Eliot Michaelson

I am a Reader in the Department of Philosophy at King's College London, an Honorary Associate Professor of Linguistics at University College London, and the Treasurer of the Mind Association. Most of my work centers on the philosophy of language, and in particular on non-ideal approaches to phenomena like meaning and communication. I'm also interested in the nature of deception, whether machines can manipulate us, whether social media has fundamentally changed how we communicate, what colors are, the nature of skills, what consent and promising are, how we know about moral stuff, and why we shouldn't eat animals, among other things. So, basically, I'm interested in philosophy.

From 2020–2024, I will be joining Rachel Sterken and Jessica Pepp on twin research projects investigating fake news and the nature of online speech. These projects are supported by the Swedish Research Council and the Research Council of Norway, respectively.

Occasionally, I also do some non-academic philosophy. Rachel and Jessica and I recently wrote a short piece on fake news here. And a long time ago I made a series of short videos on philosophy with the actor James Franco. Those can be found here.