I took my first degree at the University of Edinburgh and then received a Ph.D from the University of Cambridge. I was appointed to a Lectureship at Stirling in 1971, was made Professor in 1994 and am now an Emeritus Professor. In 2005 I was elected to a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. I have been a member of the Editorial Board of The Philosophical Quarterly and have served on the Executive Committees of the Aristotelian Society and the Royal Institute of Philosophy. I was Vice-President of the Mind Association in 2013-2014 and President of the Mind Association 2014-2015.
My main research interests are in philosophy of mind and the theory of knowledge, though I have also written on the work of Joseph Butler and J. S. Mill on the relation between ethics, religion, and human nature. I am the author of Reasons and Experience (OUP, 1991), Understanding People: Normativity and Rationalizing Explanation (OUP, 2004) I am co-author with Duncan Pritchard and Adrian Haddock of The Nature and Value of Knowledge: Three Investigations (OUP 2010). My latest book, Knowing By Perceiving, was published by OUP in 2019.
The Value of Knowledge
PI: Professor Alan Millar
Funded by: Arts and Humanities Research Council
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Book Chapter
Detached Factual Knowledge, Memory, and Informational Environments
Millar A (2025) Detached Factual Knowledge, Memory, and Informational Environments. In: Campbell L (ed.) Forms of Knowledge: Essays on the Unity and Heterogeneity of Knowledge. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 190-205. https://doi.org/10.1093/9780191954856.003.0011
Book Chapter
Recognitional Abilities and Knowing What One Sees
Millar A (2024) Recognitional Abilities and Knowing What One Sees. In: Giananti A, Roessler J & Soldati G (eds.) Perceptual Knowledge and Self-Awareness. Oxford: Oxford University PressOxford, pp. 54-72. https://doi.org/10.1093/9780191965210.003.0005
Book Chapter
Millar A (2020) Explaining Knowledge. In: Kelp C & Greco J (eds.) Virtue Theoretic Epistemology: New Methods and Approaches. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 181-202. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108666404.009
Authored Book
Millar A (2019) Knowing By Perceiving. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/knowing-by-perceiving-9780198755692/
Book Chapter
Perception and the Vagaries of Experience
Millar A (2018) Perception and the Vagaries of Experience. In: Gersel J, Thybo Jensen R, Thaning M & Overgaard S (eds.) In the Light of Experience: New Essays on Perception and Reasons. Mind Association Occasional Series. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 189-212.
Book Review
Can Perceptual Experiences Be Rational?
Millar A (2018) Can Perceptual Experiences Be Rational?. Review of: The Rationality of Perception, by Susanna Siegel. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. xxv + 221. ISBN: 9780198797081. Mind, 127 (505), pp. 251-263. https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/fzx035
Article
Millar A (2017) On Extended Rationality. International Journal for the Study of Skepticism, 7 (4), pp. 235-245. https://doi.org/10.1163/22105700-00704002
Commentary
Perceptual Recognition and Strange Environments: Reply to Broncano-Berrocal
Millar A (2017) Perceptual Recognition and Strange Environments: Reply to Broncano-Berrocal. Commentary on: Broncano-Berrocal Fernando 2016: 'Well-Founded Belief and Perceptual Justification', Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 116, pp. 367–377. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 117 (2), pp. 207-214. https://doi.org/10.1093/arisoc/aox006
Article
Millar A (2017) 'Berkeley's Puzzle'. Analysis, 77 (1), pp. 232-242. https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/anw070
Book Chapter
Abilities, Competences, and Fallibility
Millar A (2016) Abilities, Competences, and Fallibility. In: Vargas M (ed.) Performance Epistemology: Foundations and Applications. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 62-82. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/performance-epistemology-9780198746942?cc=gb〈=en&
Article
Perceptual Knowledge and Well-Founded Belief
Millar A (2016) Perceptual Knowledge and Well-Founded Belief. Episteme, 13 (1), pp. 43-59. https://doi.org/10.1017/epi.2015.54
Book Chapter
How Meaning Might Be Normative
Millar A (2014) How Meaning Might Be Normative. In: Dutant J J, Fassio D & Meylan A (eds.) Liber Amicorum Pascal Engel. Geneva, Switzerland: University of Geneva, pp. 798-817. http://www.unige.ch/lettres/philo/publications/engel/liberamicorum
Article
Reasons for Belief, Perception, and Reflective Knowledge (Inaugural Address)
Millar A (2014) Reasons for Belief, Perception, and Reflective Knowledge (Inaugural Address). Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume, 88 (1), pp. 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8349.2014.00230.x
Book Chapter
Perceptual Knowledge and Background Beliefs
Millar A (2014) Perceptual Knowledge and Background Beliefs. In: Dodd D & Zardini E (eds.) Scepticism and Perceptual Justification. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, pp. 128-148. http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199658343.do
Article
Scepticism, perceptual knowledge, and doxastic responsibility
Millar A (2012) Scepticism, perceptual knowledge, and doxastic responsibility. Synthese, 189 (2), pp. 353-372. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-011-0005-7
Article
The Epistemological Significance of Practices
Millar A (2011) The Epistemological Significance of Practices. ProtoSociology, 28, pp. 213-230. http://www.protosociology.de/Download/Millar-Practices.pdf
Book Chapter
Knowledge and Reasons for Belief
Millar A (2011) Knowledge and Reasons for Belief. In: Reisner A & Steglich-Petersen A (eds.) Reasons for Belief. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 223-243. http://ebooks.cambridge.org/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9780511977206; https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511977206
Article
How Visual Perception Yields Reasons for Belief
Millar A (2011) How Visual Perception Yields Reasons for Belief. Philosophical Issues, 21 (1), pp. 332-351. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-6077.2011.00207.x
Article
Millar A (2011) Why Knowledge Matters. Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume, 85 (1), pp. 63-81. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8349.2011.00196.x
Authored Book
The Nature and Value of Knowledge: Three Investigations
Pritchard D, Millar A & Haddock A (2010) The Nature and Value of Knowledge: Three Investigations. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199586264.do
Edited Book
Haddock A, Millar A & Pritchard D (eds.) (2010) Social Epistemology. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199577477.do
Book Chapter
Millar A (2010) Knowing from Being Told. In: Haddock A, Millar A & Pritchard D (eds.) Social Epistemology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 175-193. http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199577477.do
Article
Mill on the Cultivation of Feeling
Millar A (2010) Mill on the Cultivation of Feeling. Philosophical Papers, 39 (3), pp. 457-472. https://doi.org/10.1080/05568641.2010.538918
Edited Book
Haddock A, Millar A & Pritchard D (eds.) (2009) Epistemic Value. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199231188.do
Book Chapter
How Reasons for Action Differ from Reasons for Belief
Millar A (2009) How Reasons for Action Differ from Reasons for Belief. In: Robertson S (ed.) Spheres of Reason: New Essays in the Philosophy of Normativity. Mind Association Occasional Series. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, pp. 140-163. http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199572939.do
Article
What is it that Cognitive Abilities are Abilities to Do?
Millar A (2009) What is it that Cognitive Abilities are Abilities to Do?. Acta Analytica, 24 (4), pp. 223-236. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12136-009-0062-4; https://doi.org/10.1007/s12136-009-0062-4
Book Chapter
Perceptual-Recognitional Abilities and Perceptual Knowledge
Millar A (2008) Perceptual-Recognitional Abilities and Perceptual Knowledge. In: Haddock A & Macpherson F (eds.) Disjunctivism: Perception, Action, Knowledge. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 330-347. http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199231546
Book Chapter
Millar A (2008) Disjunctivism and skepticism. In: Greco J (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Skepticism. Oxford Handbooks. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 581-604. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-skepticism-9780195183214?cc=gb〈=en&
Commentary
Millar A (2007) Replies to Authors. Commentary on: Replies to Mario de Caro, Simone Gozzano, Adrian Haddock, and Paul Noordhof. SWIF Philosophy of Mind Review, 6 (1), pp. 72-90. http://lgxserver.uniba.it/lei/mind/swifpmr/0620071.pdf
Article
A Précis of Understanding People: Normativity and Rationalizing Explanation
Millar A (2007) A Précis of Understanding People: Normativity and Rationalizing Explanation. SWIF Philosophy of Mind Review, 6 (1), pp. 14-23. http://lgxserver.uniba.it/lei/mind/swifpmr/0620071.pdf
Article
Millar A (2007) The state of knowing. Philosophical Issues, 17 (1), pp. 179-196. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-6077.2007.00129.x
Article
What the disjunctivist is right about
Millar A (2007) What the disjunctivist is right about. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 74 (1), pp. 176-198. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1933-1592.2007.00008.x
Article
Millar A (2005) Travis' Sense of Occasion. Philosophical Quarterly, 55 (219), pp. 337-342. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0031-8094.2005.00403.x
Authored Book
Understanding People: Normativity and Rationalizing Explanation
Millar A (2004) Understanding People: Normativity and Rationalizing Explanation. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199254408.do
Edited Book
Reason and Nature: Essays in the Theory of Rationality
Bermudez JL & Millar A (eds.) (2002) Reason and Nature: Essays in the Theory of Rationality. Mind Association Occasional Series. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199256839.do
Book Chapter
Reasons for Action and Instrumental Rationality
Millar A (2002) Reasons for Action and Instrumental Rationality. In: Bermúdez J & Millar A (eds.) Reason and Nature: Essays in the Theory of Rationality. Mind Association Occasional Series. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, pp. 113-132. http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/academic/philosophy/mind/9780199256839.do?sortby=bookTitleAscend&thumbby=10&thumbby_crawl=10
Book Chapter
Rationality and Higher-Order Intentionality
Millar A (2001) Rationality and Higher-Order Intentionality. In: Walsh D (ed.) Naturalism, Evolution and Mind. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements, 49. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 179-198. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511563843.009
Article
The scope of perceptual knowledge
Millar A (2000) The scope of perceptual knowledge. Philosophy, 75 (1), pp. 73-88. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031819100000061
Book Chapter
Millar A (1998) Mill on Religion. In: Skorupski J (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Mill. Cambridge Companions to Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 176-202. http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/philosophy/nineteenth-century-philosophy/cambridge-companion-mill
Book Review
Millar A (1996) Sensibility and Understanding. Review of: Mind and World, by John McDowell (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994), 191pp. ISBN 978-0674576100. Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy, 39 (3-4), pp. 459-478. https://doi.org/10.1080/00201749608602431
Article
Millar A (1996) The Idea of Experience. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 96, pp. 75-90. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4545229
Book Review
Millar A (1994) Possessing Concepts. Review of: A Study of Concepts, by Christopher Peacocke, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992, 288pp. ISBN 9780262660976. Mind, 103 (409), pp. 73-82. https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/103.409.73
Book Chapter
Butler on God and Human Nature
Millar A (1992) Butler on God and Human Nature. In: Cunliffe C (ed.) Joseph Butler's Moral and Religious Thought: Tercentenary Essays. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, pp. 293-315. http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780198267409.do
Article
Concepts, Experience and Inference
Millar A (1991) Concepts, Experience and Inference. Mind, 100 (4), pp. 495-505. https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/C.400.495
Authored Book
Millar A (1991) Reasons and Experience. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780198242703.do
Article
Experience and the Justification of Belief
Millar A (1989) Experience and the Justification of Belief. Ratio, 2 (2), pp. 138-152. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9329.1989.tb00003.x
Article
Millar A (1988) Following Nature. Philosophical Quarterly, 38 (151), pp. 165-185. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2219922; https://doi.org/10.2307/2219922
Article
Millar A (1986) What's in a Look?. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 86 (1985-1986), pp. 83-97. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4545038
Article
Millar A (1985) Where's the Use in Meaning?. Dialectica, 39 (1), pp. 35-51. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1746-8361.1985.tb01594.x
Article
Millar A (1985) Veridicality: more on Searle. Analysis, 45 (2), pp. 120-124. https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/45.1.120
Article
Millar A (1981) Understanding Theism. Religious Studies, 17 (3), pp. 311-321. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034412500012993
Article
Interpretation: A Theoretical Perspective and Some Applications
Millar A & Riches JK (1981) Interpretation: A Theoretical Perspective and Some Applications. Numen, 28 (1), pp. 29-53. https://doi.org/10.1163/156852781X00025
Article
Millar A (1977) Truth and Understanding. Mind, 86 (343), pp. 405-416. https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/LXXXVI.343.405