The Shearman Lectures

Established in 1938, the Shearman Lectures were established by a bequest of Arthur Thomas Shearman (1866-1937).

Shearman taught at UCL in 1911-15, and specialised in the history of logic. His works include The Development of Symbolic Logic (1906) and The Scope of Formal Logic (1911), as well as two volumes of poetry.

The lecture series was established in 1938; the first lectures were delivered by Bertrand Russell in 1946. The normal procedure is that lectures occur on alternate years, with each lecturer giving three lectures.

Forthcoming Lectures

2023: Niko Kolodny

Past Lectures

2022: Miranda Fricker
2018: Kit Fine
2013: Robert Pippin
2011: Tim Maudlin
2009: Gilbert Harman
2007: J David Velleman
2004: Judith Jarvis Thomson
2001: Harry Frankfurt
1997: Derek Parfit
1995: Donald Davidson
1991: Tyler Burge
1987: Thomas Kuhn
1985: Burton Dreben
1983: WL Twining, J Dinwiddy, JH Burns
1982: JZ Young
1980: Amartya Sen
1979: Michael Dummett
1976: Hilary Putnam
1973: Saul Kripke
1973: Kenneth Arrow
1970: Abraham Robinson
1969: Noam Chomsky
1966: Alfred Tarski
1964: AJ Ayer
1961: Karl R Popper
1960: Alonzo Church
1958: Paul Bernays
1956: G H von Wright
1954: Willard Van Orman Quine
1952: L E J Brouwer
1950: Alfred Tarski
1948: Erwin Schrödinger
1946: Bertrand Russell