Staff profile

Mr Tim Oakley

Research Associate

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

School of Communication, Arts and Critical Enquiry

Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Area of study

Philosophy

Brief Profile

After completing undergraduate studies in Philosophy (with a minor in History and Philosophy of Science), Tim Oakley completed a Bachelor of Philosophy degree at Oxford, and then returned to a position at the newly formed La Trobe University. He taught there for some forty years, retiring from teaching to become an honorary associate at the end of 2006.  At various times he has been a visitor at Oxford University, the University of Dundee, the University of Arizona, and Princeton University.

He has taught in a wide range of areas in philosophy, including philosophy of language, the British Empiricists, philosophy of logic, epistemology, ontology, ethics, the meaning of life, philosophy of science, and critical thinking. He has had, and continues to maintain, similarly diverse research interests. 

His current research interests are in epistemology and the meaning of life.  In the former field, he is particularly concerned with scepticism and the nature of justified belief. Long convinced by sceptical arguments, much of his work has been (and continues to be) devoted to the question of how to deal with that situation.  On the latter topic, he has maintained that the central concept requiring explication is meaninglessness.

At various times he also pursued research on self-respect and self-esteem, value nihilism, the analytic/synthetic distinction, and the nature of inductive argument.

Research interests

Philosophy of the Mind

- Epistemology

- Ethics

- Inductive argument

- Philosophy of mind

Recent Publications

  • Oakley, I.T. 2010, ‘The Issue is Meaninglessness’ The Monist, Vol 93, No 1, pp 106-122.
  • Oakley, I.T. 2006, ‘A Problem about Epistemic Dependence’ in Steven Hetherington (ed)  Aspects of Knowing: Epistemological Essays, Elsevier.
  • Oakley, I.T. and O’Neill, 2003, L.J. ‘D.A.T. Gasking’ in The Dictionary of 20th Century British Philosophy Thoemmes, London.
  • Oakley, I.T. 2002, ‘An Argument for Scepticism Concerning Justified Belief’ in Huemer, M. (ed) Epistemology, Contemporary Readings, Routledge, New York. (Previously published paper, newly anthologized)
  • Oakley, I.T. 2001, ‘A Sceptic’s Reply to Lewisian Conntextualism’ The Canadian Journal of Philosophy Vol 31, No 3, pp 309 -332.

Older Publications

  • Oakley, I.T. 1998, ‘The Invalidation of Induction’ Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Vol  76 No 3, pp 453-463.
  • Oakley, I.T. and L.J. O’Neill  (edd) 1996:  Language Logic and Causation: Philosophical Writings of Douglas Gasking. Melbourne University Press
  • Oakley, I.T. 1996 Values and The Meaning of Life  Monash. Distance Education Centre
  • Oakley, I.T. and Phillips, R.G.,1996  Reason and Argument (2nd revised and expanded edition) Monash Distance Education Centre.
  • Oakley, I.T. and Phillips, R.G., 1994  Reason and Argument   Monash Distance Education Centre
  • Oakley, I.T. 1988  “Scepticism and the Diversity of Epistemic Justification” The Philosophical Quarterly, Vol 38, No 152, pp 263-79
  • Oakley, I.T. 1976 “An Argument for Scepticism concerning Justified Beliefs “American Philosophical Quarterly”, Vol 13 No 3, pp 221-8.
  • Oakley, I.T. 1972 “On an Account of our Analyticity Judgments” Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Vol 50, no 2, pp 124-30.