Stewart Candlish

Biography

Stewart Candlish is a philosopher whose work has brought him wide recognition, both in Australia and internationally. He has contributed to areas in the philosophy of the mind, such as action, and the debate on mental imagery, but his most sustained and important work is in the history of 20th century philosophy. His papers on early 20th century philosophy amount to an important monograph on the subject. In particular, his discussions of F. H. Bradley and Bertrand Russell have done much to debunk the orthodox, and quite misleading, account of the rise of analytical philosophy. From this work he has shown that philosophers must now take seriously a previously ignored theory of truth, now dubbed the Identity Theory. He has held visiting research positions at Cambridge and the Australian National University; was President of the Australasian Association of Philosophy 2004-05; was editor of Australasian Journal of Philosophy 2007-13; is author of ‘The Bradley/Russell Dispute and its Significance for Twentieth-Century Philosophy’ (Palgrave Macmillan 2007, 2nd ed 2009); was an editorial Board member of the journal Philosophy Compass, of the Palgrave Macmillan book series ‘History of Analytic Philosophy’, and of the Routledge book series ‘Wittgenstein’s Thought and Legacy’.