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Devin Frank

Instructor

Disciplines

  • Philosophy
  • Epistemology
  • Philosophy of Language

Research Interests

  • I am primarily interested in issues at the intersection of philosophy of language and metaphysics. My research focuses on the nature of propositional content - the objects of belief and other so-called propositional attitudes, the meanings of declarative sentences, and the primary bearers of truth and falsity. If the object of belief is distinct from my believing it, and the meaning of a sentence distinct from the sentence (and capable of serving as the meaning of sentences from different languages), what is this thing that is believed or expressed by a sentence and how do we grasp it in thought? I defend a minimalist conception of propositions which takes them to be primitives within a semantic theory. This view stands in contrast to substantive accounts of propositions which take them to be structured entities composed of constituents unified in some way, or set-theoretic entities built up from possible worlds.

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  1. Philosophy

Discipline

    1. Philosophy
    2. Communication 1
    3. Ancient Philosophy 1
    4. Epistemology 1
    5. Ethics and Political Philosophy 1

Research Interest

    1. Ethics (particularly ethical theory) 1
    2. I am primarily interested in issues at the intersection of philosophy of language and metaphysics. My research focuses on the nature of propositional content - the objects of belief and other so-called propositional attitudes, the meanings of declarative sentences, and the primary bearers of truth and falsity. If the object of belief is distinct from my believing it, and the meaning of a sentence distinct from the sentence (and capable of serving as the meaning of sentences from different languages), what is this thing that is believed or expressed by a sentence and how do we grasp it in thought? I defend a minimalist conception of propositions which takes them to be primitives within a semantic theory. This view stands in contrast to substantive accounts of propositions which take them to be structured entities composed of constituents unified in some way, or set-theoretic entities built up from possible worlds. 1
    3. Medieval Philosophy (particularly rational theology) 1

Organization

    1. Philosophy 7
    2. Communication Studies 1
    3. School of Communication and Journalism 1
    4. Speech Communication 1
    5. Honors College 1

Position

    1. Faculty Member 8