Arché (research center)

Arché (official name "Arché - Philosophical Research Centre for Logic, Language, Metaphysics and Epistemology") is a research center at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. It was founded and is directed by Professor Crispin Wright.

Mission

The Centre's principal aims, in equal priority, are the following five:
*To produce and disseminate to the international philosophical community original research of excellence in the areas of Philosophy within its remit.
*To support promising early career philosophers to develop their interests and skills and absorb examples of best research practice in collaboration with experts.
*To stimulate and coordinate work on the issues worldwide through the parts played by visiting scholars, international networks, conferences and website collaborations.
*To communicate a sense of the goals, results and interest of our research to a non-professional audience.
*To develop standing research liaisons with selected institutions of philosophical excellence worldwide.

History

Arché was founded in 1998. It is the only philosophical research centre in the world dedicated to the core areas of analytical philosophy. Its mission is to conduct and foster collaborative research on fundamental issues in metaphysics, epistemology and the philosophies of logic, language, mathematics and mind, and to provide a dedicated training environment for younger (postdoctoral and postgraduate) researchers. For the calendar years 2003-2007 Arché was an AHRC Research Centre with special projects that have included the Logical and Metaphysical Foundations of Classical Mathematics (2000-2006), Vagueness: its Nature and Logic (2004-6); and the Metaphysics and Epistemology of Modality (2003-5). For the years 2008-12, the Centre will host a five-year tri-partite research programme entitled Context, Relativity and Knowledge, encompassing three interconnected broad investigations: Basic Knowledge will focus on deep-seated questions raised by those parts of our knowledge which apparently lack the support of articulable reasons; Contextualism and Relativism will be a systematic investigation into unobvious kinds of context-sensitivity and relativity; Intuitions and Philosophical Methodology, will involve a critical examination of the methodology of contemporary analytical philosophy — especially the so-called "method of cases" — in the light of debates in contemporary philosophy of language.

Each Arché project has a core team working in St Andrews, comprised of a project leader, other senior researchers and a number of postdoctoral research fellows and postgraduate students. Other members of Arché include its Associate Fellows: scholars with an interest in the work of the Centre who commit to regular participation in and support of its activities, and its Professorial Fellows, distinguished scholars who visit annually for half a semester. In addition, a Network of international scholars is associated with each project, supported hitherto by awards from the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust. These Networks include many internationally renowned philosophers; current membership lists can be viewed on the website. Programmes of bi-annual weekend workshops and international conferences are associated with each project.

Permanent Staff and Professorial Fellows

Directors and Permanent Staff

Crispin Wright (Director)
Martin Smith (Executive Director)
Sarah Broadie (Associate Director)
Patrick Greenough (Associate Director)
Jessica Brown (Arché Professor)
Herman Cappelen (Arché Professor)
Sharon Coull (Arché Office Manager)

Professorial Fellows

Graham Priest (Melbourne)
François Recanati (Institut Jean Nicod, Paris)
Jonathan Schaffer (ANU)
Stewart Shapiro (Ohio State)
Jason Stanley (Rutgers)
Brian Weatherson (Rutgers)

Associate Professorial Fellows

Kit Fine (NYU)
Bob Hale (Sheffield)
Frank Jackson (ANU)
Mark Sainsbury (University of Texas)

More members can be found on the [http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~arche/members/index.php Arché website] .

External links

* [http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~arche/index.php/ Official website]