Biography
Mark primarily focuses upon Wittgenstein and related areas but also has active research interests in the philosophies of language, mind, and religion. He has published three books on Wittgenstein, namely, Wittgenstein: Making Sense of Other Minds (1999), Wittgenstein and Philosophy of Religion (2001) and Wittgenstein: A Guide for the Perplexed (2006).
Mark’s contributions to the study of Wittgenstein are widely cited across academic disciplines within the humanities and social sciences, and have received international recognition. He is the General Editor for the Philosophy Insights series at Humanities-Ebooks.
In 2005 Mark was a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Philosophy at Georgia State University and from 2007 onwards a Visiting Professor at the Department of Philosophy at Aarhus University.
He is a Research Associate at the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science at the London School of Economics and Deputy Director for the Centre for the Study of Expertise at Brunel University.
Mark is a member of the Schools and Executive Committee of the British Philosophical Association and the AHRC Peer Review College (2007-2014). He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Research
Postgraduate Supervision
Proposals for research in the areas of aesthetics, environmental philosophy, epistemology (especially applied), history of analytic philosophy (particularly Wittgenstein), jurisprudence, philosophy of education, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, and political philosophy are welcome. Students may also consider an interdisciplinary doctorate where the main research is conducted in another subject but there is a significant philosophical element.
Research Interests
Philosophy of mind, Wittgenstein and related areas, and (to a lesser extent) philosophy of mathematics.
Visiting appointments
Deputy Director for the Centre for the Study of Expertise at Brunel University 2011 onwards.
Research Associate at the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, London School of Economics 2010 onwards.
Visiting Professor at the Department of Philosophy, Aarhus University 2007 onwards.
Visiting Scholar at the Department of Philosophy at Georgia State University in 2005.
Grants
Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain: A national seminar series about the cross disciplinary perspective on expertise, know how, and professional education (2013)
Joint Nordic Use of the Wittgenstein Archives at Bergen and Georg Henrik von Wright Archives in Helsinki: User Driven Thematic Search in Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Psychology (2010)
AHRC Knowledge Transfer Fellowship: Philosopher in Residence in Construction Companies (2008) (Also see expertise project and research case studies)
Joint Nordic Use of the Wittgenstein Archives at Bergen and Georg Henrik von Wright Archives in Helsinki: User Driven Thematic Search in Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Psychology (2008)
Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies: Midlands Philosophy Research Training Network (2008)
CETL Birmingham City University: Applying Expertise in Context to Improve Vocational Education (2008)
English Subject Centre: Teaching the Contemporary: Fiction (2004)
Other
“Valuing Philosophy Degrees: Employability in Higher Education”, Birmingham City University, 15 September 2011. Co-organised with HE Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies.
Publications
Books
Wittgenstein: A Guide for the Perplexed, Continuum, 2006
Wittgenstein and Philosophy of Religion, paperback edition, Robert Arrington co-editor, Routledge, London, 2004
Wittgenstein and Philosophy of Religion, Robert Arrington co-editor, Routledge, London, 2001
Wittgenstein: Making Sense of Other Minds, Ashgate, Aldershot, 1999
Chapters
"D.Z. Phillips' Fideism in Wittgenstein's Mirror," Wittgenstein and Philosophy of Religion (see above), 2001
"Editors' Introduction," Wittgenstein and Philosophy of Religion (see above), 2001
"Wittgenstein and the Transfinite in Set Theory," Klaus Puhl (ed.), Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Mathematics, Holder-Pichler-Tempsky, Vienna, 1993
Journal Publication
“Expertise and Employability in Philosophy”, Discourse, 12:1, 2012
"Midlands Philosophy Research Training Network", co-author Helen Beebee, Discourse, 10:3, 2011
"Philosophy in post-92 Universities", Discourse, 10:2, 2011.
"Linguistic Competence and Expertise", Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 2011. [DOI: 10.1007/s11097-011-9211-5].
"Intellectual Property and the Public Interest," The International Journal of the Book, 6:1, 2009
"Teaching the Contemporary: Fiction," co-author Philip Tew, Changing English, 14:3, 2007
"Wittgenstein's Private Language Argument and Self Consciousness," Sats- Nordic Journal of Philosophy, 8:2, 2007. (Invited reprint in Analysis and Metaphysics, 6, 2007)
"English and Philosophy," English Subject Centre Newsletter, 6, 2004
"Criteria: the State of the Debate," Journal of Philosophical Research, XX, 1995
"Surveyability and the Sorites Paradox," Philosophia Mathematica, 3:2, 1995
"Aristotle: the Intellectual Virtues, with Special Reference to Practical Wisdom," Cogito, 5, 1991
Conference Proceedings
"Philosophy in Construction: Understanding the Development of Expertise", co-author David Boyd, Web Proceedings of the 46th American Schools of Construction Conference, 2010
Reviews and Other Publication
"Valuing Philosophy Degrees Enhancing Employability event report", Discourse, 12:1, 2012
“The Thinking Man’s Industry”, Construction Manager, November/December 2010
"What's the Value of a Humanities Degree?", Graduate Market Trends, autumn 2010
"Seeing As," Bruce Goldstein (ed.), Encyclopedia of Perception, Sage, 2009
Review of P. Sasson-Henry "Borges 2.0: From Text to Virtual Worlds", Information, Communication and Society, 12:7, 2009
Review of J.M. Lazenby “The Early Wittgenstein on Religion”, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, 2008
Review of John Cook "The Undiscovered Wittgenstein: The Twentieth Century's Most Misunderstood Philosopher", Philosophy in Review, 2007
Teaching the Contemporary: Fiction Report, co-author Philip Tew, 2007
Entries on Goodstein, MacDonald, Masterman, and Pears, Stuart Brown (ed.), Dictionary of Twentieth Century British Philosophers, Thoemmes Press, Bristol 2005. (Reprinted in A.C. Grayling, Andrew Pyle, Naomi Goulder (eds.), Continuum Encyclopedia of British Philosophy, Thoemmes Continuum, London 2006)
Extended review of David Stern and Bela Szabados, "Wittgenstein reads Weininger: a Reassessment" and Peter Munz "Beyond Wittgenstein's Poker", British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 13:3, 2005
Review of Gordon Baker "Wittgenstein: Neglected Aspects", International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 13:4, 2005
Review of John Cook, "Wittgenstein's Metaphysics", Mind, 105, 1996, co-author Clare Saunders.
Forthcoming Publications
"Wittgenstein and the Naturalness of Religious Belief," Armin Geertz (ed.), Origins of Religion, Cognition and Culture, Equinox Press, London, 2012
Editorial activities
Editorial Board: SATS: Northern European Journal of Philosophy
General Editor for the Philosophy Insights series at Humanities-Ebooks
Advisory Committee: Wittgenstein Source Bergen Facsimile Edition and Wittgenstein Source Bergen Text Edition
Editorial Board: Discourse (2011-2012)
Other
Interview on teaching philosophy for The Philosophy and Pedagogy Channel, 2012.