Area of Interest

Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Mind.

Bio

Steven received his bachelor’s degree at the University of Rochester and his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Illinois – Champaign – Urbana. In 2018, he was awarded an L.L.D. from Carleton University. 

Steven taught in the Philosophy Department at the University of Pittsburgh from 1966 to 1974, before moving to Canada in 1974 to take up a post in the Philosophy Department at Simon Fraser University. After retiring from Simon Fraser University in 2002, he took up a position in the Philosophy Department at Carleton University where he taught from 2002 to 2007. He is currently Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Simon Fraser University and Carleton University. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at McGill University and the Université du Montréal, and a Research Associate at the Jean-Nicod Institute, EHSS & ENS, Paris.

Steven has been a visiting professor at Boston University, the University of Oslo, State University of New York – Albany, University of Illinois – Champaign –Urbana, Language Sciences Summer Institute, Dubrovnik, and the International Christian University, Tokyo. Steven was the director of the Centre on Values and Ethics from 2002 to 2007 at Carleton University and one of the founders of the Cognitive Science Programme at Simon Fraser University. He was also the president of the Canadian Philosophical Association and anglophone editor of its journal, Dialogue. He has edited several collections of essays and published a book and articles in various areas of philosophy, including philosophy of language and mind and normative ethics.

In 2007, Steven founded Academics without Borders, for which he was the chair of the Board for two years and then it Executive Director until the fall of 2017. The mission of AWB is to assist developing countries improve their institutions of higher education so that they can educate the professionals they need to develop their countries.

Publications:

Books:
1. Semantics: A Reader, editor (with Brendan Gillon) (Oxford University Press: New York) 2004.

2. Color Perception, editor (Oxford University Press: New York) 2000, Introduction, 3 – 9

3. The Canadian Charter of Rights: Ten Years, editor, (with Philip Bryden and John Russell), (University of Toronto Press) 1994.

4. Connectionism: Theory and Practice, editor, (Oxford University Press: New York) 1992.

5. Pragmatics: A Reader, editor, (Oxford University Press: New York) 1991, Introduction, 1 – 8.

6. Causal Theories of Mind, editor, (Walter de Gruyter Press: Berlin) 1983; Introduction, 1 – 41.

7. Montague Grammar, Philosophy and Linguistics, editor (with M.M. Williams), (University of Texas Press: Austin) 1979.

8. Philosophy and Language, (Bobbs – Merrill: Indianapolis) 1976

CV

CV (condensed)