Dr Alex Silk

Department of Philosophy
Associate Professor in Philosophy

Contact details

Email
a.silk@bham.ac.uk
Address
ERI Building
University 麻豆精选
Edgbaston
B15 2TT
UK

I specialise in philosophy of language, ethics, and metaethics. My main research projects include work on context-sensitive language and normative and evaluative discourse. I also have projects on Nietzsche, predication, philosophy of law, and mood.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Philosophy (University of Michigan, 2013)
  • MA in Philosophy (University of Michigan, 2010)
  • BA in Philosophy (Wheaton College, 2008)

Biography

I'm an Associate Professor in Philosophy. I joined the philosophy department in 2013 after completing my PhD at the University of Michigan. I specialise in philosophy of language, ethics, and metaethics.聽

My research is driven by a deep commitment to mutually informed philosophical and linguistic inquiry. My 2016 book, 鈥� developed under grants from the British Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Leverhulme Trust 鈥� examines how speakers use context-sensitive language in coordinating their attitudes about how the discourse should evolve. The work on normative discourse ("Normative Language in Context," Oxford Studies in Metaethics, Vol. 12) was awarded the Marc Sanders Prize in Metaethics.聽

My Context Pronouns project integrates the previous treatment of context-sensitive expressions in a wider investigation of how linguistic form and interpretation depend on context. I am examining the prospects for a linguistic theory that posits representations of context in the structure and meaning of natural language. My 2021 book, , develops the formal framework and applies it to diverse phenomena with modal expressions, quantifiers, anaphora, relativization, and questions.聽

During 2025鈥�2026 I will be taking up a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship for my project Conditional Predicates in Context.

I also have projects on Nietzsche, vagueness, ellipsis, and philosophy of law.聽

My CV can be found .

Teaching

Classes taught:

  • Nietzsche
  • Philosophy of Language
  • Moral and Political Philosophy
  • Problems of Philosophy
  • Metaethics
  • Global Justice (postgraduate)
  • Research Skills and Methods (postgraduate)
  • Human Rights (postgraduate)
  • Global Ethics (postgraduate)

Postgraduate supervision

I'm happy to supervise graduate students in philosophy of language, ethics, and metaethics.

Find out more - our PhD Philosophy  page has information about doctoral research at the University 麻豆精选.

Research

  • Philosophy of Language, Metaethics, Ethics, Nietzsche

Grant projects:

  • The British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship: 鈥淐onditional Predicates in Context,鈥� 2025鈥�2026
  • Leverhulme Research Fellowship: 鈥淐ontext-Sensitivity in Normative Language and Discourse,鈥� 2019鈥�2020
  • AHRC Early Career Research Grant: 鈥淐ontext-Sensitivity in Natural Language,鈥� 2016鈥�2018

Publications

Highlight publications

Silk, A 2021, . Cambridge University Press.

Silk, A 2016, . Oxford University Press.

Silk, A 2022, . in B Dunaway & D Plunkett (eds), Meaning, decision, and norms: themes from the work of Allan Gibbard. Michigan Publishing, pp. 203-245.

Silk, A 2019, '', Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.

Silk, A 2017, . in Oxford Studies in Metaethics, Volume 12. Oxford University Press.

Recent publications

Article

Silk, A 2022, '', Natural Language Semantics, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 363-377.

Silk, A 2019, '', Journal of Philosophical Logic, pp. 1-42.

Silk, A 2019, '', Legal Theory, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 132-152.

Silk, A 2018, '', Natural Language Semantics, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 125-166.

Silk, A 2017, '', Philosophical Studies, vol. 174, no. 7, pp. 1773鈥�1799.

Silk, A 2017, '', Journal of Semantics, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 683-707.

Silk, A 2016, '', Journal of Semantics, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 19鈥�48.

Silk, A 2015, '', Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, vol. 91, no. 1, pp. 47-81.

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Silk, A 2019, . in D Plunkett, S Shapiro & K Toh (eds), Dimensions of Normativity: New Essays on Metaethics and Jurisprudence. Oxford University Press. <>

Silk, A 2018, . in P Katsafanas (ed.), The Nietzschean Mind (Routledge philosophical minds). Routledge, pp. 247-263.

Silk, A 2017, . in T Mcpherson & D Plunkett (eds), The Routledge Handbook of Metaethics. 1st Edition edn, Routledge, New York, pp. 102-118. <>

Book/Film/Article review

Silk, A 2021, '', Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, vol. 2021, no. 9. <>

Silk, A 2016, '', Analysis.

Conference contribution

Silk, A 2016, . in O Roy, M Willer & A Temminga (eds), Deontic logic and normative systems (DEON 2016): 13th International Conference, DEON 2016, Bayreuth, Germany. College Publications, pp. 237-256, Deontic Logic and Normative Systems, DEON 2016, Bayreuth, Germany, 18/07/16. <>

Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary

Silk, A & Railton, P 2015, . in J Wright (ed.), International Encyclopedia for the Social and Behavioral Sciences. 2nd edn, Elsevier, pp. 71-77.