Matthew Kinakin
Teaching Fellow
- Philosophy
- School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences
Contact details
- Email: mkinakin@ed.ac.uk
- Web: Website
- Web: PhilPeople
Address
- Street
-
Room 7.05
- City
- 40 George Square, Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH8 9JX
Background
I joined the University of Edinburgh in 2024 as a Teaching Fellow. Prior to that, I was a Lecturer at the University of Glasgow where I also completed my PhD.
Qualifications
Ph. D. Philosophy, The University of Glasgow
M. A., B. A. (Honours) Philosophy, The University of British Columbia
Undergraduate teaching
Social Philosophy, 2024/2025
Moral Philosophy, 2024/2025
Affective Experience, 2025/2026
Metaphysics, 2025/2026
Postgraduate teaching
Normative Ethics, 2024/2025
Philosophy of Mind and Cognitive Science, 2025/2026
The Social Mind, 2025/2026
Research summary
My research is in the philosophy of mind, value theory, and metaethics. At the moment, I am focusing primarily on the nature of affective experience (e.g. pain/pleasure) and its relation to things like value/disvalue, normativity, motivation, and knowledge.
Papers
Kinakin, M. 2026. “Why intentionalists can't take painkillers.” Philosophical Studies. 183, 1905–1929.
Kinakin, M. 2026. “Why representationalists can't be desire theorists (and vice versa).” Synthese.207, 208.