• Research Interests
• Teaching
• Publications
• Administrative Roles

Alasdair Richmond is a threefold graduate of Aberdeen University and joined Philosophy at Edinburgh in October 2003. He has published on constructive empiricism, the Anthropic Principle, Doomsday arguments, Descartes’ conception of immortality, time travel and the topology of time. Following research leave 2008-09 (part-funded by the AHRC), he is currently working on a book entitled ‘Time Travel for Philosophers’ and a series of related articles. Besides teaching epistemology, metaphysics and philosophy of science, he was closely involved with the Higher Philosophy programme 1999-2003, conducting classes for pupils and Continuing Professional Development days for teachers from all over Scotland.

Research Interests

Metaphysics (especially time and space), philosophy of science, the British empiricists (especially Hume on miracles).

I’m happy to supervise undergraduates or postgraduates in any of the above areas but I particularly welcome the chance to supervise dissertations on topics centred around time and time travel.

Teaching

Metaphysics, history of (particularly early modern) philosophy, philosophy of science, epistemology, philosophy of religion.

Current Honours courses ‘Philosophy of Time’ (U04614) and ‘British Idealism and Immaterialism’ (U04168).

Publications

Book

• Berkeley’s “Principles of Human Knowledge”: A Reader’s Guide, (Continuum, hardcover and paperback, March 2009). Continuum author-page.

Articles

• ‘Hume on Miracles’ (with Duncan Pritchard), The Continuum Companion to Hume, editors Alan Bailey and Dan O’Brien, (Continuum), forthcoming.
• ‘Space and Time’, Oxford Bibliographies Online, forthcoming.
• ‘Time Travel, Parahistory and the Past Artefact Dilemma’, forthcoming in Philosophy.
• ‘The Simulation Argument and Simulation Hypotheses’, chapter in Philosophy Through Science Fiction, (edited by Ryan Nichols, Routledge, 2009): 107-19.
• ‘Doomsday, Bishop Ussher and Simulated Worlds’, Ratio, XXI, 2008: 201-17.
• ‘Recent Work: The Doomsday Argument’, Philosophical Books, 47, 2006: 129-42.
• ‘Immortality and Doomsday’, American Philosophical Quarterly , 41 2004: 235-247.
• ‘Gödelian Time-Travel and Anthropic Cosmology’, Ratio (New Series), XVII, 2004, 176-190.
• Review-article: ‘Recent Work: Time Travel’, Philosophical Books, 44, 2003: 297-309.
• ‘Time-Travel Fictions and Philosophy’, The American Philosophical Quarterly, 38, 2001: 305-18.
• ‘Plattner‘s Arrow: Science and Multi-Dimensional Time’, Ratio, XIII, 2000: 256-74.
• 'Epicurean Evolution and the Anthropic Principle', The American Philosophical Quarterly, 37, 2000: 149-61.
• 'Between Abduction and the Deep Blue Sea', The Philosophical Quarterly, 49, 1999: 86-91 .

Popular Articles

• ‘Time Travel Testimony and the ‘John Titor’ Fiasco’, THINK: The Royal Institute of Philosophy Journal, forthcoming.
• ‘Tom Baker: His Part in My Downfall – A Philosopher’s Guide to Time Travel’, THINK: The Royal Institute of Philosophy Journal, Vol. 7, Issue 19, 2008: 35-46.
• ‘Apocalypse Now does The Matrix: Anthropic Adventures from Doomsday to Simulation’, THINK: The Royal Institute of Philosophy Journal, Vol. 6, Issues 17-18, 2008: 29-40.

Reviews

• Bede Rundle, Time, Space, and Metaphysics, (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009). Forthcoming in Analysis Reviews.
• Walter Ott, Causation and Laws of Nature in Early Modern Philosophy, (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009). Forthcoming in British Journal for the History of Philosophy.
• New Interpretations of Berkeley’s Thought (New York: Humanity Books, 2008) and Reexamining Berkeley’s Philosophy (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2007), both edited by Stephen H. Daniel. Forthcoming in British Journal for the History of Philosophy.
• Craig Callender (ed.), Time, Reality, and Experience, Philosophical Books, 45, 2004: 358-59.
• Barry Dainton, Time and Space, Philosophical Books, 44, 2003: 72-3.

Postgraduate Articles

• ‘Artificial Horizons: Local and Global Anti-Realism’, Philosophical Writings, 11, 1999: 3-9.
• ‘Abductive Anti-Realism in Science’, Philosophical Writings, 7, 1998: 31-41.
• ‘Symmetry, Evolution and Realism’, Philosophical Writings, 5, 1997: 45-62.
• ‘Signs and Spaces: Berkeley and Newton’s Dynamics’, Philosophical Writings, 4, 1997: 5-25.

Internet Articles

All on Cathexis (Aberdeen University Postgraduate Philosophy Journal):

• ‘Uroboros: Time-travel, Causal Loops and Explanation’, (May 1997).
• ‘Objectivity and Epistemic Privilege’, (November 1996).
• ‘Berkeley in Flatland: Sight and Geometry in Two Dimensions’, (October 1996).

Public Talks, Interviews, Media, etc.

• Talk on ‘Time Travel: Possibilities and Paradoxes’, Edinburgh Café Scientifique, May 25th 2009.
• Interview on time and quantum theory for installation project ‘Classical Reality is Only an Approximation’ by Noreen Jennison at Art, Space and Nature Studio, Edinburgh College of Art, 13-28th June 2009.
• Interview on time travel for architecture project by Ben Carter Townsend, 9th February 2010.
• Interview/talk on time travel for ‘Erratic Thinking’, weekly radio show and podcast on Philosophy, February 12th 2010.

Administrative Roles

Library officer for Philosophy and PPLS

Philosophy Quality Assurance and Enhancement officer

Course organiser for Philosophy of Science 1 (PP9977)

Second semester: Philosophy undergraduate dissertation co-ordinator

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