Graeme A Forbes

Graeme’s research interests are mainly in the metaphysics of time, contemporary analytic metaphysics more generally, and issues in philosophical methodology. Although he works in contemporary debates, his work is informed by historical movements, such as analytic philosophy from the 1920's and 30's, Pragmatism (especially the work of C.S. Peirce and Hilary Putnam), and the Phenomenologists. He is an associate of member of the Centre for Philosophy of Time, in Milan, and on the advisory board of the International Association for Philosophy of Time.

He is currently working on a number of projects in the philosophy of time, which aim to clarify and defend the Growing-Block view of time – the view that the passage of time is events coming into existence. He collaborates with Professor R.A. Briggs, of Stanford University, with whom he won the Oxford Studies in Metaphysics Younger Scholars’ Prize in 2010.

Besides his metaphysical interests, he is interested in time as it affects our practical lives, for example in how we regulate inquiry, how we view ageing, or how we can have shared projects with other generations. He is a member of various research centres at Kent that investigate these issues: the Centre for Reasoning, the Centre for Practical Normativity, and the Aesthetics Research Centre. He joined Kent in 2013, having previously taught at Southwestern College, Kansas, and the University of Sheffield, UK.