University of Toronto, St. George Campus
Graduate Department of Philosophy
PhD, 2011
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
  •  1858
    Nostalgia
    Analysis 72 (4): 641-650. 2012.
    Next SectionThis article argues against two dominant accounts of the nature of nostalgia. These views assume that nostalgia depends, in some way, on comparing a present situation with a past one. However, neither does justice to the full range of recognizably nostalgic experiences available to us – in particular, ‘Proustian’ nostalgia directed at involuntary autobiographical memories. Therefore, the accounts in question fail. I conclude by considering an evaluative puzzle raised by Proustian nos…Read more
  •  95
    Metaemotional Intentionality
    Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 98 (3). 2017.
    This article argues against two theories that obscure our understanding of emotions whose objects are other emotions. The tripartite model of emotional intentionality holds that an emotion's relation to its object is necessarily mediated by an additional representational state; I argue that metaemotions are an exception to this claim. The hierarchical model positions metaemotions as stable, epistemically privileged higher-order appraisals of lower-level emotions; I argue that this clashes with v…Read more
  •  81
    Lyrical Emotions and Sentimentality
    Philosophical Quarterly 62 (248): 546-568. 2012.
    I investigate the normative status of an unexamined category of emotions: ‘lyrical’ emotions about the transience of things. Lyrical emotions are often accused of sentimentality—a charge that expresses the idea that they are unfitting responses to their objects. However, when we test the merits of that charge using the standard model of emotion evaluation, a surprising problem emerges: it turns out that we cannot make normative distinctions between episodes of such feelings. Instead, it seems th…Read more
  • A History for the Future: Rewriting Memory and Identity in Quebec
    with Jocelyn Létourneau and Phyllis Aronoff
    Studies on the History of Queb. 2004.
    A personal debate on the future of history and memory in Quebec.