BEN CAPLAN ~ CV

 

337F University Hall

230 North Oval Mall

Department of Philosophy

Ohio State University

Columbus, OH

USA 43210

 

614.292.2479

caplan dot 16 at osu dot edu

 

EMPLOYMENT

  

Instructor, UCLA, Summer 2000, Summer 2001

 

Assistant Professor, University of Manitoba, 2002-2005

 

Associate Professor (untenured), University of Manitoba, 2005-2006

 

          Visiting Associate Professor, UCLA, Spring 2006

 

          Associate Professor, OSU, 2006-

 

EDUCATION

  

BA, Philosophy (Honours) with First Class Honours, McGill, 1996

 

Thesis: "Consistency and the Frege-Hilbert Correspondence"

 

Supervisor: Michael Hallett

 

MA, Philosophy, UCLA, 1998

 

PhD, Philosophy, UCLA, 2002

 

Dissertation: Empty Names: An Essay on the Semantics, Pragmatics, Metaphysics, and Epistemology of Empty Names and Other Directly Referential Expressions

 

Committee: David Kaplan (chair), Tyler Burge, Ed Keenan, Sean Kelsey, Tony Martin, Terry Parsons, Nathan Salmon

 

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION

 

Metaphysics, Philosophy of Language

 

AREAS OF COMPETENCE

 

History of Analytic Philosophy, Logic

 

PUBLICATIONS

 

Papers (refereed)

 

1.       "What's Puzzling Gottlob Frege?," Canadian Journal of Philosophy 31.2 (June 2001): 159-200, with Mike Thau.

 

For replies, see Richard G. Heck, Jr., "Frege on Identity and Identity-Statements: A Reply to Thau and Caplan," Canadian Journal of Philosophy 33.1 (March 2003): 83-102; and Gilead Bar-Elli, "Identity in Frege's Begriffsschrift: Where Both Thau-Caplan and Heck Are Wrong," Canadian Journal of Philosophy 36.3 (Sept. 2006): 355-370.

 

2.       "Quotation and Demonstration," Philosophical Studies 111.1 (Oct. 2002): 69-80.

  

3.       "Putting Things in Contexts," Philosophical Review 112.2 (April 2003): 191-214.

 

4.       "Can a Musical Work Be Created?," British Journal of Aesthetics 44.2 (April 2004): 113-134, with Carl Matheson.

 

5.       "Creatures of Fiction, Myth, and Imagination," American Philosophical Quarterly 41.4 (Oct. 2004): 331-337.

 

6.       "Fusions and Ordinary Physical Objects," Philosophical Studies 125.1 (July 2005): 61-83, with Bob Bright.

 

7.       "Why So Tense About the Copula?," Mind 114.455 (July 2005): 703-708.   

         

8.       "Against Widescopism," Philosophical Studies 125.2 (August 2005): 167-190.

 

          9.       "Defending Musical Perdurantism," British Journal of Aesthetics 46.1 (Jan. 2006): 59-69, with Carl Matheson.

 

                             For a reply, see Julian Dodd, Works of Music: An Essay in Ontology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 156-162.

 

10.     "A New Defence of the Modal Existence Requirement," Synthese 154.2 (Jan. 2007): 335-343.

 

11.     "Millian Descriptivism," Philosophical Studies 133.2 (March 2007): 181-198.

 

                   For a reply, see Jeff Speaks, "Millian Descriptivism Defended," Philosophical Studies (forthcoming).

 

12.     "Fine Individuation," British Journal of Aesthetics 47.2 (April 2007): 113-137, with Carl Matheson.

 

13.     "On the Content of Experience," Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 75.3 (Nov. 2007): 590-611, with Tim Schroeder.

 

14.            "Defending 'Defending Musical Perdurantism'," British Journal of Aesthetics 48.1 (Jan. 2008): 80-85, with Carl Matheson.

 

15.            "Modality, Individuation, and the Ontology of Art," Canadian Journal of Philosophy 38.4 (Dec. 2008): 491-517, with Carl Matheson.

 

16.     "The Way Things Were," Philosophy and Phenomenological Research (forthcoming), with David Sanson.

 

Reviews, encyclopedia entries, etc. (invited)

 

1.                 Review of Alan Berger, Terms and Truth: Reference Direct and Anaphoric, Dialogue 43.3 (Summer 2004): 617-619.

 

2.       Review of Jerrold J. Katz, Sense, Reference, and Philosophy, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (1 Jan. 2005).

 

3.       "Empty names," The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2nd ed., ed. Keith Brown, vol. 4 (Philosophy and Language, ed. Robert Stainton and Alex Barber) (Oxford: Elsevier, 2006), 132-136.

 

4.       "Existence," The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2nd ed., ed. Keith Brown, vol. 4 (Philosophy and Language, ed. Robert Stainton and Alex Barber) (Oxford: Elsevier, 2006), 371-374.

 

5.       "Kaplan, David Benjamin," The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd ed., ed. Donald Borchert (Detroit, MI: Macmillan, 2006).

 

6.       "On Sense and Direct Reference," Philosophy Compass 1.1 (Feb. 2006): 171-185. Reprinted in On Sense and Direct Reference: Readings in the Philosophy of Language, ed. Matthew Davidson (Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2007), 2-16.

 

7.       Review of Stefano Predelli, Contexts, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (17 Nov. 2006; corrected 29 Nov. 2006).

 

          8.       Review of Julian Dodd, Works of Music: An Essay in Ontology, British Journal of Aesthetics 47.4 (Oct. 2007): 445-446.

 

          9.       Review of Trenton Merricks, Truth and Ontology, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (16 Feb. 2008).

 

PROMISED

 

          "Ontology," with Carl Matheson, for The Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Music, ed. Ted Gracyk and Andrew Kania (invited)

 

PRESENTATIONS

 

"A Comment on Michael Nelson's 'Descriptivism Defended'"

·        APA Pacific Division Meeting, Albuquerque, NM, April 2000 (invited)

 

"Empty Names and Gappy Propositions"

·        SEP Annual Meeting, Université de Montréal, May 2001 (Foreign Graduate Student Travel Award) (refereed)

          ·        UBC, January 2002 (invited)

 

"In the Realm of the Senses"

·        Purdue, January 2002 (invited)

·        University of Alberta, February 2002 (invited)

·        University of Manitoba, March 2003 (invited)

 

"Creatures of Fiction, Myth, and Imagination

·        University of Manitoba, January 2002 (as "Salmon on 'Vulcan'") (invited)

·        Institute for the Humanities, University of Manitoba, March 2003 (as "Fictional Characters and Other Abstract Objects") (invited) 

 

"A Comment on Tim Kenyon's 'Paradox and Factivity'"

·        CPA Annual Congress, Dalhousie, June 2003 (invited)

 

"Meinong for Non-Meinongians"

·        WCPA Annual Conference, University of Lethbridge, October 2003 (refereed)

 

"Putting Things in Contexts"

·        APA Pacific Division Meeting, Seattle, WA, March 2002 (as "Putting Things in Contexts: A Comment on Nathan Salmon's 'Demonstrating and Necessity'") (invited)

·        DavidFest, UCLA, October 2003 (as "David (and Some of His Many Students) on Demonstratives") (invited)

·        UMASS, February 2004 (invited)

 

"A Comment on Mark McCullagh's 'Understanding Mixed Quotation'"

·        CPA Annual Congress, University of Manitoba, May 2004 (invited)

 

"A Comment on David Braun's 'Now You Know Who Hong Oak Yun Is'"

·        Camp De Re, Queen's, September 2004 (invited)

 

"A Comment on Steven Savitt's 'Presentism and Eternalism in Perspective'"

·        WCPA Annual Congress, University of Victoria, October 2004 (invited)

 

"On the Content of Experience," with Tim Schroeder

·        APA Pacific Division Meeting, San Francisco, CA, March 2005 (refereed)

 

"Millian Descriptivism"

·        CPA Annual Congress, University of Manitoba, May 2004 (refereed)

·                     Queen's, November 2004 (invited)

·        University of Calgary, March 2005 (invited)

·        University of Nottingham, May 2005 (invited)

    

          "Frege on the Identity Relation and Identity Sentences: A Reply to Heck," with Michael Thau

·        Frege, Identity and Logic Conference, SAS, University of London, May 2005 (invited)

 

"A Comment on Richard Heck's 'A Little Orthodoxy'"

·        Frege, Identity and Logic Conference, SAS, University of London, May 2005 (invited)

 

          "A Comment on Bernard Linsky's 'Bertrand Russell's Notes on Frege's Theory of Sinn and Bedeutung'"

·        CPA Annual Congress, University of Western Ontario, May 2005 (invited)

 

"A Comment on Gideon Rosen's 'The Alethic Conception of Culpability'"

·        WCPA Annual Conference, University of Manitoba, October 2005 (invited)

 

"A Comment on Ori Simchen's 'Actualist Essentialism and General Possibilities'"

·        WCPA Annual Conference, University of Manitoba, October 2005 (invited)

 

"Frege's Puzzles"

·        Reference and Attitude, UQÀM, April 2006 (invited)

 

"Fine Individuation," with Carl Matheson

·        University of Winnipeg, March 2006 (invited)

·                     APA Pacific Division Meeting, Portland, OR, March 2006 (invited)

·                     WCPA Annual Conference, SFU, October 2006 (refereed)

 

"Modality, Individuation, and the Ontology of Art," with Carl Matheson

·                     McGill, November 2005 (invited)

·                     Auburn, March 2007 (invited)

·                     APA Pacific Division Meeting, San Francisco, CA, March 2007 (refereed)

 

"A Comment on Saikat Guha's 'On Being Ontologically Committed'"

·        10th Annual INPC, Boise State, March 2007 (invited)

 

"The Way Things Were," with David Sanson

·        8th Annual INPC, University of Idaho and WSU, April 2005 (refereed)

·        APA Central Division Meeting, Chicago, IL, April 2005 (refereed)

·        CPA Annual Congress, University of Western Ontario, May 2005 (refereed)

·                     Franklin and Marshall, September 2007 (invited)

·                     CMU, November 2007 (invited)

·                     Illinois State, February 2008 (invited)

 

          "Locality and Necessity," with David Sanson

          ·        OSU, August 2007 (invited)

·                     Maryland, September 2007 (invited)

·                     Carleton, January 2008 (invited)

·                     APA Pacific Division Meeting, Pasadena, CA, March 2008 (refereed)

 

"A Comment on Kris McDaniel's 'A Return to the Analogy of Being'"

·                     11th Annual INPC, University of Idaho and WSU, March 2008 (invited)

 

"A Comment on Arthur Sullivan's 'Multiple-Proposition Views in Recent Philosophy of Language: A Preliminary Investigation'"

        CPA Annual Congress, UBC, May 2008 (invited)

 

"A Comment on Chris Tillman's 'Musical Materialism'"

·        APA Central Division Meeting, Chicago, IL, February 2009 (invited)

         

"Against Sonicism," with Carl Matheson

        James Madison, September 2008 (invited)

        SUNY Fredonia, March 2009 (invited)

·                     APA Pacific Division Meeting, Vancouver, BC, April 2009 (refereed)

 

"A Comment on Lee Brown's 'Higher-Level Ontologies of Popular Music: Who Needs Them?'"

·        ASA Pacific Division Meeting, Pacific Grove, CA, April 2009 (invited)

 

"Parts of Singletons," with Chris Tillman and Pat Reeder

·        Syracuse, October 2005 (as "Sets and Sandwiches") (invited)

·        OSU, November 2005 (as "Sets and Sandwiches") (invited)

·                     UCSB, June 2006 (as "Sets and Sandwiches") (invited)

·                     SEP Annual Meeting, University of Alberta, May 2009 (refereed)

 

"A Comment on Octavian Ion's 'Some Concerns Regarding the Direct-Reference Theory of Belief Reports"

·        CPA Annual Congress, Carleton University, May 2009 (invited)

 

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

  

Introductory undergraduate courses

 

Ancient Philosophy (Summer 2000)

Critical Thinking (Fall 2002, Winter 2003, Winter 2004)

                Intro (Winter 2007, Winter 2008, Winter 2009, Fall 2009)

Logic (Fall 2006, Fall 2008, Winter 2010)

Metaphysics (Fall 2003, Fall 2004, Fall 2007)

Philosophy of Language (Winter 2005, Winter 2006)

 

Graduate and advanced undergraduate courses

 

Descartes (Summer 2001)

First-Year Seminar (Fall 2007, Fall 2008)

Frege (Winter 2003)

History of Analytic Philosophy (Winter 2004, Fall 2004, Winter 2008)

Metaphysics (Winter 2004, Winter 2005, Spring 2006, Fall 2006, Winter 2007, Fall 2009)

          Modal Logic (Winter 2006)

          Ontology of Art (Spring 2006, Winter 2009)

          Philosophy of Language (Winter 2010)

 

GRANTS AND AWARDS

  

Prince of Wales Gold Medal in Moral and Mental Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, McGill, 1995-1996

 

Robert M. Yost Prize for Excellence in Teaching, Department of Philosophy, UCLA, 1999-2000

 

Rudolf and Ina Carnap Essay Prize, Department of Philosophy, UCLA, 1998-1999, 2000-2001, 2001-2002

 

Standard Research Grant, SSHRC, 2004-2006 ($47,350; declined 2006-2007)

 

REFEREEING

 

For journals

 

American Philosophical Quarterly

Australasian Journal of Philosophy**

British Journal of Aesthetics*

Canadian Journal of Philosophy**

dialectica*

Dialogue*

Erkenntnis*

Journal of Philosophical Logic*

Journal of Philosophical Research

Journal of Pragmatics*

Mind*

Noûs

Pacific Philosophical Quarterly

Philosophia

Philosophical Papers

Philosophical Studies**

Philosophical Quarterly**

Philosophy Compass

Philosophy and Phenomenological Research*

Review of Symbolic Logic

Southern Journal of Philosophy

Synthese*

 

For conferences

 

          Context 05: Workshop on the semantics-pragmatics distinction*

CPA*

WCPA*

 

For presses

 

MIT

Oxford*

Princeton 

 

* more than one but fewer than five assignments

** five or more assignments

 

DEPARTMENT AND UNIVERSITY SERVICE

         

At the University of Manitoba

 

Budget and Personnel Committee, 2004-2006

Hiring Committee, 2004-2006

M.A. Comprehensive Exams Committees

·        Philosophy of Language, 2002-2006

·        Philosophy of Law, 2003-2006

·        Metaphysics, 2002-2006

·                     Philosophy of Religion, 2002-2006

Visiting Speakers' Committee, 2003-2006

 

At OSU

 

Bingham Award Committee, 2008-2009

Curriculum Committee, 2007-2008 (ex officio), 2008-2009

          Executive Committee, 2007-2008 (ex officio)

Fink Award Committee, 2006-2007

          Graduate Admissions Committee, 2006-2007

          Graduate Committee, 2006-2007, 2007-2008 (chair), 2008-2009

          Graduate Faculty Representative

·        Ila Nagar, "Language, Gender and Identity: The Case of Kotis in Lucknow, India," Department of Linguistics, PhD defense, September 2008

Placement Committee, 2007-2008 (ex officio)

Reading Committees

·                     David Sanson, 2007-2008 (chair)

·                     Kevin Scharp, 2008-2009

·                     Declan Smithies, 2007-2008

·                     Dawn Starr, 2008-2009

Search Committee, 2007-2008

Teaching Evaluation and Assessment Committee, 2008-2009

 

OTHER SERVICE

 

APA Central Division

                   Program Committee, 2010

 

          Oberlin, external examiner

Stephanie Malik "Perdurantism, Endurantism, and a New Puzzle of Coincidence," BA honors thesis defended December 2008

         

SEP

          Subject Editor (Philosophy of Language), 2007-

 

          SSHRC

Member, Doctoral Fellowships Committee 2 (Humanities), 2005

                   Member, Postdoctoral Fellowships Committee 1 (Humanities), 2007-2008

 

WCPA

                   Co-organizer, Annual Conference, 2005

 

SUPERVISION

 

As advisor

 

1.       Mark Barber, University of Manitoba.

"Sets and Fictions," MA thesis defended July 2004.

Fall 2004 - : PhD student at Syracuse.         

 

2.                 Lowell Friesen, University of Manitoba.

"A New Defence of Natural Class Trope Nominalism," MA thesis defended August 2005.

Fall 2005 - : PhD student at UMASS.

         

3.       Sam Cowling, University of Manitoba.

"Neither Simples Nor Gunk," MA thesis defended August 2005.

Fall 2006 - : PhD student at UMASS.

 

4.                 Joe LoVetri, University of Manitoba.

          "Metaphysics of Laws of Nature," MA thesis defended August 2006.

Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Associate Dean (Research and Graduate Programs), Faculty of Engineering

 

5.       Wesley Cray, OSU.

Candidacy examination 2007-2008, qualifying examination 2008-2009.       

 

6.       Cathy Muller, OSU.

Candidacy examination 2006-2007 (non-advisor member), qualifying examination 2007-2008.

 

7.       Scott Brown, OSU.

Candidacy examination 2009-2010.

 

As non-advisor committee member

           

          1.       Cynthia N. Read, University of Manitoba.

"A Diachronic Identity Criterion for Artworks," MA thesis defended July 2003.

Fall 2003 - : PhD student at McGill.

 

2.       Dale C. Matthew, University of Manitoba.

"Justification, Truth and Internalism," MA thesis defended August 2003. 

 

          3.       Lori Callaghan, University of Manitoba.

"Artworks as Abstract Objects," MA thesis defended August 2004.

Fall 2004 – Spring 2006: PhD student at UMASS.            

 

4.                 Dave McElhoes, University of Manitoba.

 "Systems of Parts and Persons: A Functionalist Approach to Personal Identity," MA thesis defended August 2006.

Fall 2006 - : PhD student at Maryland.

 

5.                 Julian Condo, OSU.

"Poetic Progress in the Odes of John Keats," BA thesis defended May 2008.

 

          6.       Salvatore Florio, OSU.

Dissertation committee 2008- .

 

          7.       Eric Carter, OSU.

                             Dissertation committee 2008- .

 

8.       Patrick Reeder, OSU.

Candidacy examination 2006-2007, qualifying examination 2007-2009.

 

9.                 Michael Martin, OSU.

Candidacy examination 2008-2009.

 

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

 

APA, CPA