•  156
    A review of Rebecca DeYoung's book, "Glittering Vices: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins and Their Remedies", 2nd ed.
  •  993
    Varieties of Philosophical Misanthropy
    Journal of Philosophical Research 46 27-44. 2021.
    I argue that misanthropy is systematic condemnation of the moral character of humankind as it has come to be. Such condemnation can be expressed affectively and practically in a range of different ways, and the bulk of the paper sketches the four main misanthropic stances evident across the history of philosophy. Two of these, the Enemy and Fugitive stances, were named by Kant, and I call the others the Activist and Quietist. Without exhausting the range of ways of being a philosophical misanthr…Read more
  •  26
    A Case for an Historical Vice Epistemology
    Humana Mente 14 (39). 2021.
    This paper encourages greater engagement between contemporary vice epistemology and the work of intellectual and social historians of the vices. I argue that studies of the nature and significance of epistemic vices and faliings can be enriched by engaging with the methods and results of the historians who share our interest in epistemic character and its failings. To that end, I distinguish between quotidian and esoteric, and betwee transient and promiscuous epistemic vice-concepts and offer il…Read more
  •  132
    Epistemic Corruption and the Research Impact Agenda
    with Jennifer Chubb and Joshua Forstenzer
    Theory and Research in Education 19 (2): 148-167. 2021.
    Contemporary epistemologists of education have raised concerns about the distorting effects of some of the processes and structures of contemporary academia on the epistemic practice and character of academic researchers. Such concerns have been articulated using the concept of epistemic corruption. In this paper, we lend credibility to these theoretically-motivated concerns using the example of the research impact agenda during the period 2012-2014. Interview data from UK and Australian academi…Read more
  •  151
    Reloading the Canon
    The Philosopher’s Magazine 93 57-63. 2021.
    I describe two prejudices that can obstruct efforts to diversify philosophical curricula that I call neophilia and xenophilia. Individually and collectively they feed a sort of metaphilosophical myopia: a narrow vision that fails or refuses to see the richness and value of the philosophical enterprise in its many forms as manifested in different times and cultures. The discussion focuses on neophilia and xenophilia among undergraduate students.
  •  242
    Knowing What To Order at the Conference Dinner
    Apa Newsletter on Feminism and Philosophy 20 (3): 19-21. 2021.
    A conference dinner at a restaurant is a good place for considering the interactions of class, race, economic privilege, professional comportment, and the culturally coded forms of sophistication that have been built into the discipline. Much needs to be changed and a really good place to start is by appreciating these realities.
  •  357
    From Vice Epistemology to Critical Character Epistemology
    In Mark Alfano, Colin Klein & Jeroen de Ridder (eds.), Social Virtue Epistemology, Routledge. pp. 84-102. 2022.
    I sketch out a specific form of vice epistemology that I call critical character epistemology.
  •  181
    Character, Corruption, and ‘Cultures of Speed’ in Higher Education
    In Ainé Mahon (ed.), Philosophical Perspectives on the Contemporary University: In Shadows and Light, Springer. pp. 17-28. 2022.
    This chapter offers a character-based criticism of ‘the culture of speed’ condemned by the Canadian literary scholars, Maggie Berg and Barbara Seeber in their influential polemic, The Slow Professor. Central to their criticisms of speed and praise of slowness are, I argue, substantive concerns about their effects on moral and intellectual character. I argue that a full reckoning of the wrongs of academic cultures of speed must include appreciation of the ways they promote a host of accelerative …Read more
  •  3
    A Case for an Historical Vice Epistemology
    Humana.Mente - Journal of Philosophical Studies 14 (39): 69-86. 2021.
    This paper aims to encourage and guide greater engagement between contemporary vice epistemology and the work of intellectual and social historians. My view is that studies of the nature and significance of epistemic vices can be enriched by engaging with the methods and results of the historians who share our interest in epistemic character and its failings. Naturally, enrichment incurs certain costs, including complications about the nature, significance, and identity of epistemic vices as the…Read more
  •  297
    The Predicament of Patients
    with Havi Carel
    Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 89 65-74. 2021.
    In this paper we propose that our understanding of pathocentric epistemic injustices can be enriched if they are theorised in terms of predicaments. These are the wider socially scaffolded structures of epistemic challenges, dangers, needs, and threats experienced by ill persons due to their particular emplacement within material, social, and epistemic structures. In previous work we have described certain aspects of these predicaments - pathocentric epistemic injustices, pathophobia, and so on.…Read more
  •  117
    Trade-offs, Backfires, and Curricular Diversification
    Symposion. Theoretical and Applied Inquiries in Philosophy and Social Sciences 7 (2): 179-193. 2020.
    Ian James Kidd ABSTRACT: This paper presents two challenges faced by many initiatives that try to diversify undergraduate philosophy curricula, both intellectually and demographically. Trade-offs involve making difficult decisions to prioritise some values over others. Backfires involve unintended consequences contrary to the aims and values of diversity initiatives, including …
  •  351
    Creativity in Science and the ‘Anthropological Turn’ in Virtue Theory
    European Journal for Philosophy of Science 11 (1): 1-16. 2020.
    I argue that philosophical studies of the virtues of creativity should attend to the ways that our conceptions of human creativity may be grounded in conceptions of human nature or the nature of reality. I consider and reject claims in this direction made by David Bohm and Paul Feyerabend. The more compelling candidate is the account of science, creativity, and human nature developed by the early Marx. Its guiding claim is that the forms of creativity enabled by the sciences are ultimately valua…Read more
  •  44
    Pandemic Transformative Experience
    with Havi Carel
    The Philosophers' Magazine 90 24-31. 2020.
  •  493
    Epistemic Corruption and Political Institutions
    In Michael Hannon & Jeroen de Ridder (eds.), The Routledge Handbook to Political Epistemology, Routledge. pp. 357-358. 2021.
    Institutions play an indispensable role in our political and epistemic lives. This Chapter explores sympathetically the claim that political institutions can be bearers of epistemic vices. I start by describing one form of collectivism - the claim that the vices of institutions do not reduce to the vices of their members. I then describe the phenomenon of epistemic corruption and the various processes that can corrupt the epistemic ethoi of political institutions. The discussion focuses on some …Read more
  •  396
    Philosophical Misanthropy
    Philosophy Now 139 28-31. 2020.
    A short piece on philosophy and misanthropy.
  •  258
    Trade-offs, Backfires and Curriculum Diversification
    Symposion: Theoretical and Applied Inquiries in Philosophy and Social Sciences 7 (2): 179-193. 2020.
    This paper presents two challenges faced by many initiatives that try to diversify undergraduate philosophy curricula, both intellectually and demographically. Trade-offs involve making difficult decisions to prioritise some values over others (like gender diversity over cultural diversity). Backfires involve unintended consequences contrary to the aims and values of diversity initiatives, including ones that compromise more general philosophical values. I discuss two specific backfire risks, in…Read more
  •  553
    Humankind, Human Nature, and Misanthropy
    Metascience 29 (3): 505-508. 2020.
    An essay review of Rutger Bregman's "Humankind: A Hopeful History" (2020).
  •  2
    Pandemic Transformative Experience
    with Havi Carel
    The Philosophers’ Magazine 90 (24-31). 2020.
    We argue that pandemic and lockdown can be usefully interpreted as transformative experiences, albeit of a sort with interestingly different features to those discussed by L.A. Paul.
  •  251
    Conceptions of Philosophy and the Challenges of Scientism
    In Moti Mizrahi (ed.), Scientism: For and Against, Rowman and Littlefield. pp. 75-86. 2022.
    I suspect many philosophers feel the deep reason the topic of scientism matters is that it wrongly questions or impugns the integrity and significance of the discipline of philosophy. Such metaphilosophical concerns may not always be at the forefront during debates about scientism. Sometimes, though, we should engage much broader metaphilosophical issues.
  •  1
    Introduction: From Epistemic Vices to Vice Epistemology
    In Ian James Kidd, Quassim Cassam & Heather Battaly (eds.), Vice Epistemology, Routledge. pp. 1-17. 2020.
    We provide an overview of contemporary vice epistemology, the history of philosophical study of epistemic vices, and the chapters in the volume.
  •  261
    Happiness for a Fish: Zhuāngzǐ and Huizi at the Hao River
    In Helen De Cruz (ed.), Philosophy Illustrated, Oxford University Press. pp. 57-60. 2021.
    I discuss the famous 'happiness for a fish' exchange between Zhuāngzǐ and Huizi.
  •  372
    Suffering and Transformative Experience
    with Havi Carel
    In David Bain, Michael Brady & Jennifer Corns (eds.), The Philosophy of Suffering: Metaphysics, Value, and Normativity, Routledge. pp. 165-179. 2020.
    In this chapter we suggest that many experiences of suffering can be further illuminated as forms of transformative experience, using the term coined by L.A. Paul. Such suffering experiences arise from the vulnerability, dependence, and affliction intrinsic to the human condition. Such features can create a variety of positively, negatively, and ambivalently valanced forms of epistemically and personally transformative experiences, as we detail here. We argue that the productive element of suffe…Read more
  •  6
    Values and aims of higher education: The case of Ernst Jünger, 'total mobilisation', and higher education
    Discourse: Learning and Teaching in Philosophical and Religious Studies 10 (1): 225-238. 2010.
  •  45
    What sorts of epistemic virtues are required for effective mathematical practice? Should these be virtues of individual or collective agents? What sorts of corresponding epistemic vices might interfere with mathematical practice? How do these virtues and vices of mathematics relate to the virtue-theoretic terminology used by philosophers? We engage in these foundational questions, and explore how the richness of mathematical practices is enhanced by thinking in terms of virtues and vices, and ho…Read more
  •  484
    Private Schools and Queue‐jumping: A reply to White
    with Mark Jago
    Journal of Philosophy of Education 54 (5): 1201-1205. 2020.
    John White (2016) defends the UK private school system from the accusation that it allows an unfair form of ‘queue jumping’ in university admissions. He offers two responses to this accusation, one based on considerations of harm, and one based on meritocratic distribution of university places. We will argue that neither response succeeds: the queue-jumping argument remains a powerful case against the private school system in the UK. We begin by briefly outlining the queue-jumping argument (§1),…Read more
  •  232
    A Pluralist Account of Spiritual Exemplarity
    In Tyler McNabb & Victoria S. Harrison (eds.), Philosophy and the Spiritual Life, Routledge. 2023.
    This Chapter sketches a pluralist account of spiritual exemplarity. Starting from recent work by Linda Zagzebski, three main kinds of spiritual exemplarity are described, distinguished by their underlying aspiration. I name these the aspirations to allegiance, enlightened insight, and emulation, illustrated with examples from the Western and South and East Asian spiritual dispensations. The Chapter concludes by warning against tendencies either to occlude this plurality or to illicitly privilege…Read more
  •  12
    Narratives of Adversity and Wisdom in Ancient Ethical and Spiritual Texts
    with Will Kynes, Laura E. R. Blackie, and Kate C. McLean
    Journal of Value Inquiry 53 (3): 459-461. 2019.
  •  653
    Misanthropy and the Hatred of Humankind
    In Noell Birondo (ed.), The Moral Psychology of Hatred, Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 75-98. 2022.
    One way to think about the philosophical significance of hatred is to consider doctrines that are characterised by feelings of hatred. A good candidate is misanthropy, which is often conceived as an attitude of hatred directed at humankind at large. I start by sketching a working account of misanthropy as a critical verdict or judgment on the contemporary condition of humankind as it has become. The criticism is directed at the array of vices and failings that are ubiquitous and entrenched withi…Read more
  •  130
    Expanding Transformative Experience
    with Havi Carel
    European Journal of Philosophy 28 (1): 199-213. 2019.
    We develop a broader, more fine-grained taxonomy of forms of ‘transformative experience’ inspired by the work of L.A. Paul. Our vulnerability to such experiences arises, we argue, due to the vulnerability, dependence, and affliction intrinsic to the human condition. We use this trio to distinguish a variety of positively, negatively, and ambivalently valenced forms of epistemically and/or personally transformative experiences. Moreover, we argue that many transformative experiences can arise gra…Read more