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Professor Stephen Finlay to head new Institute for Philosophy at ACU

Professor Stephen Finlay has been appointed as the Director of a new institute dedicated to philosophical research at Australian Catholic University (ACU).

ACU Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Greg Craven announced the appointment and the new Institute for Philosophy on Monday 1 April 2019.

Professor Finlay will join ACU from May 2019. He has taught in the School of Philosophy at the University of Southern California since 2002 and will maintain an affiliation there.

Originally from New Zealand, Professor Finlay received his BA and MA degrees from the University of Auckland and his PhD from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His philosophical research is centred in metaethics and moral psychology, particularly the nature of normativity and the meaning of normative language. His many articles and book chapters have appeared with major journals and academic presses and he is the author of Confusion of Tongues: A Theory of Normative Language (Oxford University Press 2014).

Professor Craven said, “The establishment of this new institute and the appointment of Professor Finlay align with our commitment to make philosophy one of the strongest areas of research in the University.

“This is the time to build on the accomplishments of ACU’s existing research under the stewardship of Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Wayne McKenna. Recent success includes our improved performance in the Excellence in Research evaluation which showed that ACU ranks first or equal first for 10 fields of research in Australia.”

The Institute for Philosophy will be based in Melbourne.