About

I'm associate professor and chair of philosophy at Tufts University. Most of my research is in the philosophy of language and formal semantics, but I'm also interested in epistemology, the philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and philosophical logic. I co-direct the Linguistics Minor at Tufts, and I teach a number of courses related to this, including Semantics, Philosophy of Language, and Modal Logic. I hold a BA from the University of Western Ontario, a BPhil from Oxford University, and a PhD from MIT. From 2019-2024, I was an Editor-in-Chief of Linguistics and Philosophy. During the 2020-2021 academic year, I was a fellow at the Paris Institute for Advanced Study. Two of my articles have been selected for inclusion in the Philosopher's Annual, which aims to collect the ten best articles published in philosophy each year (2018, 2024).

Work

  1. Modality and the Future
    Forthcoming in the Cambridge Handbook of Natural Language Modality, Cambridge University Press.
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  2. The Strength of Assertion
    2025. Analytic Philosophy. Advance online publication.
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  3. De Se Attitudes
    Forthcoming in the International Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Elsevier.
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  4. First-Person Propositions (with Michael Caie)
    2025. Philosophers' Imprint. 25(11): 1-22.
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  5. A Relationist Theory of Intentional Identity
    2024. Mind. 133(531): 761-792.
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  6. An Expressivist Theory of Taste Predicates
    2024. Philosophers' Imprint. 24(13): 1-23.
    Selected as one of the ten best philosophy papers of 2024 by the Philosopher's Annual.
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  7. Modality and the Future: Critical Notice of The Modal Future by Fabrizio Cariani
    2024. Analysis. (advance online version)
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  8. Relativism and Two Kinds of Branching Time
    2023. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly. 104(2): 465-492.
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  9. Dynamic Relationism about Belief
    2022. Proceedings of the 23rd Amsterdam Colloquium. 221-227
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  10. Assertion, Evidence, and the Future
    2022. Philosophical Review. 131(4): 405-451.
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  11. Williams on the Self and the Future
    2022. Analytic Philosophy. 63(3): 147-155.
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  12. Knowing, Believing, and Acting as if You Know
    2021. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 44(E164).
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  13. Naming and Epistemic Necessity
    2021. Noûs 55(2): 334-362.
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  14. The Projection Problem for Predicates of Taste
    2020. Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT) 30, 753-778.
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  15. De Se Attitudes and Action
    2020. In S. Biggs and H. Geirsson (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Linguistic Reference, Routledge.
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  16. Quantification and Epistemic Modality
    2018. Philosophical Review 127(2): 433-485.
    Selected as one of the ten best philosophy papers of 2018 by the Philosopher's Annual.
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  17. Relational Semantics and Domain Semantics for Epistemic Modals
    2018. Journal of Philosophical Logic 47(1): 1-16.
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  18. Aboutness and Justification
    2017. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 95(3): 371-377.
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  19. Names in Fiction
    2017. Theoretical Linguistics 43(1-2): 61-70
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  20. Imagination and the Self
    2016. In A. Kind (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Imagination, Routledge.
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  21. What is the Problem of De Se Attitudes?
    2016. In M. Garcia-Carpintero and S. Torre (eds.),
    About Oneself: De Se Attitudes and Communication, Oxford University Press.
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  22. Review of John MacFarlane, Assessment Sensitivity: Relative Truth and Its Applications.
    2016. Philosophical Review 125(3): 439-447.
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  23. On Recanati's Mental Files
    2015. Inquiry 58(4): 368-377.
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  24. Taste Predicates and the Acquaintance Inference
    2014. Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT ) 24: 290-309.
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  25. Self-Location and Other-Location
    2013. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 87(2):301-331.
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  26. Counterfactual Attitudes and Multi-Centered Worlds
    2012. Semantics and Pragmatics 5(5):1-57.
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  27. Propositions, Semantic Values, and Rigidity
    2012. Philosophical Studies 158(3): 401-413.
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  28. Review of Robin Jeshion (ed.), New Essays on Singular Thought.
    2011. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.
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  29. Review of Stephen Yablo, Thoughts: Philosophical Papers, Vol. I.
    2011. Protosociology.
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  30. Semantics and the Objects of Assertion
    2010. Linguistics and Philosophy 33(5): 355-380.
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  31. De Se Attitudes: Ascription and Communication
    2010. Philosophy Compass 5(7): 551-567.
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  32. Persistence and the First-Person Perspective
    2009. Philosophical Review 118(4): 425-464.
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  33. Two Puzzles About Deontic Necessity
    2005. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 51: 149-178.
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More work

  1. Comments on L.A. Paul, Transformative Experience.
    2015. Notes for talk at the Norwegian Institute in Athens.
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  2. Imagination, Content, and the Self
    2008. PhD dissertation, MIT.
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  3. Illusions of Influence in Newcomb's Problem
    2006. Unpublished manuscript.
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Contact

111A Miner Hall, Tufts University
Medford, MA, 02155, USA
dilip.ninan [at] tufts.edu
+1 (617) 627-2874