CV

Tuomas E. Tahko, M.A., Ph.D.

CV in pdf format

Areas of Specialisation

  • Metaphysics
  • Metaphysics Modality
  • Philosophical Methodology
  • Metaphilosophy
  • A Priori Knowledge

Areas of Competence

  • Epistemology
  • Philosophy of Science
  • Philosophical Logic
  • Philosophy of Mind
  • History of Philosophy from Descartes to Kant
  • Aristotle

Education

Academic Appointments

Summary of Ph.D. Thesis

The purpose of my thesis is to demonstrate that metaphysics is a necessary discipline – necessary in the sense that any type of rational activity whatsoever would be impossible without a metaphysical background or metaphysical presuppositions. The thesis consists of a brief historical introduction of certain important views concerning the nature of metaphysics and of a longer survey of the status of metaphysics in the context of contemporary analytic metaphysics.

Awards

  1. 2005: Ph.D. Grant, Helsingin Sanomain 100-year foundation (18.000€).
  2. 2007: Ph.D. Grant, The Finnish Cultural Foundation (16.000€).
  3. 2007: Postgraduate Teaching Award, County Durham Economic Partnership and the Ogden Trust (£13.800).
    Framwellgate School Durham
  4. 2008: Postdoctoral Research Grant, Alfred Kordelin Foundation (18.000€).
  5. 2008: ‘Research Abroad’ Grant, Academy of Finland (30.000€).
  6. 2010: Postdoctoral Researcher’s Project, Academy of Finland (246.240€).
    A Study of the Foundations of Metaphysics: The A Priori, Modality, and Essences

Books: Edited

  1. Tahko, T. E. (Ed.) (2012) Contemporary Aristotelian Metaphysics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Journal Articles: Academic

  1. Tahko, T. E. (2008) A New Definition of A Priori Knowledge: In Search of a Modal Basis, Metaphysica, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 57-68.
  2. Tahko, T. E. (2009a) Against the Vagueness Argument, Philosophia, Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 335-40.
  3. Tahko, T. E. (2009b) The Law of Non-Contradiction as a Metaphysical Principle, The Australasian Journal of Logic, Vol. 7, pp. 32-47.
  4. Tahko, T. E. (2009c) On the Modal Content of A Posteriori Necessities, Theoria: A Swedish Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 75, No. 2, pp. 344–357.
  5. Tahko, T. E. (2011) Commentary on Kathrin Koslicki’s The Structure of Objects, Humana.Mente, a special issue on Composition, Counterfactuals and Causation, Vol. 19, pp. 197-204.
  6. Tahko, T. E. (2011) A Priori and A Posteriori: A Bootstrapping Relationship, Metaphysica, Vol. 11, No. 2.
  7. Tahko, T. E. (Forthcoming 2012) Boundaries in Reality, Special Issue on Classifying Reality, edited by David S. Oderberg, Ratio Vol. XXV, No. 4.
  8. Tahko, T. E. (Forthcoming 2012) Counterfactuals and Modal Epistemology, Grazer Philosophische Studien, Vol. 85.

Books: Sections

  1. Tahko, T. E. (2010) Reefer Madness: Cannabis, the Individual, and Public Policy, Dale Jacquette (Ed.), Cannabis: What Were We Just Talking About?, in the Philosophy for Everyone series (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell), pp. 149–161.
  2. Tahko, T. E. (2012) Introduction, Tahko, T. E. (Ed.), Contemporary Aristotelian Metaphysics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
  3. Tahko, T. E. (2012) In Defence of Aristotelian Metaphysics, Tahko, T. E. (Ed.), Contemporary Aristotelian Metaphysics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
  4. Tahko, T. E. (2012) On the Common Sense Argument for Monism P. Goff (Ed.), Spinoza on Monism, Philosophers in Depth series (New York: Palgrave Macmillan) (with Donnchadh O’Conaill).
  5. Tahko, T. E. (Forthcoming 2012) Boundaries in Reality, David S. Oderberg (Ed.), Classifying Reality (Wiley-Blackwell).
  6. Tahko, T. E. (Forthcoming) Metaphysics as the First Philosophy, Edward Feser (Ed.), Aristotle on Method and Metaphysics, Philosophers in Depth series (New York: Palgrave Macmillan).

Conference Proceedings

  1. Tahko, T. E. (2008a) The Aristotelian Method and Aristotelian Metaphysics, Patricia Hanna (Ed.), An Anthology of Philosophical Studies (Athens: ATINER), pp. 53-63.
  2. Tahko, T. E. (2008b) The Metaphysical Status of Logic, Michal Peliš (Ed.) The Logica Yearbook 2007 (Prague: Filosofia), pp. 225-235.

Reviewed Conference Presentations

    2006:

  1. ‘Metaphysics in Natural Science’, Metafisica 2006, Rome, Italy, July 2006.
  2. ‘Metaphysics and the A Priori’, 9th Durham-Bergen Conference, Durham, UK, November 2006.

    3. 2007:

  3. ‘The Aristotelian Method and Aristotelian Metaphysics’, 2nd International Conference on Philosophy, University of Athens, Greece, June 2007.
  4. ‘The Metaphysical Status of Logic’, LOGICA 2007, Hejnice Monastery, Czech Republic, June 2007.
  5. ‘The Value of A Priori Knowledge’, The Value of Knowledge, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands, August 2007.
  6. ‘When are Metaphysical Debates Substantial?’, Fifth Conference of The Spanish Society for Analytic Philosophy, University of Barcelona, Spain, September 2007.
  7. ‘On the Semantics of Natural Kinds: In Defence of the Essentialist Line’, Nature and its Classification – A Metaphysics of Science Conference, Birmingham, UK, October 2007.
  8. ‘A New Definition of A Priori Knowledge: In Search of a Modal Basis’, Graduate Conference on Knowledge and Understanding, Edinburgh, UK, November 2007.

    9. 2008:

  9. ‘When are Metaphysical Debates Substantial?’ (revised version), Logos Conference on MetaMetaphysics, University of Barcelona, Spain, June 2008.
  10. ‘Metaphysical vs. Conceptual Modality, or What Modality is Grounded in’, ECAP 6: Sixth European Congress of Analytic Philosophy, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland, August 2008.

    11. 2009:

  11. ‘The Metaphysical Basis of Semantics’, Recent Trends in Philosophy of Language and General Analytic Philosophy, Tilburg University, The Netherlands, January 2009.
  12. ‘The A Priori and Scientific Knowledge’, British Society for the Philosophy of Science Annual Conference, University of East Anglia, UK, July 2009.
  13. ‘Two-Dimensional Modal Semantics, Conceivability, and Modal Epistemology’, Société de Philosophie Analytique (SOPHA) 2009 Conference,
    Université de Genève, Switzerland, September 2009.
  14. ‘Natural Boundaries and Metaphysical Realism’, Metaphysics of Science Conference, Nottingham, UK, September 2009.
  15. ‘Metaphysics Is Not About Existence Questions’, The fourth meeting of the Portuguese Society for Analytic Philosophy (ENFA 4), University of Évora, Portugal, September 2009.
  16. Principal organiser of a symposium entitled The Structure of Scientific Knowledge (with contributions from myself, Alexander Bird, Robin Hendry and Paul Winstanley), European Philosophy of Science Association Conference, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, October 2009.

    17. 2010:

  17. ‘The Metaphysical Status of Modal Statements’, Meaning, Modality and Apriority – Research Workshop with Scott Soames (one of four critical comments), Emmy Noether Group, University of Cologne, Germany, May 2010.
  18. ‘What Is Aristotelian Metaphysics?’, Metaphysics: Aristotelian, Scholastic, Analytic, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, July 2010.
  19. ‘In Search of a Fundamental Level’, Structure and Identity, University of Bristol, UK, July 2010.

    20. 2011:

  20. ‘Naturalizing Aprioristic Metaphysics’, Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Science, University of Toronto, Canada, May 2011.
  21. ‘Grounding Modality’, ECAP 7: Seventh European Conference of Analytic Philosophy, University of Milan, Italy, September 2011.

Invited Presentations and Seminar Talks

    2007:

  1. ‘On the Metaphysics of Modality’, Eidos – Postgraduate Philosophy Society, Durham University, UK, April 2007.
  2. ‘Truthmaking and Realism’, Eidos – Postgraduate Philosophy Society, Durham University, UK, November 2007.
  3. ‘The Necessity of Metaphysics’, Departmental Research Seminar, University of Helsinki, Finland, December 2007.

    4. 2008:

  4. ‘The Necessity of Metaphysics’, Eidos – Postgraduate Philosophy Society, Durham University, UK, February 2008.
  5. ‘The Necessity of Metaphysics’, Seminar on The Possibility of Metaphysics in Twentieth Century and Contemporary Philosophy, University of Tampere, Finland, April 2008.
  6. ‘The Necessity of Metaphysics’, Departmental Research Seminar, Durham University, UK, May 2008.
  7. ‘Against Conventionalism: Boundaries and Realism’, Eidos – Postgraduate Philosophy Society, Durham University, UK, October 2008.

    8. 2009:

  8. ‘A Priori and A Posteriori: A Bootstrapping Relationship’, Eidos – Postgraduate Philosophy Society, Durham University, UK, February 2009.
  9. ‘Metaphysics Is Not About Existence Questions’, Eidos – Postgraduate Philosophy Society, Durham University, UK, May 2009.
  10. ‘On the Epistemic Status of Euclidean Geometry’, Eidos – Postgraduate Philosophy Society, Durham University, UK, October 2009.
  11. ‘Varieties of Modality I & II’, Problèmes de métaphysique, The eidos Centre in Metaphysics, University of Geneva, Switzerland, December 2009.

    12. 2010:

  12. Comment on Magdalena Balcerak Jackson’s paper, ‘Intuitions as Inferential Judgments’, Workshop on the A Priori, Emmy Noether Group, University of Cologne, Germany, May 2010.

    13. 2011:

  13. ‘Essence and Modality Reconsidered’, Metaphysics Bootcamp, New York University, USA, April 2011.
  14. ‘The Epistemology of Essence’, Brown Bag Lunch, New York University, USA, May 2011.
  15. ‘The Modal Basis of Humean Supervenience’, Hume’s Metaphysics and Humean Metaphysics, University of Tampere, Finland, June 2011.
  16. ‘Quantification and Ontological Realism’ (in Finnish), Workshop on Metametaphysics, University of Tampere, Finland, December 2011.

Teaching

  • 2006 – 07: Knowledge & Reality (32 tutorials) (1st year) (Durham)
  • 2007 – 08: Critical Thinking (GCSE) (10 seminars) (Framwellgate School Durham)
  • 2007 – 08: Introduction to Philosophy (6 seminars) (A-level) (Framwellgate School Durham)
  • 2007 – 08: Philosophy of Mind (16 tutorials) (2nd year) (Durham)
  • 2008 – 09: Knowledge & Reality (16 tutorials) (1st year) (Durham)
  • 2008 – 09: Philosophical Logic (16 tutorials) (2nd year) (Durham)
  • 2008 – 09: Philosophical Logic (1 lecture) (2nd year) (Durham)
  • 2008 – 09: Philosophy of Mind (16 tutorials) (2nd year) (Durham)
  • 2008 – 09: Philosophy of Mind (5 lectures) (2nd year) (Durham)
  • 2009 – 10: Knowledge & Reality (4 lectures) (1st year) (Durham)
  • 2011 – 12: Metametaphysics (13 lectures) (2nd-3rd year/postgraduate) (Helsinki)

Other Academic Responsibilities

Languages

  • Finnish: Native speaker
  • English: Fluent
  • Swedish: Satisfactory
  • French: Basics
  • Latin: Reading

Computer Skills

  • OS: Competent in PC environment, familiar with Mac/UNIX/Linux environments.
  • Programming: dBase, Java, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SQL, LaTeX.
  • Office: Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office and OpenOffice packages.
  • Design: Experience in web and graphics design (e.g. Adobe Design CS5).
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