Philosophy Dept
UNC Chapel Hill
Caldwell Hall / CB 3125
240 East Cameron Ave
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3125

Education and Employment

Professor
UNC Chapel Hill, Dept. of Philosophy, 2020-
Professor
NYU, Dept. of Philosophy, 2013-2020
Associate Professor
NYU, Dept. of Philosophy, 2005-2013
Associate Professor
Princeton University, Dept. of Philosophy, 2002-2005
Assistant Professor
Harvard University, Dept. of Philosophy, 1997-2002
Instructor
Harvard University, Dept. of Philosophy, 1996-1997
Ph.D. in Philosophy
Princeton University, 1997
B.A. in Philosophy, summa cum laude
Cornell University, 1991

Areas of Specialization

Epistemology, Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Mind

Areas of Competence

Metaphysics, Philosophical Logic, History of Twentieth-Century Analytic Philosophy, British Empiricism

Publications

"Merits of Incoherence"
forthcoming in a volume of Analytic Philosophy with other contributions to the Pittsburgh Conference on Perceptual Experience and Empirical Reason from October 2016
"De Jure Codesignation"
in A Companion to the Philosophy of Language, 2nd edition, edited by Bob Hale, Alex Miller, and Crispin Wright (Blackwell, 2017)
"Mental Graphs"
in Review of Philosophy and Psychology 7 (2016), special volume edited by François Recanati and Michael Murez
"Problems for Credulism"
in Seemings and Justification: New Essays on Dogmatism and Phenomenal Conservatism, ed. by Chris Tucker (OUP, 2013)
"When Warrant Transmits"
in Wittgenstein, Epistemology and Mind: Themes from the Philosophy of Crispin Wright, ed. by Annalisa Coliva (OUP, 2012)
"What's Wrong with McKinsey-style Reasoning?"
in Internalism and Externalism in Semantics and Epistemology, ed. by Sanford Goldberg (OUP, 2007)
"Reasons and That-Clauses"
in Philosophical Issues 17 (2007)
"Hyper-Reliability and Apriority"
Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 106 (2006)
"Bad Intensions" (co-authored with Alex Byrne)
in The Two-Dimensional Framework, ed. by Manuel García-Carpintero and Josep Macià (OUP, 2006)
"What's So Bad about Living in the Matrix?"
published online in 2003 at whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com (site now inactive, text available at http://www.jimpryor.net/research/papers/matrix/plain.html)
also in Philosophers Explore the Matrix, ed. by Christopher Grau (OUP, 2005)
"There Is Immediate Justification"
in Contemporary Debates in Epistemology, edited by Matthias Steup and Ernest Sosa (Blackwell, 2005); reprinted in 2nd ed (2013), edited by Matthias Steup, John Turri, and Ernest Sosa, with a further exchange with Juan Comesaña
"What's Wrong with Moore's Argument?"
Philosophical Issues 14 (2004)
Comments on Sosa's "Relevant Alternatives, Contextualism Included"
Philosophical Studies 119 (2004)
"Highlights of Recent Epistemology"
British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 52 (2001)
"The Skeptic and the Dogmatist"
Nous 34 (2000)
Reprinted in The Philosopher's Annual 23 (2001)
"Immunity to Error through Misidentification"
Philosophical Topics 26 (1999)

Presentations

 

"Updating as Jeffrey or Dempster-Shafer with undermining"
Workshop on Experience and Updating, Bochum, 20-21 July 2017
"Merits of Incoherence"
Workshop on Perception and Justified Belief, Bochum, 1-2 June 2017
"Merits of Incoherence"
Workshop on Knowledge Beyond Natural Sciences, Stirling, 20-21 May 2017
"Problems for Credulism"
NYU Mind and Language Seminar, Jan 2017
"The Merits of Incoherence"
Pittsburgh Conference on Perceptual Experience and Empirical Reason, Oct 2016
"How to Do Things (Monadically) with Pronouns"
PhLiP, Tarrytown NY, Sept 2016
"Functional Programming Techniques for Philosophy and Linguistics" (with Chris Barker)
NASSLLI, Rutgers, July 2016
"How to Do Things (Monadically) with Pronouns"
ZAS/Berlin Dynamic Semantics Workshop, May 2016
"The Problem of Indiscernible Thoughts"
UAE University, March 2016
"The merits of incoherence"
NYU Abu Dhabi workshop on Normativity, February 2016
Seminar presentation on "Mental Graphs"
Brown, Nov 2015
"De Jure Codesignation"
Berkeley, Nov 2015
"The merits of incoherence"
St Andrews Conference, June 2015
"The merits of incoherence"
Rutgers Epistemology Conference, May 2015
"The merits of incoherence"
NYU Lunchtime Talk Series, Feb 2015
"The merits of incoherence"
SOFIA XX Conference on Epistemic and Ethical Normativity, Huatulco, Jan 2015
"The merits of incoherence"
Conference on inference, Oslo, June 2014
"Frege's Problem and the Inadequacy of the Attitude/Content Model of the Mind"
CUNY Cognitve Science Group, March 2014
"The merits of incoherence"
Keynote address, Univ of Miami Grad Conference, Jan 2014
"Dynamic Anaphora, Mutation, and Monads"
NY Philosophy of Language Group, Dec 2013
"The merits of incoherence"
Cornell, Nov 2013
"The merits of incoherence"
workshop on Epistemic Justification and Reasons, Luxembourg, Nov 2013
"The merits of incoherence"
workshop on New Perspectives on External World Skepticism, Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, July 2013
Participant
conference on A Priori, La Pietra, Florence, June 2013
"Acquaintance, mental files, and mental graphs"
UC Irvine, May 2013
"Donkey anaphora, mutation, and state monads"
NY Philosophical Logic Group, April 2013
"Acquaintance, mental files, and mental graphs"
conference on Reference and Rationality, Franklin and Marshall College, March 2013
"The Essence and Inevitability of Hyper-evaluative Semantics"
conference on The Philosophy of Kit Fine, NYU, January 2013
"The Essence and Inevitability of Hyper-evaluative Semantics"
seminar on Semantic Content, Oxford, January 2013
"Closure and Evidence"
Midwest Epistemology Workshop, Bloomington Indiana, September 2012
"Problems for Credulism"
GAP.8, Konstanz, September 2012
"Problems for Credulism"
Svolvaer, Norway, May 2012
Researcher, Institute for Advanced Studies, Hebrew University
Jerusalem, Sept 2011-Feb 2012
Presented "Problems for Credulism", "Deliberating, Concluding, and Entailing" and "Hypothetical Oughts" to research group
"Hypothetical Oughts"
Union College, New York, April 2011
"Hypothetical Oughts"
NYU-Rutgers Epistemology Workshop, April 2011
"Hyper-evaluativity"
Russell VII Conference, Healdsburg, California, March 2011
"Hyper-evaluativity"
UCLA, March 2011
"Hyper-evaluativity"
Ohio State, January 2011
"Problems for Credulism"
Epistemology Conference, Bologna, December 2010
"Problems for Credulism"
Brown, November 2010
"Hyper-evaluativity"
Workshop on Mental Files, Paris, November 2010
"Problems for Credulism"
Workshop on Evidence, Geneva, October, 2010
"Hypothetical Oughts"
Keynote address, Central States Philosophy Conference, Detroit, September, 2010
"Hyper-evaluativity"
Workshop on Predicate Logic, Bielefeld, September 2010
"Hyper-evaluativity"
NYU La Pietra Conference, July 2010
"Hyper-evaluativity"
Oxford, June 2010
"Problems for Credulism"
3rd Formal Epistemology Festival, Toronto, May 2010
Participant
Conference on Tyler Burge, UC Santa Barbara, May 2011
"Conditional epistemic oughts"
Nebraska, April 2010
"Conditional epistemic oughts"
Keynote address, CUNY Grad Conference, April 2010
Conference on Entitlement at Testimony
Northern Institutue of Philosophy, Aberdeen, March 2010
Participant
Conference on taste, Abu Dhabi, January 2010
"So-called epistemic oughts"
Pittsburgh, December 2009
Guest Professor, Four seminars on Externalism and Coreference
ENS, May 2009
"What should you do when you're wrong"
Concordia, Montreal, April 2009
"So-called epistemic oughts"
Oberlin, April 2009
"What should you do when you're wrong"
Urbana-Champaign, March 2009
Conference on Dogmatism
Brown, February 2009
Workshop on De Re Belief
Barcelona, January 2009
"So-called epistemic oughts"
MIT, December 2008
"So-called epistemic oughts"
Austin , November 2008
"So-called epistemic oughts"
World Congress of Philosophy, Seoul, July 2008
"Undermining and Inference"
University of Fribourg, June 2008
Comments on Juan Comesana
NYU Conference on Skepticism, La Pietra, Florence, June 2008
"Undermining and Inference"
University of York, May 2008
Participant
Workshop on Self-Knowledge and the Self, London, May 2008
Comments on Tim Williamson
Epistemology Conference, Madison, May 2008
Participant
Workshop on Religion and Epistemology, Princeton, April 2008
"When Warrant Transmits"
Brown, April 2008
(1) "Uncertainty and Undermining" and (2) "When Warrant Transmits"
St Andrews, Nov 2007
"When Warrant Transmits"
Boulder, Colorado, Nov 2007
"When Warrant Transmits"
Seoul, South Korea, June-July 2007
(1) "When Warrant Transmits" and (2) "Uncertainty and Undermining"
RSSS/ANU, June 2007
"When Warrant Transmits"
University of Sydney, May 2007
"When Warrant Transmits"
Hong Kong University, May 2007
"Perceptual Justification and Moore’s Proof of the External World"
University at Buffalo, April 2007
Comments on Chalmers
Pacific Division APA; San Francisco, April 2007
"Justified perceptual belief"
Reed College, April 2007
"Reasons and that-clauses"
SOFIA, Cancún, Mexico, January 2007
"Warrant-transmission"
Indiana, November 2006
Participant
Basic Knowledge Workshop, St Andrews, November 2006
"Warrant-transmission"
Keynote Speaker for Rochester Grad Conference, October 2006
"Warrant-transmission"
CUNY, October 2006
"Warrant-transmission"
UNAM, Mexico City, October 2006
"Hyper-Reliability and Apriority"
Aristotelian Society, London, May 2006
"Externalism about Content and McKinsey-style Reasoning"
St Andrews, May 2006
"Hyper-Reliability and Apriority"
St Andrews, May 2006
"Hyper-Reliability and Apriority"
Vermont, April 2006
"Fatalism: Do Our Efforts Make Any Difference?"
West Point, March 2006
Comments on Michael Devitt and George Bealer
Eastern Division APA; New York, December 2005
Comments on John Hawthorne
Rutgers Semantics Workshop, September 2005
"Uncertainty and Undermining"
Formal Epistemology Workshop, University of Texas at Austin, May 2005
"Externalism about Content and McKinsey-style Reasoning"
Conference on Internalism and Externalism in Semantics and Epistemology, Kentucky, April 2005
"Externalism about Content and McKinsey-style Reasoning"
Univ of Barcelona, April 2005
Two-week Epistemology Seminar
Univ of Barcelona, Mar-April 2005
Two-day Graduate Workshop
Brown, March 2005
Comments on Paul Boghossian
SOFIA XVI Conference, Huatulco, Mexico, January 2005
"Acquaintance and Evidence"
USC, November 2004
"An Epistemic Theory of Acquaintance"
Workshop on De Re Representation; Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, September 2004
"Indexicality and A Priority"
Workshop on the A Priori, Syracuse, August 2004
"Indexicality and A Priority"
Conference on Self-Knowledge and the Self, Bigorio, Switzerland, August 2004
"An Epistemic Theory of Acquaintance"
Conference on Consciousness and Intentionality, La Pietra, Florence, June 2004
"An Epistemic Theory of Acquaintance"
Conference on Content and Concepts, Santa Barbara, February 2004
"An Epistemic Theory of Acquaintance"
Eastern Division APA; Washington DC, December 2003
"What is De Re Thought?"
Berkeley, October 2003
"What's Allowed to be a Justifier?"
University of York, June 2003
"What's Allowed to be a Justifier?"
Jowett Society, Oxford, June 2003
"Epistemic Agency"
University of Kansas, April 2003
Comments on John Hawthorne
Pacific Division APA; San Francisco, March 2003
"In Defense of Immediate Justification"
Princeton, March 2003
"In Defense of Immediate Justification"
UNC-Chapel Hill, January 2003
"Anti-Given Arguments and Epistemic Recipes"
NYU, December 2002
Comments on Ernest Sosa
Conference on Contextualism in Epistemology and Beyond; U. Mass-Amherst, October 2002
"Does Moore's Argument Beg the Question?"
Summer School on Epistemology and Cognition; Paris, July 2002
"Externalism about Content and McKinsey-style Reasoning"
Colloquium on Self-Knowledge; Univ. of Utah, April 2002
"Is Moore's Argument an Example of Transmission-Failure?"
Pacific Division APA; Seattle, March 2002
"Externalism about Content and McKinsey-style Reasoning"
Brown, March 2002
"Is Moore's Argument an Example of Transmission-Failure?"
Wake Forest University, November 2001
"Is Moore's Argument an Example of Transmission-Failure?"
Univ. of Arizona, November 2001
"Is Moore's Argument an Example of Transmission-Failure?"
UNAM Conference on Skepticism; Mexico City, August 2001
"Bad Intensions" (with Alex Byrne)
Barcelona Workshop on Reference: Two-Dimensionalism; June 2001
"Externalism about Content and Modus Ponens Reasoning"
Stanford, May 2000
Roundtable panelist
Rutgers Epistemology Conference, April 2001
"Externalism about Content and Modus Ponens Reasoning"
UNAM Conference on Language, Mind and World; Tlaxcala, Mexico, March 2001
"Externalism about Content and Modus Ponens Reasoning"
Penn, March 2001
"Closure and Externalism about Content"
Univ. of Rochester, November 2000
Comments on Gabriele Usberti
Conference on Justification and Meaning; Siena, June 2000
"What Do We Know A Priori about Water?"
Brown, May 2000
Comments on Michael Tooley
Pacific Division APA; Albuquerque, April 2000
"What Do We Know A Priori about Water?"
Rutgers, March 2000
"What Do We Know A Priori about Water?"
Brandeis, March 2000
"What Do We Know A Priori about Water?"
Vassar, February 2000
"A Dogmatist's Account of Perceptual Justification"
NYU, April 1999
"The Best Form of Skeptical Argument"
Columbia, December 1998
"The Skeptic and the Dogmatist"
University of York, June 1998
Comments on Scott Sturgeon
Eastern Division APA; Philadelphia, December 1997
"Do We Perceive Things or Their Effects?"
UCLA, January 1996
"Do We Perceive Things or Their Effects?"
Univ. of Michigan, January 1996
"Deflating Experience"
European Congress of Analytic Philosophy; Aix en Provence, April 1993

Research

I work in epistemology, formal semantics (especially at the intersection of philosophy, linguistics, and computer science), logic, philosophy of mind, and related issues in action theory, ethics, and metaphysics.