Michael Kremer is the Mary R. Morton Professor of Philosophy and in the College. He received his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh in 1986; prior to joining the University of Chicago he taught at the University of Notre Dame. His research focuses on the history of analytic philosophy, especially Frege, Russell, and the early Wittgenstein. His current project is on the philosophy of Gilbert Ryle, with special reference to the knowing how/knowing that debate. He also has long-standing interests in logic and the philosophy of language, as well as the relationship between reason and religious faith.
Selected Publications
"Ryle's 'Intellectualist Legend' in Historical Context," The Journal of the History of Analytical Philosophy 5(5) (2017): 16-37. DOI 10.15173/jhap.v5i5.3204 Link
"'One of my feet was still pretty firmly encased in this boot': Behaviorism and The Concept of Mind," in Analytic Philosophy: An Interpretive History, Aaron Preston, ed. (Routledge, 2017)
"A Capacity to Get Things Right: Gilbert Ryle on Knowledge," European Journal of Philosophy (2016) - online first. DOI 10.1111/ejop.12150 Link
"Ideology and Knowledge-How: A Rylean Perspective," Theoria (Spain) 31 (2016): 295-311, DOI 10.1387/theoria.16292 Link
“Acquaintance, Analysis, and Knowledge of Persons in Russell,” in Acquaintance, Knowledge, and Logic: New Essays on Bertrand Russell’s The Problems of Philosophy, B. Linsky and D. Wishon, eds. (Stanford: CSLI Publications, 2015)
“The Whole Meaning of a Book of Nonsense: Introducing Wittgenstein’s Tractatus,”Oxford Handbook of the History of Analytic Philosophy, M. Beaney, ed. (Oxford University Press 2013) (PDF)
“What is the Good of Philosophical History?”, in The Historical Turn in Analytic Philosophy, E. Reck, ed. (Palgrave MacMillan, 2013) (PDF)
“Russell’s Merit,” in Wittgenstein’s Early Philosophy, J. Zalabardo, ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012) (PDF)
"Representation or Inference" in Reading Brandom, edited by Bernhard Weiss and Jeremy Wanderer, Routledge, 2010 (PDF)
Sense and reference: the origins and development of the distinction, The Cambridge Companion to Frege, T. Ricketts and M. Potter, eds. (PDF)
Media
Michael Kremer's Recorded Lecture - Link
Recent Courses
PHIL 21620 The Problem of Evil
"Epicurus's old questions are yet unanswered. Is he [God] willing to prevent evil, but not able? then is he impotent. Is he able, but not willing? then is he malevolent. Is he both able and willing? whence then is evil?" (Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion)This course will consider the challenge posed by the existence of evil to the rationality of traditional theistic belief. Drawing on both classic and contemporary readings, we will analyze atheistic arguments from evil, and attempts by theistic philosophers to construct "theodicies" and "defenses" in response to these arguments, including the "free-will defense," "soul-making theodicies," and "suffering God theodicies." We will also consider critiques of such theodicies as philosophically confused, morally depraved, or both; and we will discuss the problem of divinely commanded or enacted evil (for example the doctrine of hell). (A)
PHIL 42961 Social Epistemology
This course will introduce some main themes of Social Epistemology, that is the study of knowledge in relation to social institutions and relationships. The course will focus on four topics: epistemic authority; testimony as a source of knowledge; peer disagreement and epistemic conflict; and epistemic justice and injustice. (III)
The course is exploratory: the instructor is relatively new to this field and will be learning the material with the students.
For full list of Michael Kremer's courses back to the 2012-13 academic year, see our searchable course database.