Arif Ahmed has been Professor of Philosophy (Grade 12) since October 2022 and a Fellow of Gonville and Caius since 2015. His philosophical outlook is individualistic, atheistic and empiricist and his work applies this approach to questions in metaphysics, the theory of rational choice and philosophy of religion. He has campaigned for many years in defence of free speech and academic freedom. In recognition of this work he was awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2021 and the Trustees' Award by Index on Censorship.
Publications
Articles
- 2000. Hale on the necessity of necessity. Mind 109: 81-92.
- 2005. Evidential decision theory and medical Newcomb problems. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 56: 191-98.
- 2007. Agency and causation. In R. Corry and H. Price (eds), Causation, Physics and the Constitution of Reality: Russell’s Republic Revisited. Oxford: OUP: pp. 120-55.
- 2008. W. V. Quine. In C. Misak (ed.), Oxford Handbook of American Philosophy. Oxford: OUP: pp. 290-338.
- 2009. Rigidity and essentiality: Reply to Gomez-Torrente. Mind 118: 121-133.
- 2010. Causation and decision. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 110: 111-131.
- 2010. Deductive inference and aspect perception. In A. Ahmed, ed., Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations: A Critical Guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: pp. 197-217.
- 2011. Out of the closet. Analysis 71:77-85.
- 2011. Wittgenstein: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. In B. Lee, ed., Key Thinkers: Philosophy of Langauge. London: Continuum pp. 76-84.
- 2011. Wittgenstein: Philosophical Investigations. In B. Lee, ed., Key Thinkers: Philosophy of Language. London: Continuum pp. 121-37.
- 2011. Walters on conjunction conditionalization. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 111: 115-22.
- 2012. With Huw Price. Arntzenius on ‘Why ain’cha rich?’ Erkenntnis 77: 15-30
- 2012. Push the button. Philosophy of Science 79: 386-95. [preprint]
- 2013. From game-theoretical accounts of cooperation to meta-ethical choices. Studies in Christian Ethics 26: 176-83.
- 2013. Causal Decision Theory: a counterexample. Philosophical Review 122: 289-306.
- 2014. Causal decision theory and the fixity of the past. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 65: 665-85.
- 2014. Dicing with death. Analysis 74: 587-92.
- 2014. With Adam Caulton. Causal decision theory and EPR correlations. Synthese 191: 4315-4352.
- 2015. Infallibility in the Newcomb problem. Erkenntnis 80: 261-73.
- 2015. Hume and the independent witnesses. Mind 124: 1013-44.
- 2017. Exploiting cyclic preference. Mind 126: 975-1022.
- 2017. Wittgenstein on seeing aspects. In H.-J. Glock and J. Hyman (ed.), Blackwell Companion to Wittgenstein. Oxford: Blackwell: 517-32.
- 2017. Signaling systems and the Transcendental Deduction. In T. Goldschmidt and K. Pearce (ed.), Idealism: New Essays in Metaphysics. Oxford: OUP: 104-23.
- 2017. Triangulation and the private language argument. Belgrade Philosophical Annual 30: 35-52.
- 2018. Rationality and future discounting. Topoi.
- 2018. The 'Why Ain'cha Rich?' argument. In A. Ahmed (ed.), Classic Philosophical Arguments: Newcomb's Problem. Cambridge: CUP: 55-72
- 2018. Self-control and hyperbolic discounting. In J. L. Bermúdez (ed.) Self-Control & Rationality: New Essays. Cambridge: CUP: 96-120
- 2019. Do miracles provide evidence for religious belief? In M. L. Peterson and R. VanArragon (ed.), Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Religion. 2d ed. Oxford: Blackwell: 123-32
- 2019. Reply to Anderson and Pruss. In M. L. Peterson and R. VanArragon (ed.), Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Religion. 2d ed. Oxford: Blackwell: 134-6
- 2019. Miracles. In G. Oppy et al. (ed.), Theism and Atheism: Opposing Viewpoints in Philosophy. Macmillan Reference USA: 211-227
- 2019 (with Bernhard Salow). Don't look now. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 70: 327-50.
- 2019. Belief and religious belief. Religious Studies
- 2020. With Robert Pasnau. Modern and mediaeval modal spaces. Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume, Volume 94, Issue 1, July 2020, Pages 255–273.
- 2020. Equal opportunities in Newcomb's Problem and elsewhere. Mind 129: 867–886.
- 2020. With Jack Spencer. Objective value is always Newcombizable. Mind 516: 1157-92.
- 2020. Frankfurt cases and the Newcomb Problem. Philosophical Studies 177: 3391-3408.
- 2021. Why it matters what might have been. In Goldschmidt, T. and S. Bernstein (ed.), Non-Being: New Essays on the Metaphysics of Non-Existence. Oxford: OUP: 251-67.
- 2021. With Owen Griffiths. Introducing identity. Journal of Philosophical Logic 50: 1449-1469.
- Forthcoming. 'Considered in isolation'. C. Verheggen (ed.), Kripke's "Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language" at 40. Cambridge: CUP.
Books
- 2007. Saul Kripke. London: Continuum
- 2010. Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations: a Reader’s guide. London: Continuum.
- 2010. (Ed.) Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations: A Critical Guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- 2014. Evidence, Decision and Causality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- 2018 (ed.). Classic Philosophical Arguments: Newcomb's Problem. Cambridge: CUP
- Forthcoming. Evidential Decision Theory. Cambridge Elements. Cambridge: CUP
- Forthcoming. The Value of the Future. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP
- Forthcoming: God: Four Modern Illusions. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP
Reviews etc.
- 2002. On Quine. Richmond Journal of Philosophy 2: 29-34.
- 2006. Review of M. de Gaynesford: John McDowell; T. Thornton: John McDowell. Mind 115: 403-9.
- 2009. Review of D. Pears: Paradox and Platitude in Wittgenstein’s Philosophy. Mind 117: 200-3.
- 2010. Introduction to A. Ahmed (ed.) Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations: A Critical Guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 1-10.
- 2012. Review of B. Hale and Aviv Hoffman, ed., Modality: Metaphysics, Logic and Epistemology. Mind 121: 817-822.
- 2013. Il vero scoglio e la prova etica. In Il Sole 24 ore, 12 May 2013.
- 2015. Religious belief. Cambridge Philosophy Newsletter.
- 2015. Religious belief: a natural phenomenon with natural causes. OUP blog.
- Review of L. Buchak, Risk and Rationality. BJPS Reviews.
- 2016. Review of B. Epstein, The Ant Trap. Times Literary Supplement, 29 April 2016.
- 2016. Comments on Newcomb's Problem. in Alex Bellos's 'Adventures in Numberland'. Guardian 28 Nov. 2016.
- 2017. Stifling the freedom to mock and attack will reduce our universities to irrelevant echo chambers. Daily Telegraph, 14 March 2017.
- 2017. The sin of believing. Times Literary Supplement, 12 May 2017.
- 2017. Kripke, Saul Aaron. In T. Crane (ed.), Routledge Encyclopaedia of Philosophy.
- 2018 Review of T. Crane, The Meaning of Belief. Mind 127: 1261-70
- 2018. Saul Kripke's chains of communication. Times Literary Supplement 14 June
- 2018. Introduction to Classic Philosophical Arguments: Newcomb's Problem. Cambridge: CUP: 1-14
- Non-categorical thought. Cambridge Philosophy Newsletter 15: 2
Interviews
Public debates and lectures
- Debate with William Lane Craig on belief in God
- Debate with Gary Habermas on the resurrection
- Debate with Glenn Peoples on the moral argument for God
- Debate with Andrew Copson, Peter Williams and William Lane Craig on religion
- Debate with Keith Ward on theistic and atheistic worldviews
- Debate with Richard Dawkins, Andrew Copson, Rowan Williams, Tariq Ramadan and Douglas Murray on religion
- Lecture: Is religion a force for good or evil?
- Debate with Tariq Ramadan on Islam and Morality
- Debate on agnosticism and atheism, 'Beyond belief', BBC Radio 4
- Debate on evidence and religion, 'The Big Questions', BBC1
- Debate on religion, University College Dublin.
- Debate on atheism and belief with Ayyaz Mahmood Khan.
- Debate on 'Is atheism the rational choice?' on BBC The Big Questions.
- Debate on 'Did Man Create God?' on BBC The Big Questions.
- Debate with Abdullah Al Andalusi on: 'Is God Necessary to Explain Reality, and provide a consistent basis for values?'
- Debate with Ed Feser on Unbelievable, Premier Christian Radio.
- Building better beliefs: address to the National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies
Lecture Handouts
Part IA
Sets, Relations and Probability
Lecture 1, Lecture 2, Lecture 3, Lecture 4, Lecture 5, Lecture 6, Lecture 7, Lecture 8, Worksheet 1, Worksheet 1 - selected answers, Worksheet 2, Worksheet 2 - Solutions to Section A, SRP Key Terms
Personal Identity
Lecture 1, Lecture 2, Lecture 3, Lecture 4
Frege and Russell
Lecture 1, Lecture 2, Lecture 3, Lecture 4
Verificationism and Analyticity
Lecture 1, Lecture 2, Lecture 3, Lecture 4
Part IB
Berkeley
Lecture 1, Lecture 2, Lecture 3, Lecture 4
Kripke
Lecture 1, Lecture 2, Lecture 3, Lecture 4
Part II
Conditionals
Lecture 1, Lecture 2, Lecture 3, Lecture 4
Quine
Lecture 1, Lecture 2, Lecture 3, Lecture 4, Quine glossary
Radical Interpretation
Lecture 1, Lecture 2, Lecture 3, Lecture 4
Rational Choice
Lecture 1, Lecture 2, Lecture 3, Lecture 4
Wittgenstein: Philosophical Investigations
Lecture 1, Lecture 2, Lecture 3, Lecture 4, Lecture 5, Lecture 6, Lecture 7, Lecture 8, Lecture 9, Lecture 10, Lecture 11, Lecture 12
Contact Details
E-mail address: ama24@cam.ac.uk
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge CB2 1TA
