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Peter van Elswyk

Assistant Professor

Ph.D. Rutgers University, 2018

Peter van Elswyk specializes in philosophy of language and mind. In most of his research, he aims to understand how conversation works. Questions explored include how our minds equip us to participate in it, how language functions to facilitate it, and how social norms regulate it. His approach to such questions is interdisciplinary by drawing on, and being inspired by, insights in cognitive science (e.g. linguistics, psychology, computer science). Recent topics of interest include mindreading, the locutionary/illocutionary boundary, and discourse structure. 

Selected publications:

  • (Forthcoming). Hedged testimony. Noûs.
  • (2021). Generic animalism (with Andrew Bailey). The Journal of Philosophy 118 (8): 405-429.
  • (2021). Representing knowledge. The Philosophical Review 130 (1): 97-143.
  • (2020). Hedged assertion (with Matthew Benton). Oxford Handbook of Assertion. (ed.) S. Goldberg. Oxford University Press. pp. 245-263.
  • (2019). Propositional anaphors. Philosophical Studies 76 (4): 1055-1075.