Dilip Ninan

About

I am a philosophy professor at Tufts University. Most of my research is in the philosophy of language and formal semantics, but I am also interested in epistemology, the philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and philosophical logic.

I co-direct the Linguistics Minor at Tufts and teach courses related to this, including Semantics, Philosophy of Language, and Modal Logic. I hold a BA from the University of Western Ontario, a BPhil from Oxford University, and a PhD from MIT.

From 2019 to 2024, I was Editor-in-Chief of Linguistics and Philosophy. During the 2020 to 2021 academic year, I was a fellow at the Paris Institute for Advanced Study. Two of my articles have been selected for inclusion in the Philosopher's Annual (2018 and 2024).

1. Modality and the Future
   Forthcoming in the Cambridge Handbook of Natural Language Modality, Cambridge University Press.
   local file
2. The Strength of Assertion
   2025. Analytic Philosophy. Advance online publication.
   local file | link
3. De Se Attitudes
   Forthcoming in the International Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Elsevier.
4. First-Person Propositions (with Michael Caie)
   2025. Philosophers' Imprint. 25(11): 1-22.
   link
5. A Relationist Theory of Intentional Identity
   2024. Mind. 133(531): 761-792.
   local file | link
6. An Expressivist Theory of Taste Predicates
   2024. Philosophers' Imprint. 24(13): 1-23.
   Selected for the Philosopher's Annual.
   local file | link
7. Modality and the Future: Critical Notice of The Modal Future by Fabrizio Cariani
   2024. Analysis. (advance online version)
   local file
8. Relativism and Two Kinds of Branching Time
   2023. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly. 104(2): 465-492.
   local file | link
9. Dynamic Relationism about Belief
   2022. Proceedings of the 23rd Amsterdam Colloquium. 221-227.
   local file
10. Assertion, Evidence, and the Future
    2022. Philosophical Review. 131(4): 405-451.
    local file | link
11. Williams on the Self and the Future
    2022. Analytic Philosophy. 63(3): 147-155.
    local file | link
12. Knowing, Believing, and Acting as if You Know
    2021. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 44(E164).
    local file | link
13. Naming and Epistemic Necessity
    2021. Noûs 55(2): 334-362.
    local file | link
14. The Projection Problem for Predicates of Taste
    2020. Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT) 30, 753-778.
    local file | link
15. De Se Attitudes and Action
    2020. In The Routledge Handbook of Linguistic Reference, Routledge.
    local file
16. Quantification and Epistemic Modality
    2018. Philosophical Review 127(2): 433-485.
    local file | link
17. Relational Semantics and Domain Semantics for Epistemic Modals
    2018. Journal of Philosophical Logic 47(1): 1-16.
    local file
18. Aboutness and Justification
    2017. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 95(3): 371-377.
    local file | link
19. Names in Fiction
    2017. Theoretical Linguistics 43(1-2): 61-70.
    local file | link
20. Imagination and the Self
    2016. In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Imagination, Routledge.
    local file
21. What is the Problem of De Se Attitudes?
    2016. In About Oneself: De Se Attitudes and Communication, Oxford University Press.
    local file
22. Review of John MacFarlane, Assessment Sensitivity: Relative Truth and Its Applications.
    2016. Philosophical Review 125(3): 439-447.
    local file
23. On Recanati's Mental Files
    2015. Inquiry 58(4): 368-377.
    local file
24. Taste Predicates and the Acquaintance Inference
    2014. Semantics and Linguistic Theory 24: 290-309.
    local file
25. Self-Location and Other-Location
    2013. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 87(2): 301-331.
    local file
26. Counterfactual Attitudes and Multi-Centered Worlds
    2012. Semantics and Pragmatics 5(5): 1-57.
    local file
27. Propositions, Semantic Values, and Rigidity
    2012. Philosophical Studies 158(3): 401-413.
    local file
28. Review of Robin Jeshion (ed.), New Essays on Singular Thought.
    2011. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.
    link
29. Review of Stephen Yablo, Thoughts: Philosophical Papers Volume I.
    2011. Protosociology.
    link
30. Semantics and the Objects of Assertion
    2010. Linguistics and Philosophy 33(5): 355-380.
    local file
31. De Se Attitudes: Ascription and Communication
    2010. Philosophy Compass 5(7): 551-567.
    local file
32. Persistence and the First-Person Perspective
    2009. Philosophical Review 118(4): 425-464.
    local file
33. Two Puzzles About Deontic Necessity
    2005. In New Work on Modality. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 51: 149-178.
    local file

More Work

1. Comments on L.A. Paul, Transformative Experience
   2015. Notes for talk at the Norwegian Institute in Athens.
   local file
2. Imagination, Content, and the Self
   2008. PhD dissertation, MIT.
   local file
3. Illusions of Influence in Newcomb's Problem
   2006. Unpublished manuscript.
   local file