Personal information

I have been an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the MCMP since November 2024. Before coming to the MCMP, I was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Manchester with an Analysis Studentship. I completed my PhD in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge in September 2023, where I also received an MPhil. I also did the Logic Year at the ILLC (University of Amsterdam) and have BA degrees in Philosophy and Musicology from Utrecht University.

Research interests

My research interests are relatively diffuse. I am currently working on (i) the development and historical roots of Russell's theory of existence, (ii) Carnapian approaches to neo-logicism and inferentialism, (iii) an empiricist framework for modality with a new semantics for first-order modal logic. I am also actively interested in the philosophical significance of James Baldwin's work and writing a paper on Baldwin and forgiveness.

Publications

  • Cohen, W.A. Forthcoming. "Carnapian neo-Fregeanism and the bad company objection". Australasian Journal of Philosophy.
  • Cohen, W.A. 2024. "The audibility problem and indirect listening". Australasian Journal of Philosophy 102: 147-158.
  • Cohen, W.A. and B. Marschall. 2023. "Would Carnap have tolerated modern metaphysics?". The Monist 106: 325-41.
  • Cohen. W.A. 2022. "Denoting concepts and ontology in Russell's Principles of Mathematics". Journal for the History of Analytic Philosophy 10(7): 1-22.