Philosophy

Contact Us Department of Philosophy
Room 5009
Arts Building
Trinity College Dublin
University of Dublin
Dublin 2
Ireland

View the contact page for more contact and location information

philosophy@tcd.ie Gaeilge
Professor Peter Simons

Professor Peter Simons

Fellow Emeritus, Philosophy

Fellow Emeritus, Sch Office Social Sciences & Philosophy

https://sites.google.com/site/petermsimons/

Biography

Peter Simons studied Mathematics and Philosophy at the University of Manchester, supervised by Wolfe Mays. There he co-founded, with Kevin Mulligan and Barry Smith, the Seminar for Austro-German Philosophy (1975-85). After working briefly as a librarian he became Lecturer in Philosophy at Bolton Institute of Technology (now the University of Bolton). He then moved to Austria and lectured at the University of Salzburg from 1980-1995, gaining his Habilitation in 1986 and being granted Austrian citizenship in 1988. Visits to the University of California, Irvine and the University of Texas at Austin were interspersed with teaching in Neuchâtel, Geneva, Fribourg, Berne and Innsbruck. In 1995 he was appointed Professor of Philosophy at Leeds. From 1989-2001 he worked as a consultant to the software company Ontek Corporation. In 2004 he was elected FBA, and in 2013 MRIA. He is married with two adult children, and his hobbies include walking, skiing, choral singing, and reading history.

Publications and Further Research Outputs

  • Peter Simons, Vague Kinds and Biological Nominalism, Metaphysica, 14, 2013, p275 - 282Journal Article, 2013, DOI , TARA - Full Text
  • Peter Simons, And Now for Something Completely Different: Meaning's Approach to Modality, HumanaMente, 25, 2013, p157 - 173Journal Article, 2013, URL
  • Peter Simons, Meinong on Meaning, Kodikas/Code: Ars Semiotica, 36, 2013, p301 - 309Journal Article, 2013, URL
  • Varieties of Parthood: Ontology learns from Engineering in, editor(s)Diana Michelfelder, Natasha McCarthy and David Goldberg , Philosophy and Engineering: Reflections on Practice, Principles and Process, Dordrecht, Springer, 2013, pp151 - 163, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, 2013, URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Arithmetic in Lesniewski's Ontology in, editor(s)Kevin Mulligan, Katarzyna Kijania-Placek and Tomasz Placek , The History and Philosophy of Polish Logic. Essays in Honour of Jan Woleński, London, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2014, pp227 - 241, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, 2014, URL
  • Peter Simons, Linguistic Complexity and Argumentative Unity: A Lvov-Warsaw School Supplement, Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric, 36, (49), 2014, p101 - 120Journal Article, 2014, DOI , TARA - Full Text
  • Peter Simons, Relations and Idealism, Dialectica, 68, 2014, p305 - 315Journal Article, 2014, DOI , TARA - Full Text
  • Peter Simons, Euclid's Context Principle, Hermathena, (191), 2014, p5 - 24Journal Article, 2014, URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Peter Simons, Lukasiewicz and the Several Senses of Possibility, European Review, 23, 2015, p114 - 124Journal Article, 2015, DOI , URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Frege 2.0. Was Frege gesagt hätte, wenn er gewusst hätte, was wir heute wissen (und was er vielleicht hätte sagen sollen). in, editor(s)Dieter Schott , Frege: Freund(e) und Feind(e). Proceedings of the International Conference 2013., Berlin, Logos, 2015, pp187 - 200, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, 2015, TARA - Full Text
  • Meaning and Dummett's Austrians in, editor(s)Bernhard Weiss , Dummett on Analytical Philosophy, Basingstoke, Palsgrave-Macmillan , 2015, pp195 - 210, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, 2015, DOI , TARA - Full Text
  • How to Do Things with Things: Brentano's Reism and its Limits. in, editor(s)Bruno Leclercq, Sébastien Richard and Denis Seron , Objects and Pseudo-Objects. Ontological Deserts and Jungles from Brentano to Carnap, Berlin, de Gruyter, 2015, pp3 - 15, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, 2015, DOI , TARA - Full Text
  • Makers and Models: Two Approaches to truth, and their Merger in, editor(s)Miroslaw Szatkowski , God, Truth, and other Enigmas, Berlin, de Gruyter, 2015, pp153 - 166, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, 2015, URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Peter Simons, Philosophical Method without the Linguistic Turn, Conséquence, 1 , (1), 2015, p52 - 80Journal Article, 2015, TARA - Full Text
  • Media and their Emergence: the Ontology in, editor(s)Juliet Floyd and James E. Katz , Philosophy of Emerging Media: Understanding, Appreciation, Application, New York, Oxford University Press, 2015, pp49 - 58, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, 2015, URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Peter Simons, Bolzano's Monadology, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 2016Journal Article, 2016, DOI
  • Peter Simons, Alfred North Whitehead's Process and Reality, Topoi, 34, 2015, p297 - 305Review Article, 2015, DOI , TARA - Full Text
  • Peter Simons, Review of Guillermo E. Rosado Haddock: Against the Current. Selected Philosophical Papers. , Review of Against the Current. Selected Philosophical Papers., by Guillermo E. Rosado Haddock , Philosophy Mathematica, 23, 2015, p145-148Review, 2015, DOI , TARA - Full Text
  • Jan Lukasiewicz, in: Edward Zalta, ed., Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Summer 2014, 2014, [Peter Simons]Item in dictionary or encyclopaedia, etc, 2014, URL
  • Armstrong and Tropes in, editor(s)Francesco F. Calemi , Metaphysics and Scientific Realism: Essays in Honour of David Malet Armstrong, Berlin, de Gruyter, 2016, pp71 - 83, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, 2016, URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Applications of Complex Numbers and Quaternions: Historical Remarks, with a Note on Clifford Algebra in, editor(s)Philip Ebert and Marcus Rossberg , Abstractionism in Mathematics: Status belli, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2016, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, 2016, TARA - Full Text
  • Double Value-Ranges in, editor(s)Philip Ebert and Markus Rossberg , Essays on Frege's Basic Laws of Arithmetic, Oxford, Oxford University Press, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, TARA - Full Text
  • The Ontology and Logic of Higher-Order Multitudes in, editor(s)Massimiliano Carrara, Alexandra Arapinis and Friederike Moltmann , Plurality and Unity. Logic, Philosophy, and Linguistics, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2016, pp55 - 69, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, 2016, TARA - Full Text
  • Peter Simons, Mereology and Truth-Making, Logic and Logical PhilosophyJournal Article, DOI , TARA - Full Text
  • Peter Simons, External Relations, Causal Coincidence, and Contingency, The Metaphysics of Relations, University of London, 3 October 2012, 2012, Anna Marmodoro and David YatesInvited Talk, 2012
  • External Relations, Causal Coincidence and Contingency in, editor(s)Anna Marmodoro and David Yates , The Metaphysics of Relations, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2016, pp113 - 126, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, 2016, DOI , URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Kevin Mulligan, Peter Simons and Barry Smith, Ce se întâmplă cu se filosofia contemporană?, Revista de Filosofie, 62, 2015, p759 - 765Journal Article, 2015, TARA - Full Text
  • Peter Simons, Wittgenstein and Surprise in Mathematics, Argumentos: Revista de Filosofia, 7, (13), 2015, p157 - 164Journal Article, 2015, TARA - Full Text
  • Ingarden on Causation in, editor(s)Oliver Malherbe and Sébastien Richard , Forme(s) et modes d'être: l'ontologie de Roman Ingarden, Brussels, Peter Lang, 2016, pp229 - 242, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, 2016, TARA - Full Text
  • Peter Simons, Parts. A Study in Ontology, 1, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1987, 1 - 390ppBook, 1987, DOI
  • Peter Simons, Philosophy and Logic in Central Europe from Bolzano to Tarski. Selected Essays., 1, Dordrecht, Kluwer, 1992, 1 - 441ppBook, 1992
  • Supernumeration: Vagueness and Numbers in, editor(s)Richard Dietz and Sebastiano Moruzzi , Cuts and Clouds: Vagueness, its Nature and its Logic, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2010, pp482 - 490, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, 2010, TARA - Full Text
  • Why Categories Matter: Grossmann and Beyond in, editor(s)Javier Cumpa , Studies in the Ontology of Reinhardt Grossmann, Frankfurt/Main, Ontos, 2010, pp191 - 210, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, 2010, TARA - Full Text
  • Twardowski on Truth in, editor(s)Sandra Lapointe and Jurgis Skilters , 200 Years of Analytic Philosophy, Riga, The Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication, 2009, pp1 - 14, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, 2009, TARA - Full Text
  • Formalism in, editor(s)Andrew Irvine , Philosophy of Mathematics. Handbook of the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 4, Amsterdam, Elsevier, 2009, pp291 - 310, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, 2009, TARA - Full Text
  • Leśniewski's Logic in, editor(s)Dov M. Gabbay and John Woods , Handbook of the History of Logic. Vol. 5, Logic from Russell to Church, Amsterdam, Elsevier, 2009, pp305 - 320, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, 2009
  • Peter Simons, Vectors and Beyond: Geometric Algebra and its Philosophical Significance, dialectica, 63, (4), 2009, p381 - 395Journal Article, 2009, DOI , URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Ross Cameron, Robin Le Poidevin, Andrew McGonigal and Peter Simons, Routledge Companion to Metaphysics, 1st ed, London, Routledge, 2009, 632ppBook, 2009
  • Whitehead: Process and Cosmology in, editor(s)Robin Le Poidevin, Peter Simons, Andrew McGonigal and Ross Cameron , Routledge Companion to Metaphysics, London, Routledge, 2009, pp181 - 190, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, 2009, TARA - Full Text
  • A Short Glossary of Metaphysics in, editor(s)Robin Le Poidevin, Peter Simons, Andrew McGonigal and Ross Cameron , Routledge Companion to Metaphysics, London, Routledge, 2009, pp578 - 599, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, 2009, TARA - Full Text
  • Peter Simons and Vasilis Agouridas, Antecedence and Consequence in Design Rationale Systems, Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing, 22, 2008, p375 - 386Journal Article, 2008
  • The Monist, 92, 3, (2009), Peter Simons and Sir Duncan Michael, [Guest Editors]Journal, 2009
  • Edgar Morscher and Peter Simons, Joint Ventures in Philosophy, 1, St.Augustin, Academia, 2014, 1 - 223ppBook, 2014
  • Continuant Causation, Fundamentality,and Freedom in, editor(s)Sophie C. Gibb, E. Jonathan Lowe and Röngnvaldur D. Ingthorsson , Mental Causation and Ontology, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013, pp233 - 247, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, 2013
  • Where It's At: Modes of Occupation and Kinds of Occupant in, editor(s)Shieva Kleinschmidt , Mereology and Location, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2014, pp59 - 68, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, 2014, TARA - Full Text
  • Four Categories - and More in, editor(s)Tuomas E. Tahko , Contemporary Aristotelian Metaphysics, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2012, pp126 - 139, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, 2012, TARA - Full Text
  • Metaphysics in Analytic Philosophy in, editor(s)Michael Beaney , The Oxford HAndbook of the History of Analytic Philosophy, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013, pp709 - 728, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, 2013, TARA - Full Text
  • Questions of Freedom in, editor(s)Richard Swinburne , Free Will and Modern Science, London, The British Academy, 2011, ppvii - xv, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, 2011
  • Franz Brentano in, editor(s)Sebastian Luft and Søren Overgaard , The Routledge Companion to Phenomenology, London, Routledge, 2012, pp17 - 27, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, 2012
  • The Day Roosevelt was Assassinated in, editor(s)D. E. Wittkower , Philip K. Dick and Philosophy: Do Androids Have Kindred Spirits?, Chicago, Open Court, 2011, pp283 - 292, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, 2011, TARA - Full Text
  • The Importance of Classification in Empirical Science in, editor(s)Anna Brożek and Jacek Juliusz Jadacki , Nauka i język (seria druga). Księga pamiątkowa Marianowi Przełęckiemu w darze na 90-lecie urodzin. , Lublin, Norbertinum, 2014, pp145 - 157, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Ontic Generation: Getting Everything from the Basics in, editor(s)Alexander Hieke and Hannes Leitgeb , Reduction - Abstraction - Analysis. Proceedings of the 31st International Wittgenstein Symposium , Frankfurt am Main, Ontos, 2009, pp137 - 152, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, TARA - Full Text
  • Peter Simons, Analītiska filozofija: kādēļ tā ir vislabākā filozofija, 2008, -Miscellaneous
  • Why there are no states of affairs in, editor(s)Maria Elisabeth Reicher , States of Affairs, Frankfurt/Main, Ontos, 2009, pp111 - 128, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, TARA - Full Text
  • Edgar Morscher, Otto Neumaier and Peter Simons, Ein Philosoph mit "Bodenhaftung". Zu Leben und Werk von Joseph M. Bocheński, 1, Sankt Augustin, Germany, Academia, 2011Book, URL
  • Bochenski and Balance: System and History in Analytic Philosophy in, editor(s)Edgar Morscher, Otto Neumaier and Peter Simons , Ein Philosoph mit "Bodenhaftung". Zu Leben und Werk von Joseph M. Bochenski., Sankt Augustin, Germany, Academia, 2011, pp61 - 78, [Peter Simons]Book Chapter, URL , TARA - Full Text

Research Expertise

Metaphysics and Ontology: Pure (systematization, categories, nominalism, tropes, naturalism, emergence, quantities, ) Applied, to various disciplines (database design, manufacturing engineering, enterprise design, physical geography, music, ) Philosophy of Language and Logic (truthmakers, nominalist semantics, term logic, Lesniewskian logic, categorial grammar) Philosophy of Mathematics (abstraction, structuralism, numbers, sets, vectors, geometrical algebra) History of Analytic Philosophy (Bolzano, Frege, Whitehead, Russell, Wittgenstein) History of Philosophy and Logic in Central Europe (Bolzano, Brentano, Frege, Meinong, Husserl, Twardowski, Lukasiewicz, Lesniewski, Tarski)

Recognition

  • Foreign Member of the Polish Academy of Sciences 2017
  • Member, Royal Irish Academy 2013
  • Ph.D. (honoris causa), University of Bolton 2012
  • Honorary Professor of Philosophy, University of Salzburg 1996
  • Fellow of the British Academy 2004
  • Kulturpreis der Stadt Salzburg 1986
  • Member of the Academia Europaea 2006
  • Honorary Professor, University of Nottingham 2011-17
  • Internationale Bernard-Bolzano-Gesellschaft
  • Gesellschaft für analytische Philosophie
  • Österreichische Gesellschaft für Philosophie
  • European Society for Analytic Philosophy
  • American Philosophical Association
  • Salzburger Philosophische Gesellschaft