Dr Victoria Harrison
- Reader (Creativity Culture and Faith)
- Reader (Philosophy)
telephone: 01413304475
email: Victoria.Harrison@glasgow.ac.uk
I am Reader in Philosophy and Director of the Forum for Philosophy and Religion (formerly known as the Centre for Philosophy and Religion). My research interests focus on analytic philosophy of religion and, within that, on the problems generated by religious diversity. I also have interests in classical Indian and Chinese philosophies. My PhD research (University of London, 1997) focused on religious epistemology; developing an internal realist approach to the rationality of religious convictions. I have continued to expand on this work and have applied it within a range of contexts; most recently I have been exploring its implications for intercultural and interreligious dialogue and conducting workshops in which the theory I have developed, known as 'Exemplar Reasoning', is put into practice.
To inquire about 'Exemplar Reasoning', or to book a session, please contact me.
My interests extend to the relationship between philosophy and museums and I am currently working with a group of scholars and museums professionals in the UK, USA and China on a project exploring the philosophical dimensions of the ways in which museums represent objects of interreligious or intercultural significance.
I am a core member of the Scottish Centre for China Research and am on the academic committee of the Confucius Institute at the University of Glasgow. Additionally, I am on the committee of the British Society for the Philosophy of Religion and on the committee of the European Society for the Philosophy of Religion as well as being an an active member of the international Beyond Diversity: Re-situating Pluralism project which is based in Cornell University.
Key 2012 publications:
The Routledge Companion to Theism. Edited with Charles Taliaferro and Stewart Goetz (Routledge).
Probability in the Philosophy of Religion. Edited with Jake Chandler (Oxford University Press).
Eastern Philosophy: The Basics (Routledge).
To view all my books please visit my amazon page.
Research interests
Philosophy of religion; religious epistemology; religious and ethical pluralism; intercultural philosophy; religious fictionalism and other non-realist approaches to philosophy of religion; classical Chinese philosophy; classical Indian philosophy; philosophical theology; philosophy and material culture.
I welcome applications from potential research students in all of these areas.
Funded Projects
The Philosophy of Religion Mind Mapping Project. Funded by the Subject Centre for Philosophy and Religious Studies, The Higher Education Academy.
Abstracta in Concreta: Engaging Museum Collections in Philosophy and Religious Studies Research. With Glasgow Museums. Funded by the Subject Centre for Philosophy and Religious Studies, The Higher Education Academy.
Grants
Royal Institute of Philosophy Conference Grant, 2013: £5000.
Subject Centre for Philosophy and Religious Studies, The Higher Education Academy, 2008-09: £1881.50
Subject Centre for Philosophy and Religious Studies, The Higher Education Academy, 2006-07: £4995.
Techdis, Joint Information Systems Committee, 2007, £2500.
PhD Supervision
Ioanna-Maria Patsalidou: Hell: Against Universalism (sucessfully completed 2011)
Geert Drieghe: The Aporetics of Religious Diversity (due to complete 2013)
Research interests
Philosophy of religion; religious epistemology; religious and ethical pluralism; intercultural philosophy; religious fictionalism and other non-realist approaches to philosophy of religion; classical Chinese philosophy; classical Indian philosophy; philosophical theology; philosophy and material culture.
I welcome applications from potential research students in all of these areas.
External Examining
PhD Thesis 'Religious Diversity in Contemporary Philosophy of Religion: The "Ambiguity" Objection to Epistemic Inclusivism', 2009. King’s College, London.
PhD Thesis 'The Essentialist versus Constructivist Debate as it Stands to the Analysis of Mystical Experience', 2011, University of Durham.
PhD Thesis 'A Double Vision Hermeneutic of a Chinese Pastor's Intersubjective Experience of Shi Engaging Yizhuan and Pauline Texts', 2012. University of Edinburgh.
PhD Thesis 'Pascal's Wager', 2013. University of Nottingham.
Philosophy of Religion
Chinese Philosophy
Ethics
I joined the University in autumn 2005 from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Previously I taught at Birkbeck College (University of London), the University of Notre Dame's London Centre, the Muslim College (London), and Kingston University. I am on the Board of Associate Editors for the International Journal for Philosophy of Religion and on the Editorial Board of both Philosophy Compass (Philosophy of Religion section) and Religious Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, in addition, I am a member of the Advisory Board of The International Journal of Philosophy and Theology.
Key Publications:
Books
Eastern Philosophy: The Basics (New York and London: Routledge, 2012). 224pp.
Religion and Modern Thought (London: SCM, 2007). 425pp. BESTSELLING TITLE.
The Apologetic Value of Human Holiness, Studies in Philosophy and Religion, volume 21 (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic, 2000). 230pp.
Selected Recent Articles
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‘An Internalist Pluralist Solution to the Problem of Religious and Ethical Diversity’, Sophia: International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 51, 1 (2012): 71–86.
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‘Philosophy of Religion, Fictionalism, and Religious Diversity’, The International Journal for Philosophy of Religion: 40th Anniversary Issue 68 (2011): 43–58.
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‘Embodied Values, Reason, and Christian-Muslim Dialogue: “Exemplar Reasoning” as a Model for Inter-Religious Conversations’, Studies in Interreligious Dialogue 21 (2011): 20-35.