Personal information

Prof Stephenson teaches and researches on the history of philosophy from modernity to the present. His published work focuses on the philosophy of Kant and related topics in contemporary philosophy of mind, epistemology, metaphysics, and logic. He is the editor of the Oxford Handbook of Kant (with Anil Gomes), external examiner for the Oxford B.Phil., and Associate Editor at the Australasian Journal of Philosophy. He was previously Lecturer and Associate Professor at the University of Southampton, U.K, and he has held visiting positions at the Human Abilities KFG at FU and HU, Berlin, and the Research Center for Analytic German Idealism in Leipzig.

Prof Stephenson is currently writing a monograph in which he defends Kant's view of the connection between a priori knowledge and metaphysical necessity. He argues that Kripke and others misunderstand Kant, with the result that arguments for e.g. a posteriori necessity miss their mark - we must completely reassess the history of modal epistemology from Kant through German idealism to analytic philosophy.

Curriculum vitae

2025
Professor, LMU München
2025
Associate Professor, University of Southampton
2020-2022
Humboldt Senior Research Fellow, Forschungskolleg Analytik German Idealism, University of Leipzig
2020
Visiting Research Fellow, Human Abilities KFG, FU and HU, Berlin
2017-2025
Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Southampton
2015-2017
Leverhulme Visiting Researcher, HU, Berlin
2013-2015
Career Development Lecturer, Trinity College, University of Oxford
2013
D.Phil. in Philosophy, Merton College, University of Oxford

Selected publications

  • Kant's Modal Epistemology: an interpretation and defence, under contract with Oxford University Press