James Hill

Born in 1964, I was brought up near Godalming in England. I began my philosophical studies at Trinity College, Oxford, from where I received MA (oxon) in 1987. I was particularly struck by my study of the late-Wittgenstein (with Bede Rundle) and Kant’s critical philosophy (with Michael Inwood and Peter Strawson). Later I studied at the University of Geneva, where I wrote a diploma (DES) on Sextus Empiricus (supervised by Jonathan Barnes). In 2003 I successfully defended my doctorate, at King’s College, London, on the critique of mechanism in John Locke (supervised by J.R. Milton). From the early 90’s I have been working in Prague where I have made my home and have a family.

            The principal areas of my work in philosophy are scepticism and consciousness. I am interested in the reception and development of ancient scepticism in the early-modern period, and in the influence of scepticism on our understanding of science, religion and metaphysics. I am also working on consciousness in contemporary analytical philosophy and am interested in the development of our conception of consciousness from Descartes to the present.

A Selection of Recent Publications

‘What does “to think” (cogitare) mean in Descartes’ Second Meditation?’

(trans. into Czech by Petr Glombíček as ‘Co znamená v Descartově druhé meditaci „myslet“ („cogitare“) ?‘), in: Filosofický časopis, 51 (5), 2003. (Republished, with my response to the critique of Thomas Marvan, in: René Descartes: Scientia & conscientia, ed. Michal Polák, Západočeská univerzita, 2005)

(With J.R. Miltonem), ‘The Epitome (Abrégé) of Locke’s Essay’, in The

Philosophy of John Locke: New Perspectives (ed. Peter Anstey), Routledge, 2003

‘Locke’s Account of Cohesion and its Philosophical Significance’ in The British

Journal of the History of Philosophy, 12 (4), 2004. (Republished in John Locke: Critical Assessments, ed. Peter Anstey, Routledge, 2006)

‘Descartes’ Dreaming Argument and Why We Might be Sceptical of it’,

Richmond Journal of Philosophy 8, Winter 2004

‘Nietzsche and Boscovic: „A war to the knife against soul atomism“‘, in

Novotný a Kružík ed. Nietzsche a Člověk: Kořeny filosofické antropologie

v myšlení Friedricha Nietzscheho, UK FHS, 2005

‘Was Locke an Atomist?’,  Locke Studies, 5, 2005

Education:

Trinity College, Oxford: Late exhibitioner, B.A. (Hons), M.A. (oxon)

Université de Geneve: D.E.S.

King's College, London: PhD

Areas of specialisation:

Early-modern philosophy

John Locke

David Hume

Conceptions of natural philosophy in Descartes and his critics

Scepticism, ancient and modern

Select Bibliography:

PhD thesis:

'Solidity, Cohesion and Impulse: The Philosophy of Body in John Locke', 2002

Articles:

- 'Hume's Naturalism in the Enquiry', in Filosofický časopis, 1999

- 'On Billiard Balls: Hume against the Mechanists', The Richmond Journal of Philosophy, vol. 2, no. 3, 2003 (with J.R. Milton) 'The Epitome (Abrégé) of Locke's Essay', in New Work on Locke , ed. Peter Anstey, Routledge, forthcoming

Present Engagements and Activities:

I lecture in modern philosophy at The Philosophy Faculty of Charles University in Prague, as well as working part-time at the Czech Academy of Sciences. At present I am preparing a book on Locke's approach to science, as well as working on the conception of thinking (cogitare) in Descartes.