PERSONAL DETAILS

Surname:            OWENS                                  Forenames:      DAVID JOHN

Education

1981-84               St. John’s College Cambridge: B.A. (Hons) Philosophy (First Class)

1984-88              Corpus Christi College Oxford: B. Phil and D.Phil.

Current Appointment

2025                    Sekyra and White’s Professor of Moral Philosophy, Oxford University

Previous Appointments

2015-25              Professor of Philosophy, King’s College London

2010-15              Professor of Philosophy, University of Reading

1993-2010          Lecturer, Reader and Professor of Philosophy, University of Sheffield.

1990-93              British Academy Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Cambridge

1988-90              Research Fellow, Girton College, Cambridge

1987-88              Stipendiary 12-hour Lecturer, Somerville College, Oxford

Visiting Appointments

2024-5              Visiting Fellow, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.

2021                  Visiting Fellow, Center for Advanced Studies, LMU Munich.

2011                  Visiting Fellow, New York University Institute of Philosophy.

2009                  Visiting Fellow, All Souls College Oxford.

2008                  Senior Research Scholar and Visiting Lecturer, Yale University.

2007                  Visiting Professor, Dept. of Philosophy, Yale University.

2005                  Visiting Professorial Fellow, School for Advanced Study, London.

1996-7              Fulbright Scholar, Department of Philosophy, Graduate Center CUNY

1993                  Visiting Lecturer, Dept. of  Philosophy, University of Sydney, Australia.

1990                  Visiting Lecturer, Dept. of Philosophy, University of Lublin, Poland.

PUBLICATIONS

Books

Bound by Convention, Oxford; Oxford University Press, 2022, xv + 261 pp. ISBN: 978-0192896124 (Hardcover) 978-0198925927 (Paperback).

Normativity and Control, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017, x + 247 pp. ISBN: 0-19-871323-1 (Hardcover) 9780198851691 (Paperback).

Shaping the Normative Landscape, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012, x + 260 pp. ISBN: 0-19-969150-0 (Hardcover) 0-19-870804-9 (Paperback).

Reason Without Freedom, London: Routledge, 2000, viii + 199 pp. ISBN: 0-415-22388-1 (Hardcover) 0-415-22389-X (Paperback).

Causes and Coincidences, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, xii + 188 pp. ISBN: 0-521-41650-7 (Hardcover) 0-521-04448-0 (Paperback).

Articles

‘Authority and Agreement: The Case of Employment’ forthcoming in The Philosopher’s Imprint. https://doi.org/10.3998/phimp.7250

‘Reply to Commentators on Bound by Convention’ Jurisprudence https://doi.org/10.1080/20403313.2024.2404328

‘Command and Obedience’ in eds. K. Brownlee, D. Enoch, and A. Marmor, Engaging Raz (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2025) pp. 443-462. DOI: 10.1093/ 9780198925378.003.0019

‘Rules and Rulers: Demanding, Commanding and Assuming Responsibility’ Political Philosophy 1(2): 463–487. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16995/pp.15381

‘Excuse, Capacity and Convention’ Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Responsibility Ed. M Kiener (London: Routledge 2023) DOI: 10.4324/9781003282242-32

‘Joseph Raz as a Political Philosopher’ Modern Law Review (November 2022) DOI: 10.1111/1468-2230.12764

‘The Roles of Rights’ Civil Wrongs and Private Law Ed. P. Miller and J. Oberdiek (Oxford Oxford University Press 2020) pp. 3-19.‘Joseph Raz as a Political Philosopher’ Modern Law Review  DOI: 10.1111/1468-2230.12764

‘Property and Authority’ Journal of Political Philosophy Vol 27, No. 3, pp. 271-93 (September 2019).

‘Private Authority’ Jerusalem Review of Legal Studies Vol. 19, Issue 1, pp. 1-13 (June 2019).

‘Habitual Agency’ Philosophical Explorations Vol. 20 No. S2: pp. 93-108 (September 2017).

‘Wrong by Convention’ Ethics Vol 127, No. 3 pp. 553-575 (April 2017).

‘Trusting a Promise and Other Things’ Ed. P. Faulkner and T. Simpson – New Philosophical Perspectives on Trust (Oxford University Press 2017) pp. 214-29.

‘Promises and Conflicting Obligations’ Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy Vol. 11 No. 1 (November 2016) pp. 1-19.

‘Tolerance as Civility’ Philosopher’s Imprint Vol 15 No. 20 (August 2015) pp. 1-13.

‘Reply to Commentators on Shaping the Normative Landscape’ Jurisprudence Vol. 6 No. 2 (July 2015) pp. 378-90.

‘Does a Promise Transfer a Right?’, G. Letsas, P. Saprai and G. Klass – Philosophical Foundations of Contract Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2014) pp. 78-95.

‘Promises’, The International Encyclopedia of Ethics Ed. H. LaFollette (Blackwell 2013) pp. 4143-4155.

‘The Value of Duty’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume LXXVI (July 2012) pp. 199-215.

‘The Possibility of Consent’, Ratio Vol. 24 No. 4 (December 2011) pp. 402-21.

‘Deliberation and the First Person’ in Ed. Anthony Hatzimoysis – Self Knowledge (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2011) pp. 261-77.

‘The Problem with Promising’, in Ed. H. Sheinman – Understanding Promises: Philosophical Essays (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2011) pp. 58-79.

‘Freedom and Practical Judgement’, in Ed. Lucy O’Brien and Matthew Soteriou – Mental Action (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2009) pp. 122-137.

‘Promising Without Intending’, Journal of Philosophy Vol. 105 No. 12 (December 2008) pp. 737-55.

‘Rationalism about Obligation’, European Journal of Philosophy Vol. 16 No. 3 (December 2008) pp. 403-31.

‘Descartes’s Use of Doubt’, Ed. J. Broughton and J. Carriero – A Companion to Descartes (Oxford: Blackwell 2007) pp. 164-178.

‘Disenchantment’, in Ed. L. Antony – Philosophers Without Gods (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2007) pp. 165-179.

‘Duress, Deception and the Validity of a Promise’, Mind Vol. 116 No. 462 (April 2007) pp. 293-315.

‘Testimony and Assertion’, Philosophical Studies Vol. 130 No. 1 (July 2006) pp. 105-129.

‘A Simple Theory of Promising’, Philosophical Review Vol. 115 No. 1 (January 2006) pp. 51-77.

‘The Right and the Reasonable’, Mind Vol. 114 No. 454 (April 2005) pp. 371-389.

‘Williamson on Scepticism and Rationality’, Philosophical Books Vol. 45 No. 4 (October 2004) pp. 306-12.

‘Knowing One’s Own Mind’, in Ed. F. Pironet and C. Tappolet – ‘Deliberation and Irrationality in the History of Philosophy’ Dialogue Vol. 42 No. 4 (Autumn 2003) pp. 791-98.

‘Does Belief Have An Aim?’, Philosophical Studies) Vol. 115 No. 3 (August 2003) pp. 275-97.

‘Epistemic Akrasia’, The Monist Vol. 85 No. 3 (July 2002) pp. 381-97.

‘Scepticisms: Descartes and Hume’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume LXXIV (July 2000) pp. 119-42.

‘The Authority of Memory’, European Journal of Philosophy Vol. 7 No. 3 (December 1999) pp. 312-329.

‘A Lockean Theory of Experiential Memory’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research Vol. 56 No. 2 (June 1996) pp. 319-32.

‘Understanding Names’, in J. Biro and P. Kotatko (eds) – Frege’s ‘Sense and Reference’: 100 Years Later (Dordrecht: Kluwer 1995) pp. 141-50.

‘Perception and Occlusion’, Acta Analytica Vol. 6 (1990) pp. 135-40.

‘Causes and Coincidences’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Vol. 90 Part 1(1989/90) pp. 49-64.

‘Disjunctive Laws’, Analysis Vol. 49 No. 4 (October 1989) pp.197-202.

‘Levels of Explanation’, Mind Vol. 98 No. 389 (January 1989) pp. 59-79.

‘Should Blackmail be Banned?’, Philosophy Vol. 63 No. 246 (October 1988) pp. 501-14. 

Reviews

Jay Wallace – The Moral Nexus, Mind, https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/fzaa035 (August 2020).

Tim Scanlon – Why Does Inequality Matter? Times Literary Supplement No. 6008 (May 25th 2018) pp. 10-12.

Roger Scruton – The Soul of the World, Times Literary Supplement no 5815 (September 12^th 2014) p. 22.

Samuel Scheffler – The Afterlife, Times Literary Supplement no 5786 (February 21^st 2014) p. 21.

Paul Katsafanas – Agency and the Foundations of Ethics, Times Literary Supplement no. 5756 (July 26 2013) p. 25.

Hyman Gross – Crime and Punishment, Times Literary Supplement no. 5717 (October 26 2012) p. 22.

Joseph Raz’s – Normativity and Responsibility, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (August 8 2012).

Jonathan Wolff – Ethics and Public Policy, Times Literary Supplement no. 5664 (October 21 2011) p. 24.

Richard Foley – Intellectual Trust in Oneself And Others, Mind vol. 112 no. 447, (July 2003) pp. 536-9.

Cullity and Gaut (Eds) – Ethics and Practical Reason, European Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 6 no 3 (December 1998) pp. 372-6.

John Pollock – Cognitive Carpentry, Mind Vol. 106 (January 1997) pp. 192-5.

Hilary Putnam – Representation and Reality, Mind and Language Vol. 4 no. 3, (July 1989) pp. 246-9.

David Hamlyn – In and Out of the Black Box, Times Literary Supplement no. 4560 (August 24^th. 1990) p. 892.

Colin McGinn – Mental Content, Mind, Vol. 99 no. 393 (January 1990) pp. 113-2.