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Nathan Wildman

Nathan Wildman

Assistant Professor in Philosophy, Tilburg University

Nathan Wildman is an Assistant Professor in Philosophy at Tilburg University.

His research focuses on issues in metaphysics, philosophy of language, philosophy of technology, logic, and aesthetics.

Wildman has written about the foundations of modality, the nature of fiction, the logic of fictional truth, and the aesthetics of interactive fictions (e.g. video games & AR/VR).

He has taught courses on logic & philosophy and digital aesthetics.

Education
Ph.D. Philosophy, University of Cambridge · M.Phil. Philosophy, University of Cambridge · B.A. Philosophy, University of California, Santa Cruz
Topics
Philosophy · Metaphysics · Aesthetics · Logic · Philosophy of Language · Philosophy of Technology · History of Analytic Philosophy

Talks & video8

  • Nathan Wildman On the Puzzle of SportVimeo
  • What Are Universal Fictions? | Nathan WildmanVimeo
  • ‘Formal fictional truths, glitches, & MISSINGONO.’, European Society of Aesthetics Conference, Tallinn2022
  • ‘Malfunctioning as intended: making glitch art’, The Philosophy of Digital Images, Liverpool2022
  • ‘When is a work immersive?’, Aesthetics & Phenomenology Seminar, Antwerp2022
  • ‘But you’re only watching?!? The anti-voyeur gaming objection’, American Society of Aesthetics, Montreal2021
  • ‘Against the epistemology of essence’, Connaissance philosophique et connaissance des essences, College de France2021
  • ‘For voyeur gaming’, Aesthetics for Distant Birds II2020

Selected publications34

  1. 2023(w/G. Forbes) ‘Enduring senses’, Synthese (Accepted, DOI forthcoming)
  2. 2023(w/E. Croes, M. Antheunis, & M. B. Goudbeek) ‘“I am in your computer while we talk to each other”: A content analysis of the use of language-based strategies by humans and a social chatbot in initial human-chatbot interactions’, International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction. (Accepted, DOI forthcoming)
  3. 2023‘What’s wrong with weak necessity?’, Meaning, Modality, and Mind: Essays Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Naming & Necessity, A. Hattiangadi, C. Besson, & R. Padro (eds), Oxford University Press
  4. 2023‘Modal accounts of essence’, in The Routledge Handbook of Essence, K. Koslicki & M. Raven (eds), Routledge
  5. 2023(w/A. Cawston) ‘A moral argument for videogames’, in Educating Character Through the Arts, A. Thompson, L. D’Olimpio, & P. Paris (eds), Routledge.
  6. 2023(w/N. Rietdijk & A. Archer), ‘Online Affective Manipulation’, in The Philosophy of Online Manipulation, F. Jongepier & M. Klenk (eds), Routledge.
  7. 2022(w/J. Brown) ‘The necessity of naturalism’, Erkenntnis DOI: 10.1007/s10670-022-00567-1
  8. 2022(w/U. Baysan) ‘Physicalism or Anti-Physicalism: a disjunctive account’, Erkenntnis, DOI: 10.1007/s10670-022-00530-0
  9. 2021‘A note on Lange on Contingent Necessity-makers’, Erkenntnis 86: 763-771
  10. 2021‘Against the reduction of modality to essence’, Synthese 198: 1455-1471
  11. 2021(w/N. van de Mosselear) ‘Glitches as fictional (mis)communication’, in T. Barker & M. Korolkova (eds.), Miscommunications: Errors, Mistakes, and the Media, London: Bloomsbury
  12. 2021(w/C. Folde) ‘A puzzle about fictional ‘I’s’, in Fictionality, Factuality, and Reflexivity, E. Fulop (ed.), De Gruyter
  13. 2020(w/N. McDonnell) ‘The puzzle of virtual theft’, Analysis 80 (3): 493-499
  14. 2020(w/C. Folde) ‘Defending explosive universal fictions’, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. 78: 238-242
  15. 2020Potential problems? Some issues with Vetter’s potentiality account of modality, Philosophical Inquiries. 8 (1): 167-184
  16. 2020(w/A. Archer) ‘Internet access as an essential social good’, in The New Common, E. Aarts, H. Fleuren, M. Sitskoorn, & T. Wilthagen (eds), Open Press TiU
  17. 2020‘From modal to post-modal metaphysics’ in The Routledge Handbook of Metametaphysics, J. Miller & R. Bliss (eds.), London: Routledge Press
  18. 2020(w/A. Archer) Emotions in Sport and Games, Routledge
  19. 2019‘Don’t stop make-believing’, Journal of the Philosophy of Sport 45 (2): 261-275
  20. 2019(w/N. McDonnell) ‘Virtual reality: digital or fictional?’, Disputatio 11/55: 371-397
  21. 2019(w/A. Archer) ‘Playing with art in Suits’ utopia’, Sports, Ethics, & Philosophy Sport, Ethics and Philosophy 13 (3-4): 456-470
  22. 2019‘The possibility of empty fictions’, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 77: 35-42
  23. 2018(w/M. Clark) ‘Grounding, mental causation, and overdetermination’, Synthese 195: 3723-3733
  24. 2018(w/C. Folde) ‘No trouble with poetic license: a reply to Xhignesse, British Journal of Aesthetics 58: 319-326
  25. 2018(w/R. Woodward) ‘Interactivity, Fictionality, and Incompleteness’, in The Aesthetics of Video Games, G. Tavinor & J. Robson (eds.), Routledge
  26. 2018‘On shaky ground’, in Reality and its Structure, R. Bliss & G. Priest (eds.), Oxford University Press
  27. 2017‘A note on Morato on modality and explanation’, Erkenntnis, 82: 967-74
  28. 2017(w/C. Folde) ‘Fiction unlimited’, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 75: 73-80
  29. 2016‘How (not) to be a modalist about essence’, in Reality Making, M. Jago (ed.), Oxford University Press, pp. 177-195
  30. 2015‘Load bare-ing particulars’, Philosophical Studies 172: 1419-1434
  31. 2013‘Modality, sparsity, and essence’, The Philosophical Quarterly 63: 760-782
  32. Journal Articles
  33. Peer Reviewed Chapters
  34. Edited Collections

Positions & affiliations7

  • Tilburg University
  • University of Glasgow
  • University of Hamburg
  • 2018-present | Assistant Professor | Department of Philosophy | Tilburg University
  • 2016-17 | University Lecturer – Logic and Metaphysics | Department of Philosophy | University of Glasgow
  • 2014-15 | Post-Doctoral Researcher | SNF Project Grounding – Metaphysics, Science, Logic | University of Hamburg
  • 2011-16 | Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter | Department of Philosophy | University of Hamburg (Intermitted August 2014 - August 2015)

Credentials & fellowships2

  • Acumen*, American Philosophical Quarterly*, Analysis*, Acta Analytica*, Analytic Philosophy, Australasian Journal of Logic, Australasian Journal of Philosophy*, British Journal of Aesthetics*, Canadian Journal of Philosophy*, dialectica*, Ergo, Erkenntnis*, Ethics and Information Technology*, Inquiry, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism*, Journal of Philosophical Research, Metaphysics*, Mind*, Philosophical Imprint, Philosophical Papers*, Philosophical Quarterly*, Philosophical Review*, Philosophical Studies*, The Review of Symbolic Logic*, Routledge*, Synthese*, Theoria, Thought* (* = multiple times)
  • Editor (w/A. Archer) Special Issue of Journal of the Philosophy of Sport on Emotion in Sport and Games; PhilPapers Section Editor on Essentialism, Mereological Essentialism, Origin Essent