Education:
PhD - McMaster University
MA - University of Calgary
BA (Hons) - University of Calgary
I am an analytically trained philosopher of language, specializing in philosophical semantics. To my mind, all theories and thoughts are necessarily expressed in language, and consequently constraints on how bits of language can be meaningful impose constraints on which theories are admissible and which thoughts are possible. For me, then, philosophical semantics forms a kind of ‘first philosophy’—ultimately, all other areas of philosophy presuppose some theory of meaning.
Over the last 10 or so years I have been more and more interested in ‘applied’ philosophical semantics—i.e. in exploring the semantic assumptions that are made, almost always implicitly, by other areas of the academy. This research is ultimately normative; the admissibility of a theoretical stance is only as good as it underlying semantic assumptions.
Although a considerable amount of literature exists along these lines with respect to natural science, mathematics, ethics, and aesthetics, very little has been done in other academic areas. I’m particularly interested in social science, most specifically empirically grounded studies of religion. I have been working collaboratively with scholars of religion, most notably Prof. Steven Engler. Philosophers in general, and philosophers of language in particular, have tended to overlook the complexity, intricacies, and importance of religious language. Reciprocally, a theory of meaning is only as good as its ability to make sense of the widest range of linguistic activity as possible. Religious language, therefore, serves as an empirical litmus test for the approaches to meaning that have impressed me.
As Chair, and before that Assistant Chair, I haven’t done much teaching for several years. The courses I most enjoy teaching, though, are:
In preparation:
Gardiner, Mark Q. 2000. Semantic challenges to realism: Dummett and Putnam, Toronto studies in philosophy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Guest edited special issue of Method & Theory in the Study of Religion on truth conditions and religious language, including contributions by Lars Albinus (Denmark), Terry Godlove (USA), G. Scott Davis (USA), and Gabriel Levy (Norway).
Gardiner, Mark Q. 2017. “Truth Conditions and Religious Language: Introduction.” Method & Theory in the Study of Religion. 30 (4-5): 321-337.
Gardiner, Mark Q. 2017. “Why Truth Matters for the Study of Religion: A Defense of a Truth-Conditional Semantics.” Method & Theory in the Study of Religion. 30 (4-5): 402-424.
Target article for a special section in Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion, with Steven Engler, on Philosophy in the Cognitive Science of Religion. Includes commentaries by Lars Albinus (Denmark), C.R. Blease (Ireland), G. Scott Davis (USA), Jeppe Sinding Jensen (Denmark), Matti Kamppinen (Finland), and Aku Visala (Finland), as well as our response.
Gardiner, Mark Q., and Steven Engler. 2016. "Semantic Holism and Cognitive Science in the Study of Religion." Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion 3 (1):7-35.
Engler, Steven, and Mark Q. Gardiner. 2017. “Semantics and the Sacred.” Religion 47 (4): 616-640.
Gardiner, Mark Q., and Steven Engler. 2016. "Semantics." In The Oxford Handbook for the Study of Religion, edited by Michael Stausberg and Steven Engler. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Stausberg, Michael, and Mark Q. Gardiner. 2016. "Definition." In The Oxford Handbook for the Study of Religion, edited by Michael Stausberg and Steven Engler. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gardiner, Mark Q. 2015. "Semantic holism and methodological constraints in the study of religion." International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 79 (3): 281-299.
Gardiner, Mark Q., and Steven Engler. 2012. "Semantic holism and the insider-outsider problem." Religious Studies 48 (02):239-255.
Engler, Steven, and Mark Q. Gardiner. 2012. "Re-mapping Bateson's frame." Journal of Ritual Studies 26 (2):7-20.
Gardiner, Mark Q., and Steven Engler. 2010. "Charting the map metaphor in theories of religion." Religion 40 (1):1-13.
Engler, Steven, and Mark Q. Gardiner. 2010. "Ten Implications of Semantic Holism for Theories of Religion." Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 22 (4):283 - 292.