Dr Simon Hewitt

Profile

I am an analytic philosopher who works primarily on logic, the philosophy of mathematics and, especially in recent years, the philosophy of religion and analytic theology

Responsibilities

• Programme Manager -BA PER/ TRS/ RPS
• Programme Manager - MA PRE

Research interests

 

I have three main areas of research at the moment (and am keen to work with PhD students on all of them):

Apophaticism: I am interested in the view, under-represented in contemporary analytic theology and philosophy of religion, but with plenty of classical precedence, that there is an interesting sense in which we do not know what God is. My book Negative Theological and Philosophical Analysis : Only the Splendour of Light (Palgrave) explores this, and locates contemporary wariness about apophaticism in certain unexamined commitments in the philosophies of language and mind. With Fillipo Casati I am writing a book drawing parallels between responses to the so-called paradox of ineffability and to paradoxes of self-reference in logic and mathematics.

Bilateralism: I want to explore the consequences of building into the proof theory of logics the idea that we can deny propositions as well as assert them. I am interested in the implications of this for both logic and philosophy, including areas such as the social character of logic, the meaning of logical connectives and debates between realists and anti-realists.

Plural logic: Plural logic, on which I completed my PhD at Birkbeck, remains an interest of mine. I have worked on what neo-logicism about arithmetic looks like against a background of plural logic, on the interaction of plurals and modality, and on the relationship between plural logic and set theory.

For more details of my work, see my website.

<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Some research projects I'm currently working on, or have worked on, will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

Qualifications

• PhD (London), MA (London), MA (Oxford), BSc(Hons) (Brunel)

Professional memberships

• Aristotelian Society
• British Society for the Philosophy of Religion
• Association for Symbolic Logic

Student education

I am a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Philosophy of Religion and Theology

<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>We welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>