Silk, A 2019, Normativity in Language and Law. in D Plunkett, S Shapiro & K Toh (eds), Dimensions of Normativity: New Essays on Metaethics and Jurisprudence. Oxford University Press. <https://philpapers.org/archive/SILNIL.pdf>

Silk, A 2018, Nietzsche and contemporary metaethics. in P Katsafanas (ed.), The Nietzschean Mind (Routledge philosophical minds). Routledge, pp. 247-263.

Silk, A 2017, Metaethical Contextualism. in T Mcpherson & D Plunkett (eds), The Routledge Handbook of Metaethics. 1st Edition edn, Routledge, New York, pp. 102-118. <https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781351817929>

Book/Film/Article review

Silk, A 2021, 'Nietzsche's Values: John Richardson, Nietzsche's Values, Oxford University Press, 2020, 546pp., $99.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780190098230', Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, vol. 2021, no. 9. <https://ndpr.nd.edu/reviews/nietzsches-values/>

Silk, A 2016, 'Critical notice: Having it both ways: hybrid theories and modern metaethics', Analysis. https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/anw031

Conference contribution

Silk, A 2016, Update semantics for weak necessity modals. in O Roy, M Willer & A Temminga (eds), Deontic logic and normative systems (DEON 2016): 13th International Conference, DEON 2016, Bayreuth, Germany. College Publications, pp. 237-256, Deontic Logic and Normative Systems, DEON 2016, Bayreuth, Germany, 18/07/16. <https://philpapers.org/archive/SILUSF.pdf>

Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary

Silk, A & Railton, P 2015, Ethics and Values. in J Wright (ed.), International Encyclopedia for the Social and Behavioral Sciences. 2nd edn, Elsevier, pp. 71-77.

View all publications in research portal