Jason Stanley named the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy

Jason Stanley, newly named as the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy, focuses his research on the philosophy of language, epistemology, action theory, and social and political philosophy.

After receiving his B.A. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stanley attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned his Ph.D. in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. He has held professorial appointments at Rutgers University, the University of Michigan, and Cornell University. He came to Yale in 2013 as professor of philosophy.

Stanley has published four books, two in epistemology, one in philosophy of language and semantics, and one in social and political philosophy. His first book, “Knowledge and Practical Interests,” won the 2007 American Philosophical Association book prize. His second, “Language in Context,” is a collection of papers in semantics on the topic of linguistic communication and context. He has also published “Know How” and, most recently, “How Propaganda Works.”

The Yale professor has contributed scores of articles and chapters to edited volumes and journals. He serves or has served on the editorial boards of Manuscrito, Philosopher’s Imprint, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Semantics and Pragmatics, and Philosophical Review, among other publications.

Stanley’s honors include a Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, from Binghamton University and visiting professorships at L’Ecole Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Seoul National University, and the University of Barcelona. He has held visiting fellowships at the Royal Scots Philosophical Club Centenary; the Arché Research Center, St. Andrews; New College, Oxford; and RSSS, Australian National University.