Jonathan Ellis
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Department of Philosophy Cowell Faculty Services University of California, Santa Cruz     Santa Cruz, CA 95064 Phone: (831) 459-4249 Email: jellis at ucsc dot edu

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I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of California, Santa Cruz. I came to UC Santa Cruz in 2002 after receiving my Ph.D in philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley. I work primarily in philosophy of mind and epistemology, and also have research interests in philosophy of language, metaphysics, Hume, and Wittgenstein.

Here are some of the things I've been working on recently:

Conference: Wittgenstein and the Philosophy of Mind
In June 2007, my colleague, Daniel Guevara, and I hosted a week-long conference, "Wittgenstein and the Philosophy of Mind," here at UC Santa Cruz. The goal of the conference was to explore Wittgenstein's philosophy of mind and issues in contemporary philosophy of mind upon which Wittgenstein's work may bear significance. We had a line-up of world-renowned participants and a terrific series of sessions. Here is the schedule of events (and some photos).
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Writing
I am currently writing on a set of interrelated issues concerning thought, consciousness, and introspection. Some of my recent papers on these and some other topics are:

"Phenomenal Character, Phenomenal Concepts, and Externalism"    Abstract     PDF Draft
          Forthcoming in Philosophical Studies                                                                                                                

"Stroud's Modest Transcendental Argument"    Abstract     PDF Draft
          Forthcoming in The Possibility of Philosophical Understanding: Essays for Barry Stroud,          
          eds. J. Bridges, N. Kolodny, & W. Wong (Oxford University Press)

"The Relevance of Radical Interpretation"    Abstract     PDF Draft
          Forthcoming in The Hermeneutic Davidson, ed. J. Malpas (MIT Press)

"Content Externalism and Phenomenal Character: A New Worry about Privileged Access"
          Synthese, Vol 159, No. 1, 2007              Abstract     PDF Draft   [final version published on-line here]

"The Contents of Hume's Appendix and the Source of His Despair"    Abstract     PDF Draft
          Hume Studies, Vol 32, No. 2, 2006
                                                                         
"Color, Error, and Explanatory Power"    Abstract     PDF Draft
          Dialectica Vol 60, No. 2, 2006

"Thinking about Thinking about Thinking about Thinking (about Poker)"    Abstract     PDF Draft
          In Poker and Philosophy, ed. E. Bronson (Open Court, 2006)

"Colour Irrealism and the Formation of Colour Concepts"     Abstract     Article (PDF)
          Australasian Journal of Philosophy Vol 83, No. 1, 2005

"Context, Indexicals and the Sorites"    Abstract     Article (PDF)
          Analysis Vol 64, No. 4, 2004

"Philosophical Introspection and Phenomenal Character"     Abstract     
          Draft.  

"On the Concept of a Game"    PDF Draft 
          Draft.

"Knowing How To Do What You Can't Do"    Abstract     PDF Draft
          Draft.

Santa Cruz Language and Linguistics Group
I am co-director (with Pranav Anand and Donka Farkas) of the Santa Cruz Linguistics and Philosophy Group (SCLP), an interdisciplinary reading group comprised of faculty members and graduate students from philosophy and linguistics at U.C. Santa Cruz. The general focus of the group is in the areas of formal semantics, philosophy of language, and philosophical logic. SCLL hosts the ongoing Distinguished Visitor Series. Our visitors in 2006-07 were Kent Bach, Ned Block, Gregory Carlson, and Zoltán Gendler Szabó; in 2007-08 Peter Carruthers and Ernie Lepore; and in 2008-09 Sam Cumming and Adam Elga.


Recent Teaching

Winter 2009: Introduction to Philosophy (Phil 11)
Fall 2008: Philosophy of Mind (Phil 133/233)
Fall 2007: First-Quarter Graduate Seminar
Spring 2007: Wittgenstein and the Philosophy of Mind (graduate seminar)
Winter 2007: Introduction to Philosophy (Phil 11)
Fall 2006: Philosophy of Mind (Phil 133)
Winter 2006: Introduction to Philosophy (Phil 11)
Fall 2005: Knowledge & Rationality (Phil 121); Philosophy of Mind (Phil 133)
Spring 2005: The Empiricists (Phil 94)
Spring 2004: Wittgenstein (senior seminar)
Winter 2004: Introduction to Philosophy (Phil 11)
Fall 2003: Knowledge & Rationality (Phil 121); Philosophy of Mind (Phil 133)
Spring 2003: Introduction to Philosophy (Phil 11)
Winter 2003: Philosophy of Mind (Phil 133)
Fall 2002: Knowledge & Rationality (Phil 121); Introduction to Philosophy (Phil 11)

The Home Platos
Our department's mighty softball team


For a copy of my CV, click here
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