Michael Kirley

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Position:

Graduate Student

Campus:

St. George,

Biography:

  • BA, University of Toronto
  • BSc, University of Toronto

While Michael’s majors were quite distinct from each other, his appreciation for the rigour of higher mathematics enhanced his ability to analyze and construct philosophical arguments. Apart from his primary research interests, Michael is also interested in philosophy of action; and the modern analytic tradition (especially as it concerns the question of how we manage to have/express thoughts that are about the world). He has a related historical interest in early analytic philosophy—in particular, in the logicist movement which contributed greatly to the development of analytic philosophy. While his research interests are broad,  he does not see them as disconnected from each other: for Michael, philosophy is fundamentally about trying to answer hard questions, and one often needs a variety of tools to build such answers. Michael has learned that one can never have too many tools at one’s disposal. The analytic tradition, with its historical connection to mathematics, emphasizes the beauty of precision and the importance of clarity in language, and he is interested in the implications these emphases have for ethics and epistemology. In his free time, Michael enjoys writing fiction, discussing current issues, reading, playing the piano, and browsing memes.

Research Interests:

Ancient Philosophy, Ethics, Mathematics, Philosophy of Language