Richard M Sainsbury
Professor — DPhil, Oxford

Contact
- E-mail: marksainsbury@austin.utexas.edu
- Phone: 471-5433
- Office: WAG 403A
- Office Hours: T 12:30 to 1:30; Th 3.30 to 4.30
- Campus Mail Code: C3500
Interests
Philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, metaphysics, Frege, Russell, Hume
Biography
Mark Sainsbury works principally in philosophy of language. He is the author of the volume on Russell (1979, pb 1985) in the Routledge "Arguments of the Philosophers" series, and also Paradoxes (Cambridge, 1988; 2nd ed. 1995, 3rd ed. 2009), Logical Forms (Blackwell, 1991, 2nd ed. 2000), Departing From Frege (2002), Reference Without Referents (2005, pb 2007), Fiction and Fictionalism (2009) and, with Michael Tye Seven Puzzles of Thought and How to Solve Them: An Originalist Theory of Concepts (2012, pb 2013). His latest work, in press with OUP, is called Thinking About Things, and discusses intentionality and the intensional idioms we use to describe it. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, a Fellow of King's College London, and an Honorary Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He was formerly Susan Stebbing Professor of Philosophy at King's College London and, from 1990-2000, editor of Mind.
Courses
PHL 610QB • Probs Of Knwldg/Valuation-Wb
41875-41885 • Spring 2021
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM
Internet; Synchronous
PHL 375M • Philosophy Of David Hume-Wb
42240 • Spring 2021
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM
Internet; Synchronous
IIWr
PHL 610QA • Probs Of Knwldg/Valuation-Wb
40590-40600 • Fall 2020
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM
Internet; Synchronous
PHL 384F • First-Year Seminar-Wb
40900 • Fall 2020
Meets T 1:30PM-4:30PM
Internet; Synchronous
PHL 610QB • Probs Of Knowledge & Valuation
41150-41160 • Spring 2020
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM WAG 302
PHL 332 • Philosophy Of Language
41365 • Spring 2020
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM CAL 200
Wr
PHL 610QA • Probs Of Knowledge & Valuation
40815-40825 • Fall 2019
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM WAG 302
PHL 332 • Philosophy Of Language
41900 • Spring 2019
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM CAL 200
Wr
PHL 610QB • Probs Of Knowledge & Valuation
41935-41945 • Spring 2018
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM WAG 302
PHL 610QA • Probs Of Knowledge & Valuation
42360-42370 • Fall 2017
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM PHR 2.114
PHL 332 • Philosophy Of Language
42520 • Fall 2017
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM CAL 200
PHL 610QB • Probs Of Knowledge & Valuation
42415-42425 • Spring 2017
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM WAG 302
PHL 610QA • Probs Of Knowledge & Valuation
42320-42330 • Fall 2016
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM WAG 420
PHL 332 • Philosophy Of Language
42500 • Fall 2016
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM CAL 200
PHL 610QB • Probs Of Knowledge & Valuation
41550-41560 • Spring 2016
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM WAG 302
PHL 382 • Mind-Body Problem
41810 • Spring 2016
Meets TH 3:30PM-6:30PM WAG 316
PHL 610QA • Probs Of Knowledge & Valuation
41430-41440 • Fall 2015
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM WAG 420
PHL 332 • Philosophy Of Language-Phl Maj
41650 • Fall 2015
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM PAR 304
PHL 610QB • Probs Of Knowledge & Valuation
41750-41760 • Spring 2015
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM WAG 302
PHL 382 • Intentionality
42135 • Spring 2015
Meets TH 3:30PM-6:30PM WAG 312
PHL 610QA • Probs Of Knowledge & Valuation
42825-42835 • Fall 2014
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM PAR 201
PHL 332 • Philosophy Of Language-Phl Maj
43075 • Fall 2014
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM PAR 305
PHL 610QB • Probs Of Knowledge & Valuation
43205-43215 • Spring 2014
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM WAG 302
PHL 382 • Consciousness In Animal World
43510 • Spring 2014
Meets T 3:30PM-6:30PM WAG 316
PHL 610QA • Probs Of Knowledge & Valuation
42925-42935 • Fall 2013
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM WAG 302
PHL 375M • Philosophy Of David Hume
43160 • Fall 2013
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM MEZ 1.104
IIWr
C2
PHL 375M • Philosophy Of David Hume
42810 • Spring 2013
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM WAG 308
Wr
(also listed as CTI 335)
PHL 610QB • Probs Of Knowledge & Valuation
42425-42435 • Spring 2012
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM WAG 302
PHL 382 • Corps/Consciousness/Intentnlty
42700 • Spring 2012
Meets T 3:30PM-6:30PM WAG 316
PHL 610QA • Probs Of Knowledge & Valuation
42320-42330 • Fall 2011
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM WAG 302
PHL 375M • Philosophy Of David Hume
42570 • Fall 2011
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM WAG 308
(also listed as CTI 335)
PHL 610QB • Probs Of Knowledge & Valuation
42920-42930 • Spring 2011
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM WAG 302
PHL 382 • Seven Puzzles Of Thought
43200 • Spring 2011
Meets TH 3:30PM-6:30PM WAG 312
PHL 332 • Philosophy Of Language
42505 • Fall 2010
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM WAG 308
PHL 610QB • Probs Of Knowledge & Valuation
43015-43025 • Spring 2010
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM WAG 214
PHL 375M • Philosophy Of David Hume-W
43465 • Fall 2009
Meets T 3:30PM-6:30PM WAG 112
C2
PHL 610QB • Probs Of Knowledge & Valuation
42245-42255 • Spring 2009
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM WAG 214
PHL 382 • Seven Puzzles Of Thought
42535 • Spring 2009
Meets T 3:30PM-6:30PM WAG 316
PHL 375M • Philosophy Of David Hume-W
43515 • Fall 2008
Meets T 3:30PM-6:30PM WAG 112
C2
PHL 610QB • Probs Of Knowledge & Valuation
43110-43120 • Spring 2008
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM WAG 214
PHL 382 • Fiction And Fictionalism
43440 • Spring 2008
Meets T 3:30PM-6:30PM WAG 210
PHL 610QB • Probs Of Knowledge & Valuation
42825-42840 • Spring 2007
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM WAG 302
PHL 332 • Philosophy Of Language-W
43010 • Spring 2007
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM RAS 211A
C2
PHL 382 • Mind And Body
44235 • Fall 2006
Meets T 3:30PM-6:30PM WAG 316
PHL 610QB • Probs Of Knowledge & Valuation
41850-41865 • Spring 2006
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM GAR 311
PHL 332 • Philosophy Of Language-W
42195 • Spring 2006
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM CAL 221
C2
PHL 380 • Reference
42335 • Fall 2005
Meets T 3:30PM-6:30PM PAR 8C
PHL 610QB • Probs Of Knowledge & Valuation
40435-40450 • Spring 2005
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM GAR 311
PHL 332 • Philosophy Of Language-W
40675 • Spring 2005
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM GEA 127
C2
PHL 380 • Internalism In Philos Of Mind
41865 • Fall 2004
Meets TH 3:30PM-6:30PM WAG 210
PHL 610QB • Probs Of Knowledge And Valuatn
38940-38955 • Spring 2004
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM GAR 311
PHL 332 • Philosophy Of Language-W
39250 • Spring 2004
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM CBA 4.348
C2
PHL 382 • Conceptual Content
40320 • Fall 2003
Meets F 4:00PM-7:00PM WAG 210
PHL 610QB • Probs Of Knowledge And Valuatn
39030-39045 • Spring 2003
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM WAG 201
PHL 332 • Philosophy Of Language
39380 • Spring 2003
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM WAG 201
PHL 380 • Reference
40230 • Fall 2002
Meets TH 3:30PM-6:30PM WAG 210
Publications: papers
Forthcoming "Varieties of Singular Thought".
2015 "Vagueness and semanic methodology" Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.
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2014 "Fictional worlds and fiction operators". In Manuel Garcia-Carpintero and Genoveva Marti (eds) Empty Representations: Reference and Non-existence. Oxford; Oxford University Press: 277–89.
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2014 "Fishy business." Analysis: 1–3.
2014 "The same name". Erkenntnis, special issue on proper names, 2014
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2013 "Lessons for vagueness from scrambled sorites". Metaphysica 14.1: 225–37.
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2012 “Representing unicorns: How to think about intensionality.” In G. Currie, P. Kotatko, M. Pokorny (eds) Mimesis: Metaphysics, Cognition, Pragmatics. College Publication 2012: 106–31.
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2012 "'Of course there are fictional characters'". In Revue Internationale de Philosophie, special issue edited by Francesco Orilia: "Analytic philosophy of fiction".
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2012 "A very large fly in the ointment: Davidsonian truth theory contextualized." In Richard Schantz (ed)Prospects for Meaning.
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2011 "Speakers of English should use 'I' to refer to themselves." In Anthony Hatzimoysis (ed) Self-Knowledge. OUP 2011: 246–60
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2010 "Paderewski variations". Dialectica 64.4, 2010: 483–502.
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2010 "Fiction and acceptance-relative belief, truth and assertion". In Franck Lihoreau (ed) Truth in Fiction. Ontos Verlag, Frankfurt 2010: 137–152.
2010 "Intentionality without exotica." In Robin Jeshion (ed) New Essays on Singular Thought (OUP 2010)
2008 "Fly swatting: Davidsonian truth theories and context." In Maria Cristina Amoretti and Nicla Vassallo (eds) Knowledge, Language, and Interpretation. On the Philosophy of Donald Davidson. Ontos Verlag (Frankfurt) 2008.
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2008 "Intensional transitives and presuppositions." Critica 20, 2008: 97–109. This belongs to a symposium on Reference Without Referents.
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2007 "A puzzle about how things look.” In MM McCabe and Mark Textor (eds) Perspectives on Perception. Ontos Verlag (Frankfurt) 2007: 7–17.
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2006 "Understanding as immersion", Philosophical Issues 16: 246–62.
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2006 “Spotty scope.” Analysis 66, 2006: 17–22
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2006 "Austerity and openness." In Cynthia Macdonald and Graham Macdonald (eds) McDowell and his Critics, Blackwell Publishing, Malden MA, 2006: 1–14.
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2006 "Facts and free logic". Protosociology 26, 2006: 119–27.
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2005 "Names in free logical truth theory.". In José Luis Bermúdez (ed) Thought, Reference and Experience. Themes From the Philosophy of Gareth Evans. Oxford, Oxford University Press 2005: 66–83
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2005 “Meeting the hare in her doubles: causal belief, general belief and reason in animals.” In Peter Kail and Marina Franca-Spada (eds) Impressions of Hume Oxford, Oxford University Press 2005: 77–94.
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2005 “Pleonastic explanations.” Critical notice: Stephen Schiffer The Things We Mean, Mind 114, 2005: 97–111.
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2002 "What logic should we think with?" In Anrthony O'Hear (ed) Royal Institute of Philosophy Lecture Series, Cambridge: Cambrdige University Press.
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2002 "Two ways to smoke a cigarette". Originally published in Ratio and reprinted in my collection Departing From Frege.
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1999 "Names, fictional names, and 'really'". Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume, 1999: 243–69.
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1998 "Indexicals and reported speech". Proceedings of the British Academy 95, 1998: 45–69.
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1996 "How can some thing say something?" In my Departing From Frege, 102–111.
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1995 "Why the world could not be vague". Southern Journal of Philosophy 33:83–81.
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1993 "Russell on names and communication". In Andrew Irvine and Gary Wedeking, eds, Russell and Analytic Philosophy. Toronto: University f Toronto Press 3–21.
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Publications: books
Seven Puzzles of Thought and How to Solve Them: An Originalist Theory of Concepts.
Oxford University Press 2012; paperback 2013
This is joint work with Michael Tye. The main idea is that concepts are to be individuated by their origin, rather than by their semantic or epistemic properties. This provides simple resolutions to a range of philosophical puzzles.
The book was the topic of a one-day workshop at the Philosophy Institute in London in March 2012, and there is a podcast of the occasion.
There was an author-meets-critics session at the Pacific APA, 3/28 2013 @ 1 pm. The critics were Paul Boghossian, Agustin Rayo and Mark Richard.
Fiction and Fictionalism
Routledge 2009
The book argues for an irrealist view of fictional objects (there are no such things, not even nonexistent, merely possible or abstract things). This is helpful for many fictionalist projects, though I argue that at least some of these (modal fictionalism, moral fictionalism) face other difficulties.
Paradoxes
Third edition CUP, April 2009
The main change is the addition of a new chapter, on moral paradoxes. Other paradoxes discussed include Zeno's, sorites, Newcomb's, grue, Russell's, and the Liar. The last chapter discusses dialetheist responses to paradoxes.
Reference Without Referents
Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2005 (paperback 2007)
The thesis of Reference Without Referents is that the right view of typical proper names is neither Millian nor Fregean: rather, the right view is non-descriptive yet allows for reference without referents (RWR). There are intelligible bearerless names, whose meaning cannot be reductively specified descriptively. Given the preferred free logical background, this allows for highly natural and appealing solutions to the main problems in the area.
Departing from Frege: Essays in the Philosophy of Language
Routledge 2002
This is a collection of essays, mostly previously published. "Departing from Frege", "Understanding and theories of meaning" (1979), "Evans on reference" (1985), "Concepts without boundaries" (1990), "Russell on names and communication" (1993), "How can some thing say something" (1996), "Easy possibilities" (1997), "Fregean sense" (1997), "Indexicals and reported speech" (1998), "Names, fictional names, and 'really'" (1999), "Knowing meanings and knowing entities" (2001), "Two ways to smoke a cigarette" (2001), "Sense without reference" (2001).
Logical Forms
Basil Blackwell 1991, second edition 2000
Logical Forms is a textbook in philosophical logic (complete with exercises). The focus is on what is involved in rendering natural language into a formal language. The early chapters are practical, inviting the reader to try various ways of formalizing Engish. The final chapter reflects theoretically on the nature of logical form in the tradition from Russell to Davidson.
Russell
Routledge and Kegan Paul 1979. Paperback 1985
New copies are very expensive, but you can get used ones for little more than $20. The link from the cover image may not be stable, but you can easily follow the "used" link on Amazon.
This was my first book, and I chose to write it because I thought I would learn some philosophy by doing so.