Gregory Currie
Encyclopedia
Gregory Currie is Professor of Philosophy
and Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Nottingham
.
He was educated at the London School of Economics
and the University of California, Berkeley
. His first posts were in Australia
, at the University of Sydney
, and in New Zealand
, at the University of Otago
(Otago's Philosophy Department was declared the best academic department in New Zealand based on the NZ gov't Research Funding criterion). Before joining the Nottingham department he was Professor of Philosophy and Head of the School of Arts at Flinders University
, Adelaide
. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities and a Past President of the Australasian Association of Philosophy.
Currie is editor of Mind and Language, an Associate Editor of the Australasian Journal of Philosophy, a Past Fellow of St John's College, Oxford
, and has held visiting positions at Clare Hall, Cambridge
, the London School of Economics, the Institute for Advanced Study
, Australian National University
, the University of Maryland, College Park
and the University of St Andrews
.
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
and Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Nottingham
University of Nottingham
The University of Nottingham is a public research university based in Nottingham, United Kingdom, with further campuses in Ningbo, China and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia...
.
He was educated at the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
and the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. His first posts were in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, at the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
, and in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, at the University of Otago
University of Otago
The University of Otago in Dunedin is New Zealand's oldest university with over 22,000 students enrolled during 2010.The university has New Zealand's highest average research quality and in New Zealand is second only to the University of Auckland in the number of A rated academic researchers it...
(Otago's Philosophy Department was declared the best academic department in New Zealand based on the NZ gov't Research Funding criterion). Before joining the Nottingham department he was Professor of Philosophy and Head of the School of Arts at Flinders University
Flinders University
Flinders University, , is a public university in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1966, it was named in honour of navigator Matthew Flinders, who explored and surveyed the South Australian coastline in the early 19th century.The university has established a reputation as a leading research...
, Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities and a Past President of the Australasian Association of Philosophy.
Currie is editor of Mind and Language, an Associate Editor of the Australasian Journal of Philosophy, a Past Fellow of St John's College, Oxford
St John's College, Oxford
__FORCETOC__St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, one of the larger Oxford colleges with approximately 390 undergraduates, 200 postgraduates and over 100 academic staff. It was founded by Sir Thomas White, a merchant, in 1555, whose heart is buried in the chapel of...
, and has held visiting positions at Clare Hall, Cambridge
Clare Hall, Cambridge
Clare Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is a college for advanced study, admitting only postgraduate students.Informality is a defining value at Clare Hall and this contributes to its unique character...
, the London School of Economics, the Institute for Advanced Study
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, is an independent postgraduate center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It was founded in 1930 by Abraham Flexner...
, Australian National University
Australian National University
The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...
, the University of Maryland, College Park
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
and the University of St Andrews
University of St Andrews
The University of St Andrews, informally referred to as "St Andrews", is the oldest university in Scotland and the third oldest in the English-speaking world after Oxford and Cambridge. The university is situated in the town of St Andrews, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It was founded between...
.
Research
His research currently focuses on the arts, imagination, the nature of delusions, and the role of narrative in our thinking. He is working on a book on narrative. In addition to providing a theory of the ways narrators function in the representations of stories, he argues for a special role for narrative in the generation of certain kinds of ideas which, as with ideas of magic and religion, have a status indeterminate between imagination and belief. He hopes to complete this in 2006.Books
- Greg Currie’s most recent book is Arts and Minds, Oxford University Press, 2004,is a book of essays on cognition and the arts, some new and some reprinted.
- Recreative Minds: Imagination in Philosophy and Psychology, Oxford University Press, 2002, develops a theory of the imagination based on the idea of mental simulation. .
- Narrative Thinking, is due to appear with Oxford University Press.
Some recent papers
- "Narrative, Imitation, and Point of View", in G.L. Hagberg and W. Jost (eds.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Literature, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
- "Imagination and make-believe", in B. Gaut and D. McIver Lopes (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics. Second edition, London: Routledge, 2005.
- "How Does Narrative Cue Children’s Perspective Taking?", Developmental Psychology 41, No. 1, (2005): 115–123 (with Fenja Ziegler and Peter Mitchell).
- "Thinking together, Critical notice of Jane Heal: Mind, Reason and Imagination", Philosophical Books 46 (2005): 132-137.
- "Narrative and Coherence", Mind & Language 19 (2004): 409-427 (with Jon Jureidini).
- "Characters and Contingency", Dialectica 52 (2003): 137-148.
- "Art and delusion", Monist 64 (2003): 556-578 (with Jon Jureidini).