Céline Henne

• BA, University of Lyon and Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon
• MA, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris and Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales
• PhD, University of Cambridge

Céline completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Hasok Chang and Huw Price. In her dissertation, titled “Framed and Framing Inquiry: Development and Defence of John Dewey’s Theory of Knowledge,” she provides a novel perspective on what realists consider to be Dewey’s most controversial claims regarding knowledge, its object, and truth. She defends Dewey’s theory of inquiry by drawing a distinction between what she calls “framed inquiry”, in which inquirers ask and answer questions by relying on a settled conceptual framework, and “framing inquiry”, in which inquirers develop, revise, or create a conceptual framework. She argues that Dewey’s most original (and controversial) insights should be understood in the context of framing inquiry, while traditional realist notions of knowledge, existence, and truth should be understood in the context of framed inquiry.

Her current postdoctoral project, under the supervision of Cheryl Misak, consists in developing a comprehensive pragmatist framework for conceptual engineering, which will serve as an alternative to existing frameworks. It involves an account of what is engineered, primarily based on Robert Brandom’s inferentialism; an account of how we engineer concepts, based on John Dewey’s theory of inquiry and her own account of “framing inquiry”; and the use of this pragmatist framework in order to solve several problems in the field. This project is directly connected to her long-term research goal of developing a pragmatist epistemology centred around framing inquiry.

Check out her personal website to learn more about Céline’s work.

Epistemology, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Science, Pragmatism