I first studied philosophy as a PPE student at Balliol College, Oxford; but I was initially drawn to it in part through watching popular science programmes on TV, in part through issues that arose in my RE classes at my secondary school.

1986-91: Prize Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford
1991-98: Reader in Philosophy, University of Essex
1998: I was appointed a Fellow of New College
2008: I was awarded the title of ‘Professor of Philosophy’

What I most value about New College is the opportunity it gives me to teach philosophy by means of weekly tutorials. It’s the closest I can come to the model of Socratic conversation that founded my subject, and that is still the most effective way of inculcating its values.

Research Interests

The philosophy of Wittgenstein
Post-Kantian French and German Philosophy (especially Heidegger, Sartre and Nietzsche)
Philosophy and the arts (particularly literature and film)

Selected Major Publications:

• ‘On Film: Third Edition’ (2016)
• ‘The Great Riddle: Wittgenstein and Nonsense, Theology and Philosophy’ (2015)
• 'The Self and Its Shadows: A Book of Essays on Individuality as Negation in Philosophy and the Arts' (2013)
• 'The Wounded Animal: J.M.Coetzee and the difficulty of reality in literature and philosophy' (2009)