Deborah C. Smith

Deborah Smith is Professor of Philosophy at Kent Sate University, where she has held an appointment since 1997. She earned her B.A. in philosophy from Pomona College in 1990 and her Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Washington, Seattle in 1996.

Her research interests include contemporary analytic metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language, and logic.  Her most recent articles include:

1. “On the Cardinality Argument Against Quidditism,” Acta Analytica (2023), Vol. 38, pp. 275-281. 
2. “Composition, Contingency, and Local Supervenience,” Southern Journal of Philosophy (December 2019), Vol. 57, No. 4, pp. 589-612.
3. “Gunky Objects, Junky Worlds, and Weak Mereological Universalism,” Erkenntnis (February, 2019), Vol. 84, pp. 41-55..
4. “Quid Quidditism Est?,” Erkenntnis (April, 2016), Vol. 81, No. 2, pp. 237-257.
5. “Properties, Laws, and Worlds,” The Canadian Journal of Philosophy (August 2015), Vol. 45, No. 4, pp. 471-489.
6. “Mind-Independence and the Logical Space of Wright’s Realist-Relevant Axes,” The Southern Journal of Philosophy (June 2011), Vol. 49, No. 2, pp. 164-191.
7. “Superassertibility and the Equivalence Schema: a Dilemma for Wright’s Antirealist,” Synthese (2007), Vol. 157, pp. 129-139.
8. “Warranted Assertibility and the Norms of Assertoric Practice: Why Truth and Warranted Assertibility are not Coincident Norms,” Ratio (June 2005), Vol. XVIII, no. 2, pp. 206-220.

At Kent State, she often teaches Introduction to Philosophy, Continental Rationalism, Empiricism, Intermediate Logic, Metaphysics, and Epistemology. She is past president of the Ohio Philosophical Association and past Chair of Kent State’s Faculty Senate.  She is currently the President of the Kent State United Faculty Association.