Walter Ott
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Ph.D. University of Virginia, 2000
224 Major Williams Hall | Email | (540) 231-0997 | Personal Webpage
History of Modern Philosophy, Philosophy of Language, Metaphysics, Epistemology
Walter Ott's philosophical interests include metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of language, especially in the modern period. Current work focuses on conceptions of causation and laws of nature in early modern empiricism.
Books
- Causation and Laws of Nature in Early Modern Philosophy, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
- Locke’s Philosophy of Language, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004
Recent Articles
- “Malebranche and the Riddle of Sensation,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, forthcoming.
- “What is Locke's Theory of Representation?” British Journal for the History of Philosophy, forthcoming.
- "Locke's Exclusion Argument," History of Philosophy Quarterly, 27 (2), 2010.
- “Causation, Intentionality, and the Case for Occasionalism,” Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 90 (2), 2008.
- “Régis’s Scholastic Mechanism,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 39 (1), 2008.
- “Hume on Meaning,” Hume Studies, 32 (3), 2006.
- “Descartes and Berkeley on Mind: The Fourth Distinction,” British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 14 (3), 2006.
- “Aristotle and Plato on Responsibility for Character,” Ancient Philosophy, 26 (1), 2006.
- “The Cartesian Context of Berkeley’s Attack on Abstraction,” Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 85 (4), 2004.
- “The New Berkeley,” with Marc Hight, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 34 (1), 2004.
Regular Classes
- Philosophy 2115: Ancient Philosophy
- Philosophy 2125: Early Modern Philosophy
- Philosophy 4224: Epistemology
- Philosophy 6204: Advanced Topics in the History of Philosophy