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CV
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Education
Ph.D., Philosophy,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, expected August 2008
Dissertation:
The Synthesis of Concepts: Inferentialism and Semantic Theory
in Hume, Kant and Hegel
Committee: Jay
Rosenberg (Director), Jesse Prinz, Alan Nelson, William Lycan, Marc
Lange, Gerald Postema
M.A., Philosophy,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2003
Thesis: Absolute
Relativism
Committee: Gerald
Postema (Director), William Lycan, David Reeve
B.A., Philosophy,
Bard College, 2001
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Areas of Specialization
Kant, Modern Philosophy
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Areas of Competence
Metaphysics, Philosophy
of Language, Philosophy of Mind, German Idealism
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Refereed Journal
Papers
“Hume’s
Impression/Idea Distinction” Hume Studies, 32, 1 (April
2006): 119-139
“A (Sellarsian)
Kantian Critique of Hume’s Theory of Concepts” Pacific
Philosophical Quarterly, 88, 4 (December 2007): 445-457
“Hegel’s
Account of Rule-Following” Inquiry, 51, 3 (October 2008)
“Sellars
on Hume and Kant on Representing Complexes” European Journal
of Philosophy, forthcoming
“Inferentialism
and the Transcendental Deduction” Kantian Review, forthcoming
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Invited Papers
"The Premise
That Even Hume Must Accept" Self, Language, and World: Essays
to celebrate the work of Jay F. Rosenberg. Eds.
Jim O'Shea and Eric Rubenstein
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Presentations
“Sellars
on Hume and Kant on Representing Complexes” Meaning and Modern
Empiricism, Virginia Tech, April 2008
“Sellars
on Hume and Kant on Representing Complexes” Carolina Philosophy
Retreat, Summer 2007
"Inferentialism
and the Transcendental Deduction" Carolina Philosophy Retreat,
Summer 2006
"A Kantian
Critique of Hume's Theory of Concepts" Work-In -Progress Talk,
Univeristy of North Carolina, Fall 2005
"Hume's Impression/Idea
Distinction" Carolina Philosophy Retreat, Summer 2005
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Dissertation Abstract
The
Synthesis of Concepts: Inferentialism and Semantic Theory in Hume, Kant
and Hegel
I re-cast the
history of Modern philosophy as a debate about the nature and content
of mental representations. Hume is a relationalist who believes that
content is fixed by a relation between a mental entity and that which
it represents. Kant, on the other hand, rejects relationalism on the
grounds that it makes impossible our representing as such a world of
objects bearing lawful relations to one another. Since he argues that
this is necessary for representing oneself as a single, unified subject
of experience persisting through time, he concludes that relationalism
is untenable. Kant presents inferentialism—the thesis that the
content of representation is constituted by that representation’s
role in a system of inference—as a viable alternative to relationalism.
Hegel accepts the Kantian picture, emphasizes the normativity involved
in the inferential articulation of concepts, and argues that this is
an essentially social affair. By reading these figures in this way I
am able to reveal the motivations behind their semantic programs and
uncover arguments that have been under appreciated in scholarship on
Modern philosophy and in contemporary semantic theory. The most significant
of these is Kant’s argument from the necessary co-representation
of self and world to an inferentialist theory of conceptual content.
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Editorial Work
Referee, Society
for Philosophy and Psychology, 2007
Editorial Assistant,
Wilfrid Sellars: Fusing the Images. Jay Rosenberg. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2007
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Fellowships and Awards
Henry Horace Williams
Fellowship, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, September 2001-May
2002
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Teaching Experience
University of
North Carolina/Chapel Hill:
Full Responsibility:
Main Problems in Philosophy (three times), Great Works in Philosophy
(twice), Modern Philosophy (three times), Existentialism, Philosophy
of Science
Teaching Assistant:
Logic, Introduction to Ethics, Main Problems in Philosophy
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Graduate Courses
Taken (* indicates audit)
Hume, Don Garrett
Kant*, Jay Rosenberg
Kant, Andrew Janiak
Modern Philosophy*,
Alan Nelson
Hegel, Gerald Postema
Sellars*, Jay Rosenberg
Philosophy of Language,
Dorit Bar-On
Concepts, Jesse
Prinz Sellars, Quine, Wittgenstein, Marc Lange
Philosophy of Mind,
Richard Zaffron
Relativism*, Jesse
Prinz & Dorit Bar-On Epistemology*, Jay Rosenberg
Wittgenstein*, Jay
Rosenberg
Ontology, Thomas
Hofweber Skepticism and Virtue Epistemology, William Lycan
Philosophy of Science,
John Roberts
Causation, Marc
Lange Normative Concepts, Geoff Sayre-McCord
Aristotle, Edward
Galligan
Plato, David Reeve
Plato’s Republic*, David Reeve
Self-Knowledge,
Dorit Bar-On
Utilitarianism,
Susan Wolf Logic, Mike Resnik
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Departmental Service
Representative
to the Graduate Committee, Fall 2005 – Spring 2006
Fellow of the
Parr Center for Ethics, Fall 2005
Faculty Liaison,
Fall 2004 – Spring 2005
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References
Jay Rosenberg,
Taylor Grandy Professor of Philosophy, University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill. jfr@email.unc.edu, (919) 962-3322
Don Garrett, Professor
of Philosophy, New York University. don.garrett@nyu.edu, (212) 995-4179
Alan Nelson, Professor
Of Philosophy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. anelson@unc.edu,
(919) 962-3030
Jesse Prinz, Professor
of Philosophy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. jesse@subcortex.com,
(919) 962-3323
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