I work at the intersection of social metaphysics and the philosophy of language.  A few of the issues that interest me are The metaphysics of language. I am interested in the nature of linguistic objects, such as words, sentences, phonemes, and public languages.  Understanding what linguistic objects are promises to resolve longstanding problems in linguistics and semantic theory. The nature of social groups and social properties.  The aim of this work is to shed light on things like shared intentions, judgments, and actions. Model-building in the social sciences.  A key area of concern to me right now is investigating the limits of individualism, and individual-based modeling methods in economics and the social sciences.

I'm currently teaching an introduction to the philosophy of social science and a seminar on the metaphysics of material objects. In the Spring term, I will be teaching a survey of metaphysics and a course on "social construction." Check out past, current, and upcoming courses here, with descriptions and syllabi..

Here are some of my recent publications:

A spanking new paper, on genealogical arguments and foundational semantics:

• "History and the Critique of Social Concepts" (pdf of penultimate draft), forthcoming in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences.

More papers on philosophy of social science:

• "Ontological Individualism Reconsidered" (pdf), Synthese, 166, No. 1 (2009), 187-213.
• "When Local Models Fail" (pdf), Philosophy of the Social Sciences 38 (2008), 3-24.
• "Deceptive Properties and Modeling Social Change" (pdf), Berkeley CollInt VI Proceedings.

And some papers on philosophy of language and philosophy of linguistics:

• "Grounds, Convention, and the Metaphysics of Linguistic Objects" (pdf), Croatian Journal of Philosophy 9, No. 25 (2009), to appear.
• "The Internal and the External in Linguistic Explanation" (pdf), Croatian Journal of Philosophy 8, No. 22 (2008), 77-111.
• "The Realpolitik of Reference" (pdf), Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 89 (2008), 1-20.
• Review of Language: A Biological Model by Ruth Millikan (pdf), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (April 2006).
  

Drafts (comments welcome!) and other things that may be of interest:

• "The Nonlocality of Semantic Content" (pdf), under review.
• "Science without Levels" (pdf), under review.
• "Economics and Nonsupervenience" (pdf), revising.
  

To get in touch with me:

Philosophy Department
Miner Hall, 14 Upper Campus Rd.
Tufts University
Medford, MA 02155
brian.epstein@tufts.edu