Professor Michael Martin

Research and Teaching

My research has principally been in the philosophy of perception. Much of this has circled round two of the oldest and most disreputable arguments in the Western tradition: the argument from illusion and the causal argument from hallucination, but it has on occasion ranged more widely than just these narrow concerns: on the nature of memory, on the nature of self-awareness and self-knowledge. I’ve also long been concerned with the relations among the senses and as part of that interested in the awareness that each has of his or her own body. Some of my research strays into aesthetics – in particular, concerns with depiction and reproduction of art works; and in political philosophy, on taxation and the nature of social institutions. I also have an interest in the history of philosophy, most notably the work of David Hume, early modern theories of perception, and early Analytic Philosophy, particularly the views of GE Moore and Bertrand Russell.

Currently I’m working on the puzzle of conflicting appearances; the contrast between sense perception, memory and imagination; the problem of other minds; and the objectivity of sense experience.