UCSD Philosophy Department Chair

David O. Brink, Ph.D.  Email Web
Department Chair




UCSD Philosophy Faculty

Georgios Anagnostopoulos, Ph.D.  Email Web
Brandeis Universiy, 1971
Office: HSS 8034 . Phone: (858) 534-3072
Office Hours: Tues. and Thurs. 3:30-5pm, and by appt.

Georgios Anagnostopoulos's research in ancient philosophy centers around ethics, metaphysics, science, technology and human values.

Richard Arneson, Ph.D.  Email Web
University of California, Berkeley, 1975
Office: HSS 8057 . Phone: (858) 534-6810
Office Hours: TBA

Richard Arneson conducts research in political and social philosophy, ethics, philosophy and literature, 19th century philosophy, and philosophy and economics.

William Bechtel, Ph.D.  Email Web
University of Chicago, 1977
Office: HSS 8076 . Phone: (858) 822-4461
Office Hours: TBA

William Bechtel conducts research in the history and philosophy of the life sciences (biochemistry, cell and molecular biology, neurobiology, psychology, and cognitive science), with a special emphasis on the strategies of mechanistic explanation employed and the invocation of active (cyclic, autocatalytic) mechanisms to explain how biological systems maintain themselves far from equilibrium.

David O. Brink, Ph.D.  Email Web
Department Chair
Cornell University, 1985
Office: HSS 7010 . Phone: (858) 822-1655
Office Hours: Mon. 11:00am-12:00pm, Thurs. 11:00am-12:00pm, and by appt.

My research interests are in ethical theory, history of ethics, and jurisprudence. Within ethics, I am especially interested in historical and systematic perspectives on practical reason, moral demands, and the normativity of ethics. Within jurisprudence, I am especially interested in issues in analytical jurisprudence about the nature of law and legal interpretation and in substantive areas of constitutional and criminal jurisprudence.

Craig Callender, Ph.D.   Email Web
Rutgers University, 1997
Office: HSS 8077 . Phone: (858) 822-4911
Office Hours: TBA

My work focuses primarily on topics in philosophy of physics, the metaphysics of science, and philosophy of science in general.

Nancy Cartwright, Ph.D.   Email Web
University of Illinois 
Office: HSS 8012 . Phone: (858) 534-3073
Office Hours: TBA

Nancy Cartwright conducts research in metaphysics and the philosophy of science, particularly with respect to quantum mechanics, econometrics, and social science.

Patricia Churchland, B. Phil. D   Email Web
Oxford University, 1969
Office: HSS 7010 . Phone: (858) 534-6811
Office Hours: Tuesday 2:00-3:00pm, Wednesday 2:30-3:30pm

I focus on the interface between neuroscience and philosophy. I explore the impact of neuroscientific evelopments on our understanding of consciousness, the self, free will, decion making, ethics, learning, and religion.

Paul Churchland, Ph.D.   Email Web
University of Pittsburgh, 1969
Office: HSS 8016 . Phone: (858) 534-4883
Office Hours: Wednesday 10:30-11:30am, 1:00-3:00pm

Paul Churchland's research is in the philosophy of science (neurosciences, physics, astronomy); philosophy of mind (psychology); epistemology (cognitive science, artificial intelligence); philosophy of language; and the history of philosophy.

Jonathan Cohen, Ph.D.   Email Web
Rutgers University, 2000
Office: HSS 8072 . Phone: (858) 534-6812
Office Hours: Tues 10:30am-12:00pm

I work and teach on topics in philosophy of mind, language, and perception, particularly as these are informed by the cognitive sciences. Much of my work in recent years has concerned color and color vision.

Gerald Doppelt, Ph.D.   Email Web
Johns Hopkins University, 1969
Office: HSS 7013 . Phone: (858) 534-2933
Office Hours: TBA

Jerry Doppelt’s current research falls into two main areas: Philosophy of Science, in particular topics such as Thomas Kuhn, scientific change and progress, scientific realism, scientific rationality, the place of values in scientific inquiry, the role of standards of evidence in scientific change. The second area is Political Philosophy, including theory of justice, Rawls work, political liberalism, multiculturalism, the role of self-respect in political theory, communitarianism, and issues of gender and race.

Rick Grush, Ph.D.   Email Web
UCSD, 1995
Office: HSS 7038 . Phone: (858) 822-4440
Office Hours: TBA

I work primarily in theoretical cognitive neuroscience, the metaphysics of mind and representation, and I have significant interests in linguistics and early modern. Recently I have focused on the emulation theory of representation, and spatial and temporal representation. These topics and others will be treated in more detail in The Machinery of Mindedness, my in-progress book.

Michael Hardimon, Ph.D.   Email Web
University of Chicago, 1985
Office: HSS 8084 . Phone: (858) 822-0473
Office Hours: Monday 11:30am-12:30pm, Friday 1:00-2:00pm

Michael Hardimon's research focuses on post-Kantian philosophy: Hegel’s social and political philosophy; Nietzsche’s moral philosophy and moral psychology; and racial identity.

Monte JohnsonMonte Johnson, Ph.D.   Email Web
University of Toronto, 2003
Office: HSS 7054 . Phone (858) 822-4515
Office Hours: Tuesday 1:00-3:00pm

I teach ancient philosophy, including Classical and Hellenistic Philosophy. My research focuses on Aristotle and Democritus, and their immense influence on subsequent philosophy of science. I am currently working on a reconstruction of Aristotle's lost work: the Protrepticus (Exhortation to Philosophy).

Dana Nelkin, Ph.D.   Email Web
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995
Office: HSS 8004 . Phone: (858) 822-0472
Office Hours: Thursday 1:30-3:30pm

I work mainly in moral psychology, and the intersection of philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and ethics.

Samuel Rickless, Ph.D.   Email Web
University of California, Los Angeles, 1996
Office: HSS 8009 . Phone: (858) 822-4910
Office Hours: Friday 10:00-11:00am (HSS 8009), 11:00am-12:00pm (SOLIS 105)

My interests are primarily in ancient philosophy (particularly Plato), early modern philosophy (particularly Locke and Berkeley), ethics, and jurisprudence.

Donald Rutherford, Ph.D.   Email Web
University of California, Berkeley, 1988
Office: HSS 8046 . Phone: (858) 534-6802
Office Hours: Tuesday 10:00am-12:00pm, or by appointment

I work mainly on early modern philosophy and on the reception of ancient philosophy in the early modern period. Other areas of interest are Kant's critical philosophy and its development, and Nietzsche.

Gila Sher, Ph.D.   Email Web
Columbia University, 1989
Office: HSS 8042 . Phone: (858) 534-8504
Office Hours: Monday 4:00-5:00pm, and by appointment

I do research in epistemology, metaphysics (truth) & the philosophy of logic. Current topics include: Epistemology - "epistemic friction", foundation without foundationalism, new directions in Quinean epistemology. Truth - the possibility of a substantive theory of truth, unity & plurality of truth, nature of correspondence. Philosophy of Logic - the problem of foundation, logic & reality, structuralism in logic.

Clinton Tolley, Ph.D.   Email Web
University of Chicago, 2007
Office: HSS 8061 . Phone: (858) 822-2686
Office Hours: Thursday 2:00-4:00pm

I work primarily on the history of philosophy of logic, especially its development from the 17th to the early 20th century, through the early modern, Kantian, German idealist, Austrian, phenomenological, and early analytic traditions. I also work on 20th century French philosophy, especially its (critique of) metaphysics and its semantics.

Eric Watkins, Ph.D.  Email Web
University of Notre Dame, 1994
Office: HSS 8018 . Phone: (858) 822-0082
Office Hours: By Appointment

My research focuses on Kant's theoretical philosophy and its place within modern philosophy and science. I am also interested in early modern philosophy (esp. Leibniz), metaphysics and the history of philosophy of science.

Christian Wüthrich, Ph.D.,    Email Web
University of Pittsburgh, 2006
Office HSS 8047 . Phone (858) 534-6548
Office Hours: Tuesday 3:00-5:00pm, and by appt.

My research focuses on foundational issues in physics, partiularly in general relativity and quantum gravity. I am also working on the implications of philosophy of physics for general philosophy of science and metaphysics, including issues such as space and time, persistence, laws of nature, determinism, and causation.

UCSD Philosophy Affiliates

Aaron Schiller, Ph.D.   Email 
Lecturer
Office: HSS 7054
Office Hours: Friday 2:00-4:00pm

Henry Allison, Ph.D.   Email - Emeritus

Edward Lee, Ph.D.   Email - Emeritus

Frederick Olafson, Ph.D.   Email - Emeritus

Avrum Stroll, Ph.D.   Email - Emeritus