Professor Christopher Norris
BA (London); Ph.D. (London)
Emeritus Professor
- norrisc@cardiff.ac.uk
- John Percival Building, Colum Drive, Cardiff, CF10 3EU
Overview
I am part of the School's Philosophy group.
Biography
Christopher Norris is Distinguished Research Professor in Philosophy at the University of Cardiff, Wales and has taught at many universities around the world. He has written more than thirty books on aspects of philosophy and literary theory, among them The Deconstructive Turn; The Truth About Postmodernism; Spinoza and the Origins of Modern Critical Theory; Quantum Theory and the Flight from Realism; Philosophy of Language and the Challenge to Scientific Realism; On Truth and Meaning; Fiction, Philosophy and Literary Theory; Badiou's Being and Event: a reader's guide and (most recently) Re-Thinking the Cogito: naturalism, rationalism and the venture of thought.
His books and articles on Jacques Derrida have appeared at fairly regular intervals over the past twenty-five years, and have lately been concerned with the implications of Derrida's work for epistemology and philosophy of logic and language. His latest book Derrida, Badiou and the Formal Imperative is due for publication later this year. He also writes about issues in aesthetics and philosophy of art, having published the monograph Platonism, Music and the Listener's Share and edited the volumes Shostakovich: the man and his music and Music and the Politics of Culture.
His teaching includes undergraduate and MA courses on philosophy of language, French Philosophy: Sartre to Badiou, Deconstruction, Philosophy and Literary Theory, and Twentieth-Century Philosophy in the Two Traditions. Over the past thirty years he has lectured at many universities around the world and has been a visiting professor at Berkeley, Tulane University, City University of New York, Dartmouth College (School of Criticism and Theory), the University of Santiago de Compostela, and elsewhere.
His current main interest is in the relationship between philosophy and poetry, including the idea of verse as a way of addressing philosophical themes.
Publications
2017
- Norris, C. 2017. The winnowing fan: verse-essays in creative criticism. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
- Norris, C. 2017. For the Tempus-Fugitives: poems and verse-essays. Sussex, UK: Sussex Academic Press.
2016
- Norris, C. 2016. Life, love and theory: a verse-chronicle. Textual Practice 30(7), pp. 1187-1204. (10.1080/0950236X.2016.1184429)
2014
- Norris, C. 2014. What's love got to do with it? Response to Bloor and Collins. Journal of Critical Realism 13(5), pp. 520-533. (10.1179/1476743014Z.00000000045)
- Norris, C. 2014. What strong sociologists can learn from critical realism: Bloor on the history of aerodynamics. Journal of Critical Realism 13(1), pp. 3-37. (10.1179/1476743013Z.00000000018)
2013
- Norris, C. C. 2013. Philosophy outside-in: a critique of academic reason. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
2012
- Norris, C. C. 2012. Derrida, Badiou and the formal imperative. Bloomsbury Studies in Continental Philosophy. London: Continuum.
- Norris, C. C. 2012. How not to defeat skepticism: why anti-realism won’t do the trick. The Philosophical Forum 43(2), pp. 127-151. (10.1111/j.1467-9191.2012.00414.x)
- Norris, C. C. 2012. Further thoughts: on the extended mind hypothesis. Southern Humanities Review 46(3), pp. 243-269.
- Norris, C. C. 2012. Sophist or antiphilosopher? Badiou on Wittgenstein. Journal of Critical Realism 11(4), pp. 487-498. (10.1558/jcr.v11i4.487)
- Norris, C. C. 2012. Hoddinott, Alun (1929–2008). In: Goldman, L. ed. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, (10.1093/ref:odnb/99941)
2011
- Norris, C. C. 2011. Deconstruction. In: Hogan, P. C. ed. Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Language Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 244-246.
- Norris, C. 2011. Remembering Frank Kermode. Textual Practice 25(1), pp. 1-13. (10.1080/0950236X.2011.537549)
- Norris, C. C. 2011. Anti-realism and relativism. In: Hales, S. D. ed. A Companion to Relativism. Blackwell Companions to Philosophy Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 489-508.
- Norris, C. 2011. Sport, Craft or Technique: The Case of Competitive Aeromodelling. Sports, Ethics and Philosophy 5(2), pp. 124-148. (10.1080/17511321.2010.536958)
- Norris, C. C. 2011. Spinoza and the conflict of interpretations. In: Vardulakis, D. ed. Spinoza Now. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 3-38.
- Norris, C. 2011. 'Second Nature', Knowledge and Normativity: revisiting McDowell’s Kant. Diametros(27), pp. 64-107.
- Norris, C. 2011. Hawking contra Philosophy: A Case for the Defence. Philosophy Now(82), pp. 21-24.
- Norris, C. 2011. Tractatus Mathematico-Politicus: on Alain Badiou’s Being and Event. Speculations 2, pp. 7-48.
- Norris, C. 2011. Alain Badiou: Recent Texts in Translation. Modern and Contemporary France 19(2), pp. 223-234. (10.1080/09639489.2011.572603)
2010
- Norris, C. C. 2010. Deconstruction, science, and the logic of enquiry. Derrida Today 3(2), pp. 178-200. (10.3366/drt.2010.0203)
- Norris, C. C. 2010. Re-thinking the cogito: Naturalism, reason and the venture of thought. Continuum Studies in Philosophy. London: Continuum.
- Norris, C. C. 2010. Ideas of the Decade: Naturalistic Rationalism. The Philosophers� Magazine 50, pp. 88-9.
- Norris, C. C. 2010. Living with Naturalism: Why Philosophy Finds it so Hard. Southern Humanities Review 44(3), pp. 254-302.
- Norris, C. C. 2010. Summa pro mathematica: on Alain Badiou's Being and Event. In: Bayot, D. J. and Cruz, I. R. eds. Inter/Sections: Festschrift in Honor of Isagani R. Cruz. Manila: Anvil Publishing, pp. 271-307.
- Norris, C. C. 2010. Frankfurt on Second-Order Desires and the Concept of a Person. Prolegomena 9(2), pp. 199-242.
- Norris, C. C. 2010. Deconstruction, Logic and 'Ordinary Language': Derrida on the Limits of Thought. Filolog 2, pp. 18-56.
- Norris, C. C. 2010. Pots, kettles and shades of black: analytic philosophy versus postmodernism. Revue Internationale de Philosophie 64(1), pp. 9-38.
2009
- Norris, C. C. 2009. Badiou's 'Being and Event': A reader's guide. Continuum Reader's Guides. London: Continuum.
- Norris, C. C. 2009. Best-kept secrets: literary lessons. The Philosophers' Magazine 44, pp. 59-64.
- Norris, C. C. and Mapp, N. eds. 2009. William Empson : the critical achievement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Norris, C. C. 2009. Badiou on Set Theory, Ontology and Truth: mathematics as a guide to metaphysics (part one). The Polish Journal of Philosophy 3(1), pp. 51-72.
- Norris, C. C. 2009. Badiou on Set Theory, Ontology and Truth: mathematics as a guide to metaphysics (part two). The Polish Journal of Philosophy 3(2), pp. 29-46.
- Norris, C. C. 2009. Alain Badiou: truth, ethics and the formal imperative. Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 65(Suppl.), pp. 283-316.
- Norris, C. C. 2009. Spinoza. The Philosophers' Magazine 47, pp. 91-95.
- Norris, C. C. 2009. On the Scope and Limits of Virtue-Based Epistemology. Divinatio 30, pp. 125-49.
2008
- Norris, C. C. 2008. Meaning, truth and causal explanation: the 'Humean Condition' revisited. In: Groff, R. ed. Revitalizing Causality: realism about causality in philosophy and social science. London: Routledge, pp. 95-128.
- Norris, C. C. 2008. Some versions of Platonism: mathematics and ontology according to Badiou. Philosophical Frontiers 3(1), pp. 1-26.
- Norris, C. C. 2008. Alain Badiou: truth, mathematics and the claim of reason. Pli: the Warwick Journal of Philosophy 19, pp. 189-217.
- Norris, C. C. 2008. The Serpent's Egg: on the ethics of political assassination. Southern Humanities Review 42(1), pp. 1-28.
- Norris, C. C. 2008. Provoking philosophy: Shakespeare, Johnson, Wittgenstein, Derrida. Journal of Literary Criticism 12(1-2), pp. 51-107.
2007
- Norris, C. C. 2007. Fiction, philosophy and literary theory: will the real Saul Kripke please stand up?. London: Continuum.
- Norris, C. C. 2007. Phenomenology, structuralism and philosophy of music: a qualified Platonist approach. Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology 38(2), pp. 128-147.
2006
- Norris, C. C. 2006. On truth and meaning: language, logic and the grounds of belief. London: Continuum.
2003
- Norris, C. 2003. Philosophy of language and the challenge to scientific Realism. Routledge Studies in Critical Realism (Routledge Critical Realism). London: Routledge.
2002
- Norris, C. C. 2002. Hilary Putnam: realism, reason, and the uses of uncertainty. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
2000
- Norris, C. 2000. Minding the gap: epistemology and philosophy of science in the two traditions. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.
- Norris, C. 2000. Quantum theory and the flight from realism: philosophical responses to quantum mechanics. Critical Realism: interventions. London: Routledge.
1991
- Norris, C. 1991. Spinoza and the origins of modern critical theory. Bucknell lectures in literary theory. Oxford: Blackwell.
Teaching
Teaching interests
- philosophy of science
- epistemology
- philosophy of language
- modern continental philosophy (especially the work of Jacques Derrida)
Current teaching
As well as contributing to the Mind, Thought and Reality first year module, I teach the following second and third year undergraduate modules:
- French Philosophy: Sartre to Derrida
- Philosophy and Literary Theory
- Philosophy of Science and Critical Theory
- Deconstruction
I also teach the following at postgraduate level:
- 'Analytic and Continental Philosophy'
- Core course on 'Philosophy of Language in the Two Traditions'
- Course option on 'Deconstruction' and 'Topics in Recent Analytic Philosophy'
- 'Music, Culture and Politics' (jointly taught with colleagues in the Music and History Departments)
- Contributions to courses on Aesthetics, Critical Theory, and the New Musicology.
Research interests
- philosophy of language
- epistemology
- philosophy of science
- modern continental philosophy
- aesthetics
- literary theory