People_
Professor Nick Smith
Address
A14 - The Quadrangle
The University of Sydney
Details
Member of The Vere Gordon Childe Centre
Websites
I have been at Sydney since 2005. From 2001 to 2004 I was a Lecturer in Philosophy at Victoria University of Wellington. Before that I was a graduate student at Princeton University, where I was awarded an MA in 1998 and a PhD in 2001. I did my undergraduate work at the University of Sydney, where I was awarded a BA (Hons) in 1995.
Logics, philosophy of language, vagueness, degrees of belief, probability, decision theory, metaphysics, philosophy of time, time travel, epistemology, history of analytic philosophy, Frege.
- PHIL1012 Introductory Logic
- PHIL2615 Logic and Proof
- PHIL3610 Logic and Computation
- PHIL3691 Exploring Nonclassical Logic
- PHIL4111 and PHIL6111 Formal Philosophy
- PHIL4112 and PHIL6112 Epistemology and Language
Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA)
| Project title | Research student |
|---|---|
| Truthmakers for Vagueness | Shimpei ENDO |
| Tenselessness of Time: A tenseless account of the linguistic and psychological commitments to transitory time | Rita LI |
| Vague Demonstrations: a degree-based theory of proof | Oscar SANNEN |
| A new descriptivist approach to meaning and reference | Aaron WU |
Selected publications
Logic: The Laws of Truth
(Princeton University Press, 2012)
Vagueness and Degrees of Truth
(Oxford University Press, 2008)
Publications
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Books
- Smith, N. (2012). Logic: The Laws of Truth. Princeton, USA: Princeton University Press.
- Smith, N. (2008). Vagueness and Degrees of Truth. New York, United States: Oxford University Press. [More Information]
Book Chapters
- Smith, N. (2024). Nonsense + unintelligibility = how to understand vagueness. In Stephen Hetherington (Eds.), Extreme Philosophy: Bold Ideas and a Spirit of Progress, (pp. 62-75). Oxford: Oxford University Press. [More Information]
- Smith, N. (2024). Plurivaluationism, Semantic Nondeterminism and Communication. In M.E. Coniglio, E. Kubyshkina, D. Zaitsev (Eds.), Many-valued Semantics and Modal Logics: Essays in Honour of Yuriy Vasilievich Ivlev, (pp. 151-176). Switzerland: Springer Cham. [More Information]
- Smith, N. (2021). Consonance and Dissonance in Solutions to the Sorites (forthcoming). In Otavio Bueno and Ali Abasnezhad (Eds.), On the Sorites Paradox. Berlin: Springer.
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Journals
- Smith, N. (2025). Interpreting Imprecise Probabilities (Forthcoming). The Philosophical Quarterly.
- Smith, N. (2024). Time Travel. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Summer 2024. [More Information]
- Smith, N. (2023). Acting on belief functions. Theory and Decision: an international journal for multidisciplinary advances in decision sciences, 95(4), 575-621. [More Information]
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Conferences
- Cintula, P., Noguera, C., Smith, N. (2017). A logical framework for graded predicates. 6th International Workshop on Logic, Rationality, and Interaction, LORI 2017, Berlin: Springer Verlag. [More Information]
Reference Works
- Smith, N. (2018). Time Travel. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University Press.
- Campbell, K., Smith, N. (1998). Epiphenomenalism. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Routledge.
Other
- Smith, N. (2015), Doubts about ‘Uncertainty without all the doubt’, Mind & Language Symposium, February 2015, 1–7.
- Smith, N., Cusbert, J. (2012), Logic: The Drill.
- Smith, N. (2010), Review of "Truth as One and Many", Michael Lynch, Oxford University Press, 2009, X + 206 pp, in "Analysis Reviews", OUP, Vol 70, Number 1, January 2010, 191-193..
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Expand all
2025
- Smith, N. (2025). Interpreting Imprecise Probabilities (Forthcoming). The Philosophical Quarterly.
2024
- Smith, N. (2024). Nonsense + unintelligibility = how to understand vagueness. In Stephen Hetherington (Eds.), Extreme Philosophy: Bold Ideas and a Spirit of Progress, (pp. 62-75). Oxford: Oxford University Press. [More Information]
- Smith, N. (2024). Plurivaluationism, Semantic Nondeterminism and Communication. In M.E. Coniglio, E. Kubyshkina, D. Zaitsev (Eds.), Many-valued Semantics and Modal Logics: Essays in Honour of Yuriy Vasilievich Ivlev, (pp. 151-176). Switzerland: Springer Cham. [More Information]
- Smith, N. (2024). Time Travel. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Summer 2024. [More Information]
2023
- Smith, N. (2023). Acting on belief functions. Theory and Decision: an international journal for multidisciplinary advances in decision sciences, 95(4), 575-621. [More Information]
2022
- Smith, N. (2022). Respecting evidence: belief functions not imprecise probabilities. Synthese, 200(6). [More Information]
- Cintula, P., Grimau, B., Noguera, C., Smith, N. (2022). These degrees go to eleven: fuzzy logics and gradable predicates. Synthese, 200(6). [More Information]
2021
- Smith, N. (2021). Consonance and Dissonance in Solutions to the Sorites (forthcoming). In Otavio Bueno and Ali Abasnezhad (Eds.), On the Sorites Paradox. Berlin: Springer.
2020
- Smith, N. (2020). Alethic Pluralism and Logical Consequence. In I. Sedlar and M. Blicha (Eds.), The Logica Yearbook 2019, (pp. 147-161). London: College Publications.
2019
- Smith, N. (2019). Problems of Precision in Fuzzy Theories of Vagueness and Bayesian Epistemology. In Richard Dietz (Eds.), Vagueness and Rationality in Language Use and Cognition, (pp. 31-48). Cham: Springer. [More Information]
2018
- Smith, N. (2018). Time Travel. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University Press.
2017
- Cintula, P., Noguera, C., Smith, N. (2017). A logical framework for graded predicates. 6th International Workshop on Logic, Rationality, and Interaction, LORI 2017, Berlin: Springer Verlag. [More Information]
- Smith, N. (2017). I'd Do Anything to Change the Past (But I Can't Do 'That'). American Philosophical Quarterly, 54(2), 153-168.
- Smith, N. (2017). Truth via Satisfaction? In Pavel Arazim, Tomas Lavicka (Eds.), The Logica Yearbook 2016, (pp. 273-287). London: College Publications.
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2016
- Smith, N. (2016). A Theory of Propositions. Logic and Logical Philosophy, 25(1), 83-125. [More Information]
- Smith, N. (2016). Infinite Decisions and Rationally Negligible Probabilities. Mind, 125(500), 1199-1212. [More Information]
- Smith, N. (2016). Truthier Than Thou: Truth, Supertruth and Probability of Truth. NOUS, 50(4), 740-758. [More Information]
2015
- Smith, N. (2015), Doubts about ‘Uncertainty without all the doubt’, Mind & Language Symposium, February 2015, 1–7.
- Smith, N. (2015). Fuzzy Logics in Theories of Vagueness. In Petr Cintula, Christian Furmuller and Carles Noguera (Eds.), Handbook of Mathematical Fuzzy Logic (Volume 3), (pp. 1237-1281). London: College Publications.
- Smith, N. (2015). Why Time Travellers (Still) Cannot Change the Past. Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia, 71(4 (Special Issue on Metaphysics)), 677-694. [More Information]
2014
- Smith, N. (2014). Is evaluative compositionality a requirement of rationality? Mind, 123(490), 457-502. [More Information]
- Smith, N. (2014). One Bald Man..Two Bald Men..Three Bald Men - Aahh Aahh Aahh Aahh Aaaahhhh!. In Ken Akiba, Ali Abasnezhad (Eds.), Vague Objects and Vague Identity: New Essays on Ontic Vagueness, (pp. 197-216). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. [More Information]
- Smith, N. (2014). Vagueness, Uncertainty and Degrees of Belief: Two Kinds of Indeterminacy - One Kind of Credence. Erkenntnis, 79(5), 1027-1044. [More Information]
2013
- Smith, N. (2013). Fuzzy logic, probability and degree of belief. Bulletin of Symbolic Logic, 19(2), 280.
- Smith, N. (2013). Time Travel. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Winter 2013, 1-22.
2012
- Smith, N., Cusbert, J. (2012), Logic: The Drill.
- Smith, N. (2012). Logic: The Laws of Truth. Princeton, USA: Princeton University Press.
- Smith, N. (2012). Many-Valued Logics. In G Russell and DG Fara (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Language, (pp. 636-651). New York, NY, USA: Routledge. [More Information]
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2011
- Smith, N. (2011). Comments on A Conversation About Fuzzy Logic and Vagueness by Christian G. Fermuller and Petr Hajek. In Petr Cintula, Christian G. Fermuller, Lluis Godo and Petr Hajek (Eds.), Understanding Vagueness: Logical, Philosophical and Linguistic Perspectives, (pp. 417-421). London, UK: College Publications.
- Smith, N. (2011). Comments on Inconstancy and Inconsistency by David Ripley. In Petr Cintula, Christian G. Fermuller, Lluis Godo and Petr Hajek (Eds.), Understanding Vagueness: Logical, Philosophical and Linguistic Perspectives, (pp. 59-62). London, UK: College Publications.
- Smith, N. (2011). Fuzzy Logic and Higher-Order Vagueness. In Petr Cintula, Christian G. Fermuller, Lluis Godo and Petr Hajek (Eds.), Understanding Vagueness: Logical, Philosophical and Linguistic Perspectives, (pp. 1-19). London, UK: College Publications.
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2010
- Smith, N. (2010). Degree of Belief is Expected Truth Value. In Richard Dietz and Sebastoamo Moruzzi (Eds.), Cuts and Clouds: Vagueness, Its Nature, and Its Logic, (pp. 491-506). Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press. [More Information]
- Smith, N. (2010), Review of "Truth as One and Many", Michael Lynch, Oxford University Press, 2009, X + 206 pp, in "Analysis Reviews", OUP, Vol 70, Number 1, January 2010, 191-193..
- Smith, N. (2010), Review of "Vagueness, logic and ontology", Dominic Hyde, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2008, xii + 226 pp. in The Bulletin of Symbolic Logic, Vol. 16, No. 4, Dec. 2010, 531-533..
2009
- Smith, N. (2009). Frege's Judgement Stroke and the Conception of Logic as the Study of Inference not Consequence. Philosophy Compass, 4(4), 639-665. [More Information]
2008
- Smith, N. (2008). Vagueness and Degrees of Truth. New York, United States: Oxford University Press. [More Information]
- Smith, N. (2008). Why Sense Cannot Be Made of Vague Identity. NOUS, 42(1), 1-16. [More Information]
2007
- Smith, N. (2007), Review of "Frege Explained: From Arithmetic to Analytic Philosophy", Joan Weiner, Open Court, 2004. xvi + 180 pp. in Philosophical Books Vol. 48, No. 1, 2007, Blackwell Publishing..
2006
- Smith, N. (2006). Semantic Regularity and the Liar Paradox. Monist, 89(1), 178-202. [More Information]
2005
- Smith, N. (2005). A Plea For Things That Are Not Quite All There: Or, Is There a Problem about Vague Composition and Vague Existence. The Journal of Philosophy, 102(8), 381-421. [More Information]
- Smith, N. (2005). Vagueness as Closeness. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 83(2), 157-183. [More Information]
- Smith, N. (2005). Why Would Time Travellers Try to Kill their Younger Selves? Monist, 88(3), 1-8. [More Information]
2004
- Smith, N. (2004), Review of: Le Poidevin, Robin, Travels in Four Dimensions: The Enigmas of Space and Time.
- Smith, N. (2004). Vagueness and Blurry Sets. Journal of Philosophical Logic, 33(2), 165-235. [More Information]
- Smith, N., Rosen, G. (2004). Worldly Indeterminacy: A Rough Guide. In Frank Jackson and Graham Priest (Eds.), Lewisian Themes: The Philosophy of David K. Lewis, (pp. 196-209). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
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2003
- Smith, N. (2003). Not Quite All There: Fuzzy Mereology and Fuzzy Existence. Bulletin of Symbolic Logic, 9, 264.
- Smith, N. (2003). Vagueness by Numbers? No Worries. Mind, 112(446), 283-290. [More Information]
2000
- Smith, N. (2000). c^c-Valued Logic and Semantic Closure. Bulletin of Symbolic Logic, 6(2), 254-255.
- Smith, N. (2000). Frege's Judgement Stroke. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 78(2), 153-175. [More Information]
- Smith, N. (2000). The Principle of Uniform Solution (of the Paradoxes of Self-Reference). Mind, 109(433), 117-122. [More Information]
1998
- Campbell, K., Smith, N. (1998). Epiphenomenalism. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Routledge.
- Smith, N. (1998). The Problems of Backward Time Travel. Endeavour, 22(4), 156-158.
1997
- Smith, N. (1997). Bananas Enough for Time Travel? British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 48(3), 363-389. [More Information]
Selected Grants
2018
- Juries, Justice and Citizenship: Historicising Womens Inequality, Smith N, European Commission (Belgium)/Marie Curie Action: International Research Staff Exchange (IRSES)
2007
- A Computational Solution to the Problem of Reference, Smith N, Australian Research Council (ARC)/Discovery Projects (DP)
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