Dr Ralph Walker
Subject: Philosophy, Politics
Department: Philosophy
College appointment: Emeritus Fellow
Contact
Phone
01865 276073
Background
I was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School, and then in Canada at Selwyn House School and Trinity College School. I did my BA at McGill University in 1964, and came to Oxford in that year as a Rhodes Scholar. At Balliol I studied for the B.Phil. and the D.Phil. in Philosophy, and was a Junior Research Fellow at Merton from 1968 to 1972, when I came to Magdalen as a Fellow and Tutor. I held that post until I retired in 2011. During that time I also taught for short periods in other countries, including Uganda, Brazil, Poland and (particularly) Czechoslovakia: I was on the Management Committee of the Jan Hus Educational Foundation, concerned with higher education in Czechoslovakia, from 1982.
Research Interests
Kant; Ethics; Philosophy of Religion; Truth and Justification of Beliefs.
I have held a number of University offices, including: Junior Proctor, 1984-5; Chairman of the General Board 1999-2000; Head of the Humanities Division, 2000-2006; Delegate of Oxford University Press 1993-2003. I was Vice-President of Magdalen in 2008 and 2009.
Selected Publications
- Kant: London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1978.
- Kant on Pure Reason (ed.): Oxford University Press, 1982.
- The Coherence Theory of Truth: London, Routledge, 1988.
- The Real in the Ideal (ed.): New York, Garland, 1989.
- Kant and the Moral Law: London, Orion, 1998.
- “Conversational Implicatures”, in S.W. Blackburn, ed., Meaning, Reference and Necessity: Cambridge University Press, 1975.
- “Theories of Truth”, in Bob Hale and Crispin Wright, eds, Companion to the Philosophy of Language: Oxford, Blackwell, 1997.
- “Induction and Transcendental Arguments”, in R. Stern, ed., Transcendental Arguments: Problems and Prospects: Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1999.
- “Kant and Transcendental Arguments”, in P. Guyer, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Kant and Modern Philosophy: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
- “Kant on the Number of Worlds”, British Journal for the History of Philosophy 18(5), 2010.
- “Kant”, in T. Angier, ed., Ethics: the Key Thinkers: London, Bloomsbury, 2012.
Department Staff
Professor Scott Williamson
Professor Ofra Magidor
Professor Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
Professor Jane Gingrich
Professor Bernhard Salow
Dr James Kirkpatrick
Dr Bruno Schmidt-Feuerheerd
Prof Christopher Peacocke
Ms Joana McCloy
Professor Laura Swift
Professor Jennifer Castle
Professor Paul Billingham
Professor Paul Elbourne
Dr Jack Beaulieu
Dr Ibrahim Safri
Professor Thomas Norman
Dr Alfonso Moreno
Professor Oliver Taplin FBA
Professor Felix Budelmann
Dr Mark Pobjoy
