Keith DeRose

Keith DeRose
Name	Keith DeRose
Birth date	1962
Birth place	New Haven, Connecticut
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Yale University, Columbia University
Occupation	Philosopher, Professor
Institutions	Yale University, Columbia University, University of California, Los Angeles
Notable works	Varieties of Skepticism, The Case for Contextualism

Keith DeRose is an American philosopher known for influential work on epistemology, semantics, and the theory of knowledge. He has held faculty positions at leading universities and contributed to debates about skepticism, context, relativism, and the nature of assertion. His work engages with historical figures and contemporary philosophers across analytic philosophy, philosophy of language, and epistemology.

Early life and education

DeRose was born in New Haven and raised in a family connected to higher education and publishing near Yale University, Brown University, and Princeton University. He completed undergraduate studies at Yale University before undertaking graduate studies at Columbia University where he studied under prominent epistemologists and philosophers of language active during the late 20th century, including mentors affiliated with institutions such as Harvard University, Stanford University, and Oxford University. During his doctoral training he engaged with the work of historical figures like René Descartes, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant as well as contemporaries at New York University, University of Pittsburgh, and University of California, Berkeley.

Academic career

DeRose has held appointments at Columbia University, University of California, Los Angeles, and Yale University, where he served as a professor and taught courses in epistemology, philosophy of language, and contemporary metaphysics. He has been a visiting scholar at institutions including University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Princeton University, and the Australian National University. DeRose has contributed to edited volumes associated with the American Philosophical Association, the British Academy, and the Royal Institute of Philosophy, and he has participated in conferences at venues such as MIT, University of Chicago, and King's College London. His graduate students have gone on to positions at universities including Duke University, University of Toronto, Rutgers University, and University of Michigan.

Philosophical work and contributions

DeRose is best known for defending contextualism about knowledge attributions and for responses to philosophical skepticism. His arguments interact with debates involving figures and positions associated with G.E. Moore, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Socrates, Sextus Empiricus, and modern skeptics found in the work of Edmund Gettier, Berkeley, and Thomas Reid. He developed criteria and diagnostics that relate to semantic theories discussed in literature alongside contributions by David Lewis, Saul Kripke, Donald Davidson, and H.P. Grice. DeRose's contextualist proposals address problems raised by proponents of relativism and invariantism, engaging with work by David Kaplan, Hilary Putnam, Michael Dummett, and Kit Fine.

In epistemology, DeRose formulated arguments concerning closure principles, sensitivity and safety conditions, and the epistemic impact of practical stakes, drawing on debates that include Alvin Goldman, John Locke, Wilfrid Sellars, and John McDowell. He has critically examined skeptical scenarios like the brain in a vat hypothesis and Cartesian doubt with reference to historical responses by René Descartes and analytic replies such as those developed at Princeton University and Yale University. His work also interfaces with contemporary discussions of assertion theory, speech act theory, and norms of belief, in dialogue with scholars from Rutgers University, Cornell University, and Columbia University.

DeRose has written on the methodology of philosophy, weighing in on experimental philosophy debates linked to research at Vanderbilt University and Temple University and on interdisciplinary connections with cognitive science laboratories at MIT and Stanford University. His influence extends to translation and interpretation projects involving texts by Plato and Aristotle, as well as modern analytic exegeses appearing in journals affiliated with the American Philosophical Association, Philosophical Review, and Mind (journal).

Selected publications

- "Contextualism and Knowledge Attributions" — essay appearing in collections alongside work by Timothy Williamson, Ernest Sosa, Jonathan Dancy, and Peter Unger. - Varieties of Skepticism — monograph discussed in reviews by scholars at Harvard University, Oxford University Press, and Cambridge University Press. - "The Case for Contextualism" — widely cited paper engaging with positions defended by Stephen Schiffer, Anthony Grafton, and Roderick Chisholm. - Edited volumes and articles in journals such as Philosophical Studies, The Journal of Philosophy, and Nous, alongside contributions by Nicholas Sturgeon, Sarah McGrath, and Joshua Knobe. - Chapters in handbooks produced by editors affiliated with Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy project, in company with authors like Travis LeBerge and Michael Williams.

Awards and honors

DeRose has received recognition including fellowships and grants from organizations such as the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, and university awards at Yale University and Columbia University. He has been invited to deliver named lectures at Princeton University, University of California, Berkeley, King's College London, and the London School of Economics. His work has been the subject of symposia at the American Philosophical Association meetings and has influenced prize-winning dissertations at institutions like University of Pittsburgh and New York University.

Category:American philosophers Category:Epistemologists