Assistant University

BRIAN A. EPSTEIN

Philosophy Department

Miner Hall, 14 Upper Campus Rd. email: abpvic@r.postjobfree.com

Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155 website: www.epstein.org/brian

PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS

Sept. 2009-present

Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Tufts University, Medford, MA

Sept. 2004-Aug. 2009

Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA

Associate, Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought

Associate, Program in Judaic Studies

EDUCATION

Ph.D, Philosophy

Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 2004

Dissertation title: Simple Words and Subtle Things: Social Kinds and the Making of Reference

Dissertation committee: John Etchemendy, John Perry, Kenneth Taylor, Mark Crimmins

M.St, Philosophy

University of Oxford, New College, Oxford, England, 1992

A.B. (Summa Cum Laude), Philosophy

Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 1990

Thesis in epistemology (advisor: David Lewis)

PUBLICATIONS

Building the Social World: Ontological Individualism vs. Anchor Individualism, accepted, to

appear in volume edited by Colin Finn and Julie Zahle.

Review of The SAGE Handbook of the Philosophy of Social Sciences, ed. by Jarvie and Zamorra-

Bonilla, accepted, to appear in Economics and Philosophy (March 2013).

Social Objects without Intentions, in press, in Social Ontology, ed. by Anita Konzelmann Ziv,

Hans Bernhard Schmid, and Ulla Schmid. Dordrecht: Springer 2012.

Review of Creations of the Mind, edited by Margolis and Laurence, Mind 121, No. 481 (2012), 200-

204.

Sortals and Criteria of Identity, Analysis 72, No. 3 (2012), 474-478.

The Perils of Tweaking: How to Use Macrodata to Set Parameters in Complex Simulation

Models with Patrick Forber, Synthese (2012) doi: 10.1007/s11229-012-0142-7.

Agent-Based Models and the Fallacies of Individualism, in Models, Simulations, and

Representations, ed. by Paul Humphreys and Cyrille Imbert, pp. 115-144. New York:

Routledge, 2011.

The Diviner and the Scientist: Revisiting the Question of Alternative Standards of Rationality,

Journal of the American Academy of Religion 78, No. 4 (2010), 1048-1086.

History and the Critique of Social Concepts, Philosophy of the Social Sciences 40, No. 1 (2010), 3-

29.

Ontological Individualism Reconsidered, Synthese 166, No. 1 (2009), 187-213.

Grounds, Convention, and the Metaphysics of Linguistic Tokens, Croatian Journal of Philosophy

9 No. 25 (2009), 45-67.

The Realpolitik of Reference, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 89 (2008), 1-20.

Brian A. Epstein Curriculum Vitae page 2

When Local Models Fail, Philosophy of the Social Sciences 38 (2008), 3-24.

The Internal and the External in Linguistic Explanation, Croatian Journal of Philosophy 8 No. 22

(2008), 77-111.

Review of Language: A Biological Model by Ruth Millikan, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (April

2006).

PRESENTATIONS AND INVITED TALKS

The Roles of Cognition in Social Ontology, Objects in Mind, Aarhus, Denmark, June 25-26, 2012.

The Puppet-Master: When Individual Intentions are Irrelevant to Group Intentions, American

Philosophical Association, Eastern Division Meeting, Washington, DC, December 27-30, 2011.

Economics and Nonsupervenience, International Network for Economic Methodology Conference,

Helsinki, Finland, September 1-3, 2011.

Two Kinds of Ontological Individualism, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Copenhagen,

Denmark, August 28-29, 2011.

Metaphysics in Social Science, Metaphysics and Philosophy of Science, Toronto, ON, May 13-15,

2011.

The Perils of Tweaking, Epistemology of Modeling and Simulation National Conference, Pittsburgh,

PA, April 1-3, 2011.

Comments on D. Kwon, How Dthat Can Model That, American Philosophical Association,

Eastern Division, Boston, MA, December 27-30, 2010.

Roundtable Participant, Atlas Economics Conference, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA,

September 9-12, 2010.

Social Objects Without Intentions, Collective Intentionality VII, Basel, Switzerland, August 22-26,

2010.

The Perils of Tweaking: When Can Macrodata be Used to Set Parameters in a Microfoundational

Simulation? Models and Simulations 4, Toronto ON, May 7-9, 2010.

Comments on Ori Simchen, The Necessity of Reference, Inland Northwest Philosophy Conference,

Moscow, ID and Pullman, WA, April 30-May 2, 2010.

The Foundations and Metafoundations of Objects, Auburn Philosophy Conference on Ordinary

Objects, Auburn, AL, March 25-28, 2010.

Liberty Fund Roundtable, Conference on the Works of James Buchanan, Blacksburg, VA, September

20-23, 2009.

History and the Critique of Social Concepts, Philosophy of the Social Sciences Roundtable, Atlanta,

GA, March 20-22, 2009.

Agent-Based Modeling and the Fallacies of Individualism, Modeling and Simulations 3,

Charlottesville, VA, March 6-8, 2009.

A Theory of External Linguistic Objects, International Conference on the Philosophy of Linguistics,

Dubrovnik, Croatia, September 8-12, 2008

Nonlocal Properties and Modeling Social Change, Collective Intentionality VI: Social Change,

Berkeley, CA, July 8-11, 2008

Economics and Nonsupervenience, Sydney-Tilburg Conference on Reduction and the Special

Sciences, Tilburg, Netherlands, April 10-12, 2008

The Internal and the External in Linguistic Explanation, Virginia Tech, November 2007

Ontological Individualism Reconsidered, University of Virginia, September 2007

The Internal and the External in Linguistic Explanation, International Conference on the

Philosophy of Linguistics, Dubrovnik, Croatia, July 2007

When Local Models Fail, Philosophy of the Social Sciences Roundtable, Tampa, FL, March 2007

Brian A. Epstein Curriculum Vitae page 3

Ontological Individualism, Colloquium for the Alliance of Social, Political, and Cultural Thought,

November 2006

Intervening in the Aggregate, The Social Sciences and Democracy, Ghent, Belgium, September

2006

Comments on George Ainslie s Picoeconomics and the Breakdown of the Will, James M.

Buchanan Colloquium, May 2006

Experiences in the Academy, Keasbey Foundation 50th Anniversary Conference, September 2005

The Realpolitik of Reference, 4th Barcelona Workshop on Reference, Barcelona, Spain, June 2005

Comments on Elaine Scarry s Visual Cognition, Cognitive Science and the Humanities Conference,

Stanford University, November 2004

Reference Fixing and Social Kinds, Stanford Humanities Center, Stanford University, February

2004

Conceptual Schemes and The Two Wittgensteins, Stanford Humanities Center, Stanford

University, November 2003

Playing it Loud at Half-Three: On Musical and Temporal Concepts, Philosophy Colloquium,

Stanford University, April 2003

How to Succeed in Reference Without Really Trying, Graduate Student Philosophy Colloquium,

Stanford University, March 2003

MEDIA

WGBH Radio

Interview on the Public Sphere, February 2012.

Interview on Recognition, for radio series Recognizing Bruce, January 2011.

HONORS AND FELLOWSHIPS

Tufts Junior Faculty Research Leave, Tufts, Academic year 2011-2012

Institute for Society, Culture and the Environment, Virginia Tech, Research Fellowship, Spring

2008

Virginia Tech International Travel Grants, Fall 2007, Fall 2006, and Summer 2005

Humanities Summer Stipend Award, Virginia Tech, for work on History and the Constitution of

Social Objects, Summer 2006

Geballe Dissertation Fellowship, year in residence at Stanford Humanities Center, 2003-2004

Mellon Dissertation Completion Fellowship, 2002-2003

Stanford University Fellowship, for graduate study, 1996-1998, 2001-2002

Keasbey Foundation Scholarship, full tuition and stipend for study at University of Oxford in

Philosophy, 1991-1992

Dickinson Thesis Prize, Princeton University, 1990

RECENT SERVICE

Profession

Reviewer for British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Economics and Philosophy, Erkenntnis,

Philosophical Quarterly, Journal of Economic Methodology, Theoria, Philosophy of the Social Sciences,

Perspectives on Science, Croatian Journal of Philosophy, International Studies in Philosophy of

Science, Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences

Grant reviewer, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

Session Chair, Pacific APA, San Francisco, CA, April 2007

Referee, Stanford Humanities Center Fellowships, Fall 2009, Fall 2008, Fall 2007, Fall 2006, Fall 2005

Brian A. Epstein Curriculum Vitae page 4

Departmental

Graduate Admissions, 2009-2010

Faculty Search, 2009-2010

Library Liaison, 2009-2011

IT Liaison, 2009-2010

Member, Teaching and Honorifics Committee, 2008-2009

Member, Graduate committee (including graduate admissions, graduate curriculum and

policies), 2005-2008

Member, Philosophy of Science search committee, 2005-2006, 2007-2008

Faculty advisor, Philosophy Club, 2004-2007

Chair, Curriculum Committee (including undergraduate curriculum, major requirements, and

course offerings), 2004-2005

Member, Ethical Theory search committee, 2004-2005

Member, Political Philosophy search committee, 2004-2005

Graduate admissions, 2004-2005

Logic curriculum design subcommittee, 2004-2005

Ongoing participation in department bylaws development, 2004-2006

Session chair, Symposium on Visual Images, April 2006

University

Member, Steering committee for college strategic plan, College of Liberal Arts and Human

Sciences, 2008-2009

Member, Discovery domain committee for college strategic plan, College of Liberal Arts and

Human Sciences, 2008-2009

Search committee, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, 2006-2007

Worked with Provost on development and improvement of University Strategic Plan, 2005-2006

Ongoing participation in design of new interdisciplinary PhD in Alliance for Social, Political,

Ethical, and Cultural Thought, 2005-present

Ongoing participation in facilitating coordination of University strategic plan with planning in

the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, 2005-present

COURSES TAUGHT

Metaphysics, (core for majors and graduate students), Tufts, Spring 2010, Spring 2011

Language, Thought, and Culture, (introductory undergraduate course), Tufts, Spring 2011

The Metaphysics of Language, (seminar for graduates and undergraduates), Tufts, Fall 2010

Philosophy of Social Science, (intermediate-level survey of historical and contemporary work),

Tufts, Fall 2009, Fall 2010

Social Construction, (seminar on history and contemporary analysis of social construction, with

applications to the theory of race), Tufts, Spring 2010

Metaphysics of Material Objects, (upper-level seminar on recent literature), Tufts, Fall 2009

Speech Acts and Pragmatics, Virginia Tech, Spring 2009

Metalogic (formal results through L wenheim-Skolem and G del incompleteness), Virginia

Tech, Spring 2006, Spring 2009. Crosslisted graduate/undergraduate class.

Symbolic Logic (first-order logic, proofs, translation, and introduction to metatheory), Virginia

Tech, Fall 2004, Fall 2005, Fall 2006, Fall 2007, Fall 2008

Brian A. Epstein Curriculum Vitae page 5

Groups and Individuals (seminar on realism and methodological individualism, with a focus on

the philosophy of economics), Virginia Tech, Spring 2005. Crosslisted with Department of

Economics.

The Construction of Social Reality (seminar on the metaphysics of social kinds and the

semantics of social kind terms), Virginia Tech, Spring 2004

Musical Indeterminacy (composition and philosophy of music seminar), Stanford University,

Spring 2002. Team-taught with Mark Applebaum, composer and associate professor of

music.

Modern Logic and Its Development (intermediate symbolic logic, up to polyadic quantified

logic with identity, proof strategies, and translations), Virginia Tech, Fall 2004, Fall 2005, Fall

2006, Fall 2007, Fall 2008

Language and Logic (critical thinking, argumentation, and introduction to Aristotelian syllogistic

and sentential logic), Virginia Tech, Fall 2004

As Teaching Assistant, Stanford University:

Philosophy of Science (Godfrey-Smith)

Mathematical Logic and Metatheory (Antonelli)

Introduction to Greek Philosophy (Bobonich)

Introduction to Modern Philosophy (Anderson)

ECONOMICS AND LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE

1999 2001 Took three year leave from graduate work at Stanford to found venture-funded

internet company. Also in 2001 advised Korean government on curriculum for technology

entrepreneurs.

1993 1996 Economics and strategy consultant, focusing on economic modeling, finance, and

technology, for Monitor Company and Palo Alto Ventures. Based in Cambridge MA and

Palo Alto, CA; major projects in New York, Tokyo, Tel Aviv, and Eindhoven.

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