Stephen Finlay commences as Professor of Philosophy in Fall 2025, returning to his alma mater after a gap of 23 years. His past research is focused on metaethics and philosophical moral psychology, particularly the semantics and pragmatics of normative language and the nature of normativity. He has written extensively on value, the meaning of 'ought', the nature of reasons, normative disagreement and motivation. His 2014 monograph, Confusion of Tongues: A Theory of Normative Language lays out an ambitious program for solving the central problems of metaethics.
Professor Finlay was previously the founding Director of the Dianoia Institute of Philosophy at the Australian Catholic University (2019-2024), and before that Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California, where he retains an adjunct affiliation and has taught since 2002. Originally from New Zealand, he received his BA and MA degrees from the University of Auckland before receiving his PhD from the University of Illinois in 2001.