Biography
I am a "first generation" university entrant and took my degrees (MA Mental Philosophy 1982, PhD Philosophy 1990) in my home town at the University of Glasgow. Like many philosophers I began with the intention of studying mathematics and did so for two years.
I jointed the TCD Philosophy Department in June 2021, having previously been Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield and (more recently) at the University of Leeds
I am currently an Editor of the journal Thought: a Journal of Philosophy (Wiley Blackwell) and a past President of the Mind Association.
Publications and Further Research Outputs
Peer-Reviewed Publications
John Divers, The Nature of Contingency: Quantum Physics as Modal Realism, by Alastair Wilson. , 2021
Modal anti-realism in, Routledge Handbook of Modality, 2020, [John Divers]
John Divers and John J. Parry, Advanced Modalizing De Dicto and De Re, 2018
On Some Arguments for the Necessity and Irreducibility of Necessity in, Being Necessary, 2018, [John Divers]
John Divers, W(h?)ither Metaphysical Necessity, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume, 2018
Divers, J., How skeptical is quine{', Monist, 100, (2), 2017, p194-210
De Re Modality in the Late Twentieth Century in, The Actual and the Possible, 2017, [John Divers]
Divers, J., Philosophical issues from kripke{', Principia, 20, (1), 2016, p1-44
Possible Worlds and Possibilia in, The Routledge Companion to Metaphysics, 2015, [John Divers]
Divers, J., Modal Reality and (Modal) Logical Space, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 88, (3), 2014, p726-733
Divers, J., The modal status of the Lewisian analysis of modality, Mind, 123, (491), 2014, p861-872
John Divers and John Divers, An inconvenient modal truth, Analysis, 2014
Divers, J. and Gonz{\'a, Belief in Absolute Necessity, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 87, (2), 2013, p358-391
John Divers, Mere Possibilities: Metaphysical Foundations of Modal Semantics by Robert Stalnaker, 2013
Divers, J., The analysis of possibility and the extent of possibility, Dialectica, 67, (2), 2013, p183-200
Divers, J. and Elstein, D.Y., Manifesting belief in absolute necessity, Philosophical Studies, 158, (1), 2012, p109-130
Divers, J., Engagement and metaphysical dissatisfaction, Analysis, 72, (4), 2012, p824-831
John Divers, Worlds and Individuals, Possible and Otherwise, by Takashi Yagisawa., 2011
Modal Commitments in, Modality, 2010, [Divers, J.]
John Divers, Possibility, by Michael Jubien., 2010
John Divers, Substance Among Other Categories by Hoffman \& Rosenkrantz, 2009
Divers, J., Coincidence and form, Proceedings of the Aristotelean Society, Supplementary Volumes, 82, (1), 2008, p119-137
Divers, J., Quinean scepticism about de re modality after David Lewis, European Journal of Philosophy, 15, (1), 2007, p40-62
John Divers, Agnosticism About Other Worlds: A New Antirealist Programme in Modality, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 2007
John Divers & Alexander Miller, Rethinking Realism, Haldane, J. & Wright,C. (eds), Mind, 2007
Divers, J., The modal metaphysics of Alvin Plantinga, Alvin Plantinga, 2007, p71-92
John Divers, Abstract Entities by Toger Teichmann, 2006
Divers, J. and Melia, J., Genuine modal realism: Still limited, Mind, 115, (459), 2006, p731-740
Divers, J., Possible-worlds semantics without possible worlds: The agnostic approach, Mind, 115, (458), 2006, p187-225
John Divers, Realism and Truth by Michael Devitt, 2006
John Divers and John Divers, Kant{', Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 2004
John Divers and John Divers, Supervenience for operators, 2004
John Divers and John Divers, Recent Work On Supervenience, Philosophical Books, 2003
John Divers and John Divers, VIII-The Analysis of Possibility and the Possibility of Analysis, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 2003
John Divers and John Divers, A modal fictionalist result, 2003
Divers, J. and Melia, J., Genuine modal realism limited, Mind, 112, (445), 2003, p83-86
John Divers, Possible Worlds, 1st, London, England, Routledge, 2002, 1 - 384pp
Divers, J. and Melia, J., The analytic limit of genuine modal realism, Mind, 111, (441), 2002, p15-36
Divers, J., A modal fictionalist result, Nous, 33, (3), 1999, p317-346
Divers, J., A genuine realist theory of advanced modalizing, Mind, 108, (430), 1999, p217-240
Divers, J. and Miller, A., Arithmetical Platonism, Reliability and Judgment-Dependence, Philosophical Studies, 95, (3), 1999, p277-310
Divers, J., Kant{', Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 80, (1), 1999, p17-45
Divers, J., The analysis of possibility and the possibility of analysis, Proceedings of the Aristotelean Society, 97, (1), 1997, p142-160
Divers, J., Supervenience for operators, Synthese, 106, (1), 1996, p103-112
John Divers and John Divers and Alexander Miller, Platitudes and attitudes: a minimalist conception of belief, Analysis, 1995
Divers, J. and Miller, A., Minimalism and the unbearable lightness of being, Philosophical Papers, 24, (2), 1995, p127-139
John Divers and John Divers, Modal fictionalism cannot deliver possible worlds semantics, Analysis, 1995
Divers, J., On the prohibitive cost of indiscernible concrete possible worlds, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 72, (3), 1994, p384-389
Divers, J. and Miller, A., Best opinion, intention-detecting and analytic functionalism, Philosophical Quarterly, 44, (175), 1994, p239-245
Divers, J. and Miller, A., Why expressivists about value should not love minimalism about truth, Analysis (United Kingdom), 54, (1), 1994, p12-19
DIVERS, J., Modal supervenience and modal realism, Theoria, 58, (2-3), 1992, p99-115
Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications
John Divers, This is the Only Possible World, 2021, -
Research Expertise
Description
From my undergraduate dissertation onwards, my research has focused on matters of modality: what might be, what would have been, what must be and what cannot be. I take an anti-realistic view of modality. The world "in itself" is not modal, but our modal judgments help us make our way in that non-modal world. This modal anti-realism originates in Hume, and my recent work is about recovering and taking forward the version of it that was constructed, in the late 20th century, by Quine. My work on modality invokes the full range of sub-disciplines of theoretical philosophy: metaphysics; epistemology; logic and the philosophies of language, of mind and of science. I am keenly interested in debates between realists and anti-realists in fields beyond modality - tentatively favouring anti-realism in the case of values (moral and otherwise) but realism in the case of mathematics.Projects
- Title
- Thinking Counterfactually
- Summary
- https://thinkingcounterfactually.wordpress.com/
- Funding Agency
- The Leverhulme Trust
Recognition
Awards and Honours
Professorial Fellow of Trinity College Dublin