Contact Information
ahowat@fullerton.edu
Voice: 657-278-2157
Fax:657-278-6132
Dept: 657-278-3611
Contact Information
CSUF
800 N State College Blvd
Fullerton, CA
92831
Department Address
Humanities Building, Room 311D
Andrew Howat, Ph. D
Professor of Philosophy
Biography
I grew up in Scotland and studied philosophy as an undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh from 1997-2001 with terrific Professors like Rae Langton, Richard Holton, Alexander Bird, and Timothy Williamson. I did my PhD in Sheffield from 2002-2007 with Chris Hookway and Rob Hopkins (now at NYU).
My dissertation defended the idea that truth is a response-dependent concept and that this is a novel way to frame and defend philosophical pragmatism and its critique of metaphysical realism.
I arrived at CSUF in 2011 as an Assistant Professor. I was promoted to Associate Professor in 2017, and Full Professor in 2022.
I regularly teach metaphysics, philosophy of language, upper- and lower-division logic classes, and American Philosophy / pragmatism (particularly that of C.S. Peirce).
Degrees
2008, Ph.D, University of Sheffield
2001, M.A. (Hons), University of Edinburgh
Research Areas
Metaphysics; Language; Epistemology; American Pragmatism (esp. C.S. Peirce)
Courses Regularly Taught
PHIL 420 (Metaphysics), PHIL 435 (Philosophy of Language), PHIL368 (Symbolic Logic), PHIL 106 (Introduction to Logic), PHIL 100 (Introduction to Philosophy).
Publications
Howat, A; Bruschke, J.; Ocampo, M, (2022) "Critical thinking instruction for the post-truth era", Argumentation and Advocacy, DOI: 10.1080/10511431.2022.2125698
Howat, A. (forthcoming), 'Peirce on Truth', The Oxford Handbook of C. S. Peirce, De Waal, C. (Ed.)
Howat, A. (forthcoming), 'Pragmatism and Essence', Routledge Handbook of Essence, Koslicki, K & Raven, M. (Eds.)
Howat, A. (in press), 'Pragmatism and Philosophical Method', Routledge Handbook of Pragmatism, Aikin, S. & Talisse, R. (Eds.).
Howat, A. (2021) 'Justifying Belief in Legitimate Political Ideals (Commentary on Joshua Forstenzer’s Deweyan Experimentalism…)
', Aikin, S. (Ed.), Online Symposium for Syndicate Network, Posted 7/26/21
Howat, A. (2021) 'Pragmatism and Correspondence
', Philosophia, 49 (2):685-704.
Howat, A. (2019), Commentary on Robert Lane’s ‘Peirce on Realism and Idealism’
, Aikin, S. (Ed.), Online Symposium for Syndicate Network, Posted 7/4/19
Howat, A. (2018) 'Misak's Peirce and Pragmatism's Metaphysical Commitments
.' Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, 54 (3): 378-394.
Howat, A. W. (2018) 'Constituting Assertion: A Pragmatist Critique of Horwich's "Truth"', Synthese, Special Issue, 195 (3), 935-954 (Wright, C. and Ulatowski, J. (Eds)).
Howat, A. W. (2015) 'Hookway's Peirce on Assertion & Truth', Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, 51, no. 4 (2015): 419-43.
Howat, A. (2014) 'Peirce on Grounding the Laws of Logic
' in Transactions of the Charles Sanders Peirce Society, Vol. 50, No. 4, 480-500.
Howat, A.W. (2014) 'Prospects for Peircean Truth
' in Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 44, Issue 3-4.
Howat, A.W. (2013) ‘Regulative Assumptions, Hinge Propositions and the Peircean Conception of Truth’ in Erkenntnis, 78 (2): 451-468
Howat, A.W. (2011). 'Shallow Versus Deep Response-Dependence
'. Philosophical Studies: Volume 156, Issue 2 (2011), Page 155-172.
Scholarly Work
My primary research goal is to generate a more constructive dialogue between mainstream M&E and the pragmatist tradition (broadly construed). My primary case study is theories of truth. My current research project focuses on the idea that pragmatism's conception of truth and its relationship to metaphysics, particularly as envisioned by its founder C.S. Peirce, is widely misunderstood. In particular, I argue that pragmatism's conception of truth is a way of reconstructing, rather than rejecting, concepts such as realism, mind-independence, and objectivity. In recent years I have been especially influenced by the work of several remarkable pragmatism scholars, particularly Cheryl Misak, Robert Lane, Diana Heney, Ken Boyd, Cathy Legg, Richard Kenneth Atkins, and Shannon Dea, among others.
Office Hours
MW 10:00-11:00 a.m. (in person)
Online Office Hours
Tuesdays 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Please email or DM me on Discord to join.
Current Course Schedule
Spring 2023
Symbolic Logic (PHIL 368-01)
M/W 11:30 a.m.
Intro to Logic (PHIL 106-02)
M/W 1:00 p.m.
Next Semester Course Schedule
Fall 2023
American Philosophy (PHIL 379)
M/W 11:30 a.m.
Argument & Writing (PHIL 315)
M/W 1:00 p.m.
Intro to Logic (PHIL 106-01)
M/W 10:00 a.m.
