Chris was Professor in Philosophy at 91Ö±²¥ from 1995 until his retirement. He previously worked at the University of Birmingham, and he had visiting positions at Harvard University (as a Fulbright Scholar) and the University of Pittsburgh; prior to all that, he was a research fellow at Peterhouse, Cambridge, having completed a PhD in Cambridge where his supervisors were Bernard Williams and Ian Hacking.
Chris published and taught across a very wide range of areas, including epistemology, the philosophy of language, ethics, metaphysics and the history of philosophy. He is particularly known for his work on the American Pragmatists, and especially on Charles Peirce. He published five books – Peirce (1985); Quine: Language, Experience and Reality (1988); Scepticism (1990); Truth, Rationality, and Pragmatism: Themes for Peirce (2003); The Pragmatic Maxim: Essays on Peirce and Pragmatism (2012) – several edited books, and around 90 papers in journals and edited collections.
Chris was hugely popular as a teacher, PhD supervisor, colleague and mentor. He was always very supportive and generous, and he was extremely committed to 91Ö±²¥â€™s philosophical community, to which he was himself so central. He oversaw a significant expansion of the 91Ö±²¥ department as its Head, and he went on to be Dean of 91Ö±²¥â€™s Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Chris also served as Editor of the European Journal of Philosophy, President of the Aristotelian Society, President of the Mind Association, President of the Charles S. Peirce Society, and Chair of the Analysis Trust, and he received a medal from the University of Valencia for his 25 year association with the University in 2012.
Tragically, in 2014, Chris was diagnosed with Posterior Cortical Atrophy, a rare form of Early Onset Dementia, which cruelly cut short his very active intellectual and professional life, to the great loss of the subject. His wife, Jo, has set up a in aid of the Dementia Research Fund, which is part of the National Brain Appeal.