Herman Cappelen

Cappelen is the son of author and publisher Peder Wright Cappelen and actress Kari Simonsen. Cappelen received a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from the University of Oxford, Balliol College, in 1989. In 1996, Cappelen received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. The title of his dissertation was "The Metaphysics of Words and the Semantics of Quotation". His advisors were Charles Chihara, Stephen Neale, and John Searle.

Cappelen was previously a professor of philosophy at the University of Oslo and at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.{{Cite web|url=http://www.hf.uio.no/csmn/english/people/core-group/hermanc/index.html|title = Herman Wright Cappelen - Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas}} He works primarily on philosophy of language and philosophical methodology and related areas in epistemology, philosophy of mind, and metaphysics. In 2013, he became editor of the journal Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal Of Philosophy.{{Cite web |title=Inquiry Aims & Scope |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=sinq20& |access-date=2022-03-25 |website=www.tandfonline.com}}

Since 2020, Cappelen has been Chair Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, he is co-director of the AI&Humanity research center,{{Cite web|url=https://ai-humanity.net/|title=Home - AI & Humanity Lab}} and director of its MA in AI, Ethics, and Society.{{Cite web|url=https://www.maaies.arts.hku.hk/|title=Home}}

Prior to that, Cappelen was Professor at the University of Oslo, where he co-directed CSMN's ConceptLab.{{Cite web|url=http://www.hf.uio.no/ifikk/english/research/projects/cl/|title = ConceptLab - Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas}} a project on conceptual engineering funded by a Toppforsk award from the Research Council of Norway. Prior to that, he was, since 2007, Professor and Arché chair at the University of St Andrews. He has previously held positions at Somerville College, Oxford, University of Oslo, and Vassar College. He has been the Director of the Arché Philosophical Research CentreThis is verified on the Oxford University Press author page for Herman Cappelen, accessible [http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199644865.do here] and was co-investigator of two research projects funded by longterm AHRC grants: "Contextualism and Relativism" and "Intuitions and Philosophical Methodology". Cappelen was one of the original applicants for the research center Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature (Norwegian Centre of Excellence) at the University of Oslo. Cappelen has been a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters since 2008, a Permanent Member of the Institut International de philosophie, and a member of the Academia Europaea since 2018.{{Cite web |title=ANNUAL TRUSTEE (activity) REPORT for 2018 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=sinq20 |website=The Academy of Europe}}

Cappelen's most influential work is the 2004 book, Insensitive Semantics (written with Ernest Lepore). The book defends a minimal role for context in semantics and advocates speech act pluralism.

In 2018, his monograph Fixing Language: An Essay On Conceptual Engineering was released.{{Cite book|url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/fixing-language-9780198814719?cc=us&lang=en&|isbn=978-0-19-881471-9|title=Fixing Language: An Essay on Conceptual Engineering|date=29 May 2018|publisher=Oxford University Press}} The first monograph on the topic, it surveys both historical and contemporary work on conceptual engineering, and presents a theory of its nature and limitations.

Cappelen has argued that the role of intuition in Western analytic philosophy is overstated. His 2012 book, Philosophy without Intuitions, argues that intuition plays a minor role - or no role at all - in most modern philosophy, and the fear that intuition is widespread has been damaging.This paragraph is informed by a summary of Cappelen's 2012 book, Philosophy without Intuitions, available on the Oxford University Press website, available online [http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199644865.do here] His claim that the role of intuitions is overstated is controversial, and has been hotly debated.For more on this discussion, read [http://blog.jonathanichikawa.net/2012/10/review-of-philosophy-without-intuitions.html this blog] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150310021112/http://blog.jonathanichikawa.net/2012/10/review-of-philosophy-without-intuitions.html |date=2015-03-10 }} or [http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/no-intuitions-no-relativism/ this article] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190126165950/http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/no-intuitions-no-relativism/ |date=2019-01-26 }}

Along with Josh Dever, Cappelen has argued that the notion of perspective is unimportant for the philosophy of language, thought, and action. Their 2013 book The Inessential Indexical argues that the phenomena which, for example, John Perry and David Lewis think show the importance of indexical representation of the self and time can be accounted for using resources already available in the philosophy of language and thought.This paragraph is informed by a summary of Cappelen's 2012 book, Philosophy without Intuitions, available on the Oxford University Press website, available online: {{Cite web |title=The Inessential Indexical |url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-inessential-indexical-9780199686742?cc=gb&lang=en&}}

Cappelen has also authored, or co-authored, important books on the debate between contextualists and relativists (Relativism and Monadic Truth, with John Hawthorne), and on quotation (Language Turned on Itself with Ernest Lepore).{{Cite book|url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/relativism-and-monadic-truth-9780199560554?q=herman%20cappelen&lang=en&cc=gb|isbn = 978-0-19-956055-4|title = Relativism and Monadic Truth|date = 15 January 2009|publisher = Oxford University Press}}{{Cite book|url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/language-turned-on-itself-9780199575527?q=herman%20cappelen&lang=en&cc=gb|isbn = 978-0-19-957552-7|title = Language Turned on Itself: The Semantics and Pragmatics of Metalinguistic Discourse|date = 26 November 2009|publisher = Oxford University Press}} Some of his papers co-written with Ernest Lepore are collected in Liberating Content.{{Cite book|url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/liberating-content-9780199641338?q=herman%20cappelen&lang=en&cc=gb|isbn = 978-0-19-964133-8|title = Liberating Content|date = 3 December 2015|publisher = Oxford University Press}}

Cappelen, along with Josh Dever, wrote a series of textbooks on philosophy of language, Context and Communication (2016),{{Cite book|url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/context-and-communication-9780198733065|isbn = 978-0-19-873306-5|title = Context and Communication|series = Contemporary Introductions to Philosophy of Language|date = 7 June 2016|publisher = Oxford University Press}} Puzzles Of Reference (2018), and Bad Language (2019),.{{Cite book|url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/bad-language-9780198839644?lang=en&cc=gb|isbn = 978-0-19-883964-4|title = Bad Language|series = Contemporary Introductions to Philosophy of Language|date = 21 March 2019|publisher = Oxford University Press}} Along with John Hawthorne and Tamar Gendler he coedited The Oxford Handbook Of Philosophical Methodology (2016).{{Cite book|url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-philosophical-methodology-9780199668779?cc=gb&lang=en&|isbn=978-0-19-966877-9|title=The Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Methodology|series=Oxford Handbooks|date=19 May 2016|publisher=Oxford University Press}} With David Plunkett and Alexis Burgess he co-edited Conceptual Engineering and Conceptual Ethics (2020),{{Cite book|url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/conceptual-engineering-and-conceptual-ethics-9780198801856?cc=gb&lang=en&|isbn = 978-0-19-880185-6|title = Conceptual Engineering and Conceptual Ethics|date = 23 January 2020|publisher = Oxford University Press}} a collection of papers on the topic of conceptual engineering.

His monograph Making AI Intelligible, co-written with Josh Dever, appeared in 2021,{{Cite book |last=Cappelen |first=Herman |url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/fixing-language-9780198814719?cc=gb&lang=en& |title=Fixing Language: An Essay on Conceptual Engineering |date=2018-03-29 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-881471-9 |location=Oxford, New York}} and his The Concept of Democracy appeared in 2023. {{Cite book |last=Cappelen |first=Herman |url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-concept-of-democracy-9780198886518?cc=gb&lang=en& |title=The Concept Of Democracy |date=2023-08-28 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-888651-8|location=Oxford, New York}}

Monographs:

• The Concept Of Democracy, Oxford University Press, 2023, {{ISBN|9780198886518}}
• Making AI Intelligible (with Josh Dever), Oxford University Press, 2021, {{ISBN| 9780192894724}} [https://global.oup.com/academic/product/making-ai-intelligible-9780192894724?lang=en&cc=us]
• Fixing Language: An Essay On Conceptual Engineering, Oxford University Press, 2018, {{ISBN|9780198814719}} [https://global.oup.com/academic/product/fixing-language-9780198814719?cc=nz&lang=en&]
• The Inessential Indexical: On the Philosophical Insignificance of Perspective and the First Person (with Josh Dever), Oxford University Press, 2013, {{ISBN|978-0-19-968674-2}} [http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199686742.do]
• Philosophy without Intuitions, Oxford University Press, 2012, {{ISBN|978-0-19-964486-5}} [http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199644865.do]
• Relativism and Monadic Truth (with John Hawthorne), Oxford University Press, 2009, 978-0-19-956055-4 [http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199560554.do]
• Language Turned on Itself: The Semantics and Pragmatics of Metalinguistic Discourse (with Ernest Lepore), Oxford University Press, 2007, {{ISBN|978-0-19-923119-5}} [http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199231195.do]
• Insensitive Semantics: A Defense of Semantic Minimalism and Speech Act Pluralism (with Ernest Lepore), Wiley-Blackwell, 2004, {{ISBN|978-1-4051-2675-5}} [http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405126752.html]

Edited Volumes:

• Conceptual Engineering and Conceptual Ethics (with David Plunkett and Alexis Burgess), Oxford University Press, 2020, {{ISBN|9780198801856}}
• The Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Methodology (with Tamar Szabo Gendler and John Hawthorne), Oxford University Press, 2016, {{ISBN|9780199668779}}
• Assertion: New Philosophical Essays (with Jessica Brown), Oxford University Press, 2011, {{ISBN|978-0-19-957300-4}} [http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199573004.do]

Textbooks:

• Bad Language (with Josh Dever), Oxford University Press, 2019, {{ISBN|9780198839644}}
• Puzzles of Reference (with Josh Dever), Oxford University Press, 2018 {{ISBN|9780198799849}}
• Context and Communication (with Josh Dever), Oxford University Press, 2016, {{ISBN|9780198733065}}

Collection of Papers:

• Liberating Content (with Ernie Lepore), Oxford University Press, 2015, {{ISBN|9780199641338}}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://folk.uio.no/hermanc/ Staff Homepage at the University of St Andrews]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20190126165950/http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/no-intuitions-no-relativism/ Interview with 3AM Magazine]
• [http://hermancappelen.net/papers.html Some papers]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cappelen, Herman}}

Category:1967 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century Norwegian philosophers

Category:21st-century Norwegian philosophers

Category:Analytic philosophers

Category:Philosophers of language

Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford

Category:Academic staff of the University of Oslo

Category:Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford

Category:Academics of the University of St Andrews

Category:Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters

Category:Norwegian expatriates in the United Kingdom

Category:Norwegian expatriates in the United States

Herman