Dr Colin Johnston

Senior Lecturer

Philosophy University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA

Dr Colin Johnston

Contact details

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http://www.stir.ac.uk/people/colinjohnston

About me

I am a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Stirling.

After a BA in Mathematics at Cambridge (1998), I took an MPhil (2002) and a PhD (2005) in Philosophy at UCL, and was then a postdoctoral Jacobsen Research Fellow at the University of London Institute of Philosophy (2005-8). In 2008 I joined the philosophy department at Stirling. 

Divisional / Faculty Contribution

Chief Examiner, Law and Philosophy

Professional Career

PI, AHRC Project, Frege and Wittgenstein's conception of language as world-involving

Research

My principal area of research is the history of early analytic philosophy. In particular, I am concerned to understand connections between Frege and the Tractarian Wittgenstein on, broadly, the nature of judgment and truth.

I have worked also in the philosophy of time, action and the first person.

Outputs (22)

Outputs

Book Chapter

That which ‘is true’ must already contain the verb: Wittgenstein’s rejection of Frege’s separation of judgment from content

Johnston C (2023) That which ‘is true’ must already contain the verb: Wittgenstein’s rejection of Frege’s separation of judgment from content. In: Zalabarado JL (ed.) Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus: A Critical Guide. Cambridge Critical Guides. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (CUP). https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/wittgensteins-tractatus-logicophilosophicus/D98F7DEEF0B576D6FC33FAA949C8B241

Book Chapter

Temporal Passage and Being in Time

Johnston C (2022) Temporal Passage and Being in Time. In: Haddock A & Wiseman R (eds.) The Anscombean Mind. Routledge Philosophical Minds. London: Routledge, pp. 154-173. https://www.routledge.com/The-Anscombean-Mind/Haddock-Wiseman/p/book/9781138551367

Book Chapter

Solipsism And The Graspability Of Fact

Johnston C (2020) Solipsism And The Graspability Of Fact. In: Appelqvist H (ed.) Wittgenstein and the Limits of Language. Routledge Studies in Twentieth-Century Philosophy. New York: Routledge, pp. 46-64. https://www.routledge.com/Wittgenstein-and-the-Limits-of-Language-1st-Edition/Appelqvist/p/book/9780815385011

Book Chapter

Solipsism And The Graspability Of Fact

Johnston C (2020) Solipsism And The Graspability Of Fact. In: Appelqvist H (ed.) Wittgenstein and the Limits of Language. Routledge Studies in Twentieth-Century Philosophy. London: Routledge, pp. 46-64. https://www.routledge.com/Wittgenstein-and-the-Limits-of-Language/Appelqvist/p/book/9780815385011

Book Chapter

Wittgenstein on Representability and Possibility

Johnston C (2017) Wittgenstein on Representability and Possibility. In: Lapointe S & Pincock C (eds.) Innovations in the History of Analytical Philosophy. Palgrave Innovations in Philosophy. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 127-147. http://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9781137408075

Book Chapter

The Picture Theory

Johnston C (2017) The Picture Theory. In: Glock H & Hyman J (eds.) A Companion to Wittgenstein. London: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 141-158. http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118641167.html

Book Chapter

Russell, Wittgenstein and Synthesis in Thought

Johnston C (2012) Russell, Wittgenstein and Synthesis in Thought. In: Zalabardo J (ed.) Wittgenstein's Early Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 15-36. http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199691524.do#.ULik7O9kYcs

Book Review

Wittgenstein in Exile by James Klagge

Johnston C (2012) Wittgenstein in Exile by James Klagge. Review of: Wittgenstein in Exile, James Klagge, Cambridge, MA and London: MIT Press, 2011, 264pp, ISBN 9780262015349. Mind, 121 (482), pp. 490-494. http://mind.oxfordjournals.org/content/121/482/490.extract; https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/fzs071

Book Review

Objectivity and the Parochial by Charles Travis

Johnston C (2012) Objectivity and the Parochial by Charles Travis. Review of: Objectivity and the Parochial, Charles Travis, Oxford: OUP, 2011, 361pp. ISBN 9780199596218. Philosophical Quarterly, 62 (247), pp. 418-420. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9213.2011.00032.x

Book Chapter

Assertion, Saying, and Propositional Complexity in Wittgenstein's Tractatus

Johnston C (2011) Assertion, Saying, and Propositional Complexity in Wittgenstein's Tractatus. In: Kuusela O & McGinn M (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Wittgenstein. Oxford Handbooks in Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 60-78. http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199287505.do#.ULikVu9kYcs

Conference Paper (published)

The Determination of Form by Syntactic Employment: a Model and a Difficulty

Johnston C (2008) The Determination of Form by Syntactic Employment: a Model and a Difficulty. In: Hieke A & Leitgeb H (eds.) Papers of the 31st IWS, volume 16. 31st International Wittgenstein Symposium, Kirchberg am Wechsel, Austria, 10.08.2008-16.08.2008. Kirchberg am Wechsel: ALWS (Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society), pp. 156-158. http://wab.uib.no/ojs/agora-alws/article/view/1546

Book Review

Applying Wittgenstein by Rupert Read

Johnston C (2008) Applying Wittgenstein by Rupert Read. Review of: Read, Rupert: 'Applying Wittgenstein', Laura Cook (ed.), London: Continuum, 2007, 187pp, ISBN 9780826494504. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/23623-applying-wittgenstein/

Teaching

I teach undergraduate courses in metaphysics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of action.

At master's level I have taught courses in truth, Wittgenstein and the philosophy of time.

Research themes