Philip Armstrong

Writer of analytic philosophy

Philip Armstrong is deeply engaged with matters of analytic philosophy, with a particular interest in epistemology, Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Mind, modal logic, mereology, and general metaphysics. He has a particular interest in how these domains pertain to the Weimar heritage, including the aesthetics of Schiller, the idealism of Fichte, Schelling and Hegel, the perspectivism and anti-foundationalism of Nietzsche, the language and mathematics quantifications of Frege, and the positivist constructivism of Carnap.

Philip Armstrong is a teacher of Theory of Knowledge (ToK), which is a core component of the IB program for students aged 16-18. The program provides the opportunity for students to reflect on the nature of knowledge as it pertains to their studies, and to reflect on how it is possible to ‘know’ in various areas of knowledge such as mathematics, the natural sciences, the social sciences, ethics, and the arts. Students are provided the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of their personal, cultural, and socio-political assumptions, as well as of the diversity of the world.

Music and philosophy

Philip Armstrong has integrated his interest in analytic philosophy in a creative manner with his interest in music composition. His orchestral work 'Molly the Miraculous Music-Theorist' is linked with the thought experiment 'Mary the Super Scientist', proposed by Frank Jackson to examine the irreducibility of conscious experience to micro-physical properties. Molly the miraculous music-theorist is unable to describe music fully without recourse to an account of the phenomenal and aesthetic experience of music perception.

Education and philosophy

Philip Armstrong has combined his interest in analytic philosophy with his work in education. His article 'A Model-Theoretic Analysis of the Characteristics that Differentiate Pluralism from Populism in a Democratic Context' examines the role of an international school in modern society in the context of a comparative analysis of the deontic logic of tolerance and respect which is associated with Social Pluralism and the deontic logic of disaffection and resentment which is associated with Populism.