Mark Richard is a contemporary analytic philosopher at Harvard University specializing in philosophy of language and the theory of propositions. He is known for his influential work on propositional attitude ascriptions, context-dependence, and the metaphysics of propositions across possible worlds. His research has contributed significantly to debates about relativism, truth, and the semantics of attitude reports.
Developed an influential structured-propositions account of attitude ascriptions in Propositional Attitudes: An Essay on Thoughts and How We Ascribe Them (1990)
Advanced relativist and context-dependent accounts of truth in When Truth Gives Out (2008)
Argued that propositions can be true at worlds where they do not exist, challenging standard possible-worlds semantics
Contributed to debates on indexicality, vagueness, and the semantics of moral and epistemic vocabulary
Long-term faculty member in philosophy at Harvard University