Matthew Shields

I am an assistant professor of philosophy at Wake Forest University. Before that, I was a postdoctoral fellow at University College Dublin, associated with the PERITIA project. I received my PhD in Philosophy from Georgetown University in 2019. After my PhD, I was a Lecturer in Philosophy for two years at University of Colorado Boulder.

You can contact me at shieldm@wfu.edu.

My primary research is in philosophy of language and epistemology. My work considers the linguistic and epistemic practices that promote and detract from various forms of inquiry. In particular, I consider what speakers are doing when they articulate or defend a certain understanding of a concept or term, especially a concept or term that plays a foundational role in an area of inquiry. My research also addresses questions of how best to understand and theorize about the phenomena of expert disagreement, truth, and conceptual change. More recently, I have started to consider how certain concepts (such as the concept of conspiracy theories) can be an impediment to political thinking.

In addition to my work in philosophy of language and epistemology, I think about these questions from the perspective of various traditions in the history of philosophy and other areas of contemporary philosophy, including post-Kantian European philosophy, the pragmatist tradition, philosophy of science, feminist philosophy, and Jewish philosophy. I am also prepared to teach in these areas.

My academic CV can be downloaded here.

Pre-prints, abstracts, and links to my papers can be viewed here.

Information about my teaching can be viewed here.

Abstract and link to my dissertation can be viewed here.

I received my BA from Yale University in an interdisciplinary program, where I studied connections between philosophy and literature.