Associate Professor
Ph.D., University of Leeds
(On leave from Fall 2024)
Areas of Interest: Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Psychology, Social and Political Philosophy, Ethics, Philosophy of International Relations, History of Philosophy (Kant, Hellenistic Philosophy), Philosophy of Fiction
Personal Homepage: http://philpapers.org/profile/31471
Email: wringe@bilkent.edu.tr
Phone: +90-312-290 2667
Office: H250
About
Bill Wringe studied mathematics and philosophy at Balliol College, Oxford. After a year as a visiting student learning about German Idealism at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat in Munich, he studied for an M.Litt in Logic and Metaphysics at St. Andrews University and a PhD in Philosophy at the University of Leeds, where he wrote a dissertation on the nature of folk psychology, discussing issues that are now more commonly addressed in debates over what has come to be called ‘Theory of Mind’. Along the way, he was employed in a number of short-term teaching posts, both full and part-time at the Universities of Leeds, Birmingham, St. Andrews and Keele, and acquired interests in political philosophy and philosophy of emotion.
Much of Bill’s work is concerned with understanding the role of fundamentally social phenomena in our psychological (especially emotional), ethical, and political life. He is currently in the early stages of working on a book on collective obligations, in which he aims to defend the view that non-agents can be the bearers of collective obligations. His earlier work on this topic can be found in articles published in the European Journal of Philosophy, Ratio and the Royal Institute of Philosophy. In 2016 published a monograph on punishment, An Expressive Theory of Punishment with Palgrave MacMillan (review), which drew on earlier work published in Philosophical Studies, Law and Philosophy, Res Publica, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, and the Journal of Social Philosophy. One significant theme in this book is the need for theories of punishment to give an adequate account of non-paradigmatic cases of punishment, including the punishment of collective agents.
Within philosophy of mind, Bill is particularly interested in questions about the psychological underpinnings of our ability to engage in collective action. He also has a relatively independent interest in issues in the philosophy of emotion, and its history. In this area, he has recently published a paper exploring the relationship between perceptual and emotional intentionality (Noûs 2015) and another exploring Epicurean attitudes to will-writing (Philosophical Papers 2016). He is currently engaged in attempting to bring this work together with his work on collective action, exploring both the epistemological and ethical aspects of collective emotional phenomena.
From Fall 2024 he will be on leave as as Honorary Visiting Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of York (UK).
Sample publications
Hormio, Säde & Wringe, Bill (eds.) (2024). Collective Responsibility: Perspectives on Political Philosophy from Social Ontology. Springer.
Wringe, B. (2024). Who Are “We” to Apologize? Reason Papers 44(2), 167-174.
Wringe, B. (2023). Expressive Theories of Punishment, in Matthew C. Altman (ed.), The Palgrave Handbook on the Philosophy of Punishment (Palgrave MacMillan), pp. 245-265.
Wringe, B. (2022). Non-Paradigmatic Punishments. Philosophy Compass 15(5), e12824 (with Helen Brown Coverdale).
Wringe, B. (2021). Punishing Non-Citizens. Journal of Applied Philosophy 38(3), 384-400.
Wringe, B. (2021). “Introduction: Non-Paradigmatic Punishments” Journal of Applied Philosophy 38(3), 357-365 (with Helen Brown Coverdale).
Wringe, B. (2020). Global Obligations, Collective Capacities, and ‘Ought Implies Can. Philosophical Studies. 177(6), 1523-1538.
Wringe, B. (2019). Punishment, Jesters and Judges: A Response to Nathan Hanna. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice. 22, 3-12.
Wringe, B. (2017). Ambivalence for Cognitivists: A Lesson from Chrysippus? Thought: A Journal of Philosophy. 6(3), 147-156.
Wringe, B. (2017). Rethinking Expressive Theories of Punishment: Why Denunciation Is a Better Bet Than Communication or Pure Expression. Philosophical Studies, 174(3), 681–708.
Wringe, B. (2016). An Expressive Theory of Punishment. London: Palgrave Macmillan. (review of this book)
Wringe, B. (2015). The Contents of Perception and the Contents of Emotion. Noûs, 49(2), 275–297.
Wringe, B. (2014). May I Treat A Collective As A Mere Means. American Philosophical Quarterly, 51(3), 273–284.
Wringe, B. (2013). Must Punishment Be Intended to Cause Suffering? Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 16(4), 863–877.
Wringe, B. (2012). Pre-Punishment, Communicative Theories of Punishment, and Compatibilism. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 93(2), 125–136.
Wringe, B. (2011). Cognitive Individualism and the Child as Scientist Program. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 42(4), 518–529.
Wringe, B. (2010). Global Obligations and the Agency Objection. Ratio, 23(2), 217–231.
Wringe, B. (2008). Making the Lightness of Being Bearable: Arithmetical Platonism, Fictional Realism and Cognitive Command. Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 38(3), 453–487.