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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
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Ms Julia Carver
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Professor Jennifer Castle
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Professor Bernhard Salow
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Professor Ofra Magidor
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Professor Paul Elbourne
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Professor Thomas Norman
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Professor Paul Billingham
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Dr Alfonso Moreno
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Professor Felix Budelmann
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Professor Oliver Taplin FBA
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Professor Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
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Mr Andrea Boltho
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Professor Scott Williamson
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Professor Jane Gingrich
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Dr Antony Smith
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Dr Mark Pobjoy
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Professor Laura Swift
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Dr Enrico Emanuele Prodi
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