Graduate Students
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Sarah Aikin
Email Office: HSS 7055 Office Hours: Monday 12:30-1:30pm, Friday 9:30-10:30am I came to UCSD in fall 2007 having received B.A.'s in Philosophy and Psychology from California State University, Chico in 2005. Last year I began and completed an Interdisciplinary M.A. in Psychology and Philosophy from CSU, Chico before beginning my work here in San Diego. I am most interested (most of the time) in Ethics, Metaethics, and Moral Psychology but I have a fondness for too many other things in the field to mention them all. I dabble in music (guitar, piano, and singing), art (drawing), and poetry. I also love children's' books because they can keep adults sane. |
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Andrew
Beck Email I received a B.A. in philosophy from Arizona State University in 2004. My primary philosophical interests concern the foundations of logic and formality. Other interests include the philosophy of science, metaphysics, and ancient philosophy. I also have a growing interest the history of analytic philosophy, particularly with respect logic, geometry, formality, and intersubjectivity. |
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Nina Brewer-Davis Email Office: HSS 8056 Office Hours: Monday 11:30am-12:30pm, Tuesday 9:30-10:30am I received a BA in Philosophy from McGill University, and an MSc in Philosophy from the University of Edinburgh. I am interested in developing an account of political obligation that differs from traditional accounts by drawing on an intuitive parallel between political associates and family and friends. Political obligation thus becomes a special case of associative obligation. I am particularly interested in an account of associative obligation that draws on the shared history between parties, where history includes especially developing shared values and experiences or interaction. |
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Amanda
Brovold
Email I have B.A.s in Philosophy and English and a certificate in Linguistics from Florida International University, in Miami, Florida. I also spent a number of years studying Education and volunteering in public schools. Prior to coming to UCSD in fall of 2005 I worked as a waitress, used book dealer, tutor, and co-directed KAPOW summer camp. I am interested in philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, cognitive science, and especially how insights from those areas can inform and improve our education theory and policy. |
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Matt
Brown Email Office: HSS 7017 Office Hours: Tuesday & Thursday, 11:00am-12:30pm Ph.D. Candidate (Philosophy), UC San Diego (2006) MA (Philosophy), UC San Diego (2006) B.S., School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology (2003) AOS: Philosophy of Science, Epistemology, American Pragmatism AOC: Philosophy of Mind, History of Philosophy, Logic, Political Philosophy Currently, my research focuses on issues of the relationship of science to everyday thinking and experience, drawing primarily on the work of John Dewey and Paul Feyerabend. I am currently on dissertation fellowship through Winter 2008. I have run the Pragmatism Reading Group since Winter 2004, and it has met almost every quarter since. My non-philosophy time is devoted to web design and tech support, creative writing, visual and sequential art, costuming, soup-making, and coffee consumption. |
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Eric
Campbell Email I have a Bachelor's in Philosophy from U.T. Austin (2000). I also have interests (and minors) in biology, psychology and literature. I'm interested primarily in the philosophical implications of discoveries in science, especially evolutionary biology, neuroscience and psychology, on how we ought to view ourselves. I'm also interested in literature as a means of expression of philosophically important ideas (as well as an art form broadly). Finally, I've developed a love/hate relationship with moral philosophy over the last 10 years or so. I hope to overcome the darker half of my sentiments toward it at least long enough to engage it and decide whether or not we have a future together. |
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Erich
Conrad Email Ph.D. Candidate UC San Diego (2005), MA Philosophy CSU Long Beach, BA Mathematics UC Irvine, BA Philosophy CSU Fullerton. I am a Philosophy and Science Studies graduate student. In my dissertation I intend to contribute to discussion concerning post-Kuhnian challenges to the notion of objectivity in science and recent attempts to rebut these challenges. Topics of interest to me and of relevance to my dissertation include the implications of incommensurability, the use of models and the role of intersubjective consensus. I am humbled and honored to be working with the members of my stellar committee, consisting of Jerry Doppelt, Nancy Cartwright, Paul Churchland, Andy Scull and Tal Golan. In my spare time I play classical guitar. |
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James
Dabgotra
Email Office: HSS 8073 Office Hours: Thursday 2:00-4:00pm Interests include cognitive science, particularly emotional, moral, religious, empirical, and philosophical cognition; philosophy of mind, particularly phenomenology and consciousness; metaethics; philosophical methodology; David Hume; sociobiology; neuroscience. |
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Lisa
Damm Email Web Office: HSS 8089 Office Hours: Monday 12:00-2:00pm In May of 2003, I received my BA in philosophy and mathematics from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. Leaving one sunshine state for another (and not by accident) I started the philosophy grad program at UCSD in Fall of 2003. I am currently interested in cognition, rationality, emotion, decision making, and practical reasoning. |
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Vidit Desai
Email Office: HSS 8029 Office Hours: Tuesday 3:00-5:00pm I received a BA in Philosophy from UCLA in 2005. After traveling, I enrolled at UCSD in the fall of 2007 |
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Sophia
Efstathiou
Email I graduated from Warwick University with a Masters in Physics, and a joint degree in Mathematics and Physics, in 2000. I came to UCSD in 2002-2003 and I am currently working on the use of race as a variable in biomedical research. I am working with Nancy Cartwright (chair), Craig Callender, Jerry Doppelt and Michael Hardimon, in Philosophy, Steve Epstein in Sociology and Arnold Gass in the School of Medicine. |
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Matt
Egan |
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Michael
Foland |
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Erin
Frykholm
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Halina Email |
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Joyce Havstad
Email Office: HSS 7055 Office Hours: Wednesday 1:00-3:00pm I recently returned to UCSD to do my doctoral work in the philosophy department and the science studies program. I came here for my undergrad in 2000, and spent most of my time as a biochem/chem major in Revelle College. I starting working in a gene expresison lab at the Salk Institute in 2001, and gradually became interested in the philosophy of biology. I started taking some philosophy classes and in the end I graduated with an individual major in philosophy of life science. I added to my education in philosophy by getting an MA at SDSU and now I continue to pursue philosophy of biology. I am also interested in philosophy of science, philosophy of technology, history of science, ethics, biomedical ethics, and enviromental ethics. |
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Mitchell
Herschbach
Email Web Ph.D. Candidate (Philosophy), UC San Diego (2007) M.A. (Philosophy), UC San Diego (2007) B.A. (Philosophy), B.S. (Psychology), Santa Clara University (2002) My primary research interests are in philosophy of mind, and philosophy of psychology/cognitive science. I also have interests in philosophy of language, philosophy of science, and contemporary work relating phenomenology to cognitive science. In my dissertation I develop an enriched account of human social understanding, appealing to analytic philosophy (the theory theory and simulation theory approaches), phenomenology, developmental psychology, and neuroscience. After a two year term as Editorial Assistant & Publications Editor, I am now serving as Book Review Editor for the journal Philosophical Psychology. |
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Kristen
Irwin Email Web Office: HSS 8056 Office Hours: Wednesday 10:30am-12:30pm After earning my B.A. in history and philosophy from Hillsdale College in May 2001, I began the Ph.D. program at UCSD that fall. My research interests are historical in nature, and include many different topics in epistemology and metaphysics from the modern period through the 20th century. I specialize in the seventeenth century, and I also have lesser interests in philosophy of religion, existentialism, and phenomenology. My dissertation (advisor: Donald Rutherford) provides an original interpretation of the relationship between reason and religious belief in the thought of Pierre Bayle, a seventeenth century Huguenot skeptic. In addition to a stint as a teaching assistant and researcher at the UC Study Center in Paris, I have also been a TA in Revelle College's Humanities writing program, and a lecturer for PHIL 33 (Philosophy in the Age of Enlightenment) and PHIL 181 (Existentialism). |
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Nat
Jacobs
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John
Jacobson
Email Web Office: HSS 8088 Office Hours: Thursday 11:00am-1:00pm I earned a BA from Wesleyan University in 1997, where I double majored in Philosophy and Neuroscience. My work focuses on recasting philosophical problems as experimental ones. My interests are in philosophy of mind, epistemology, moral psychology and pacifism. |
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Tim
Jankowiak
Email I received my BA in philosophy from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2005. For the most part, I'd consider myself an historian. I am interested in almost all German thought from Leibniz to Heidegger, my main interests having to do with Kant and his legacy. I also have interests in philosophy of mind, philosophy of mathematics & logic and philosophy of science. In the near future I also intend to pursue some degree of competency in aesthetics and cognitive science. |
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Justin
Knoepfler
Email I have a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. I'm puzzled by how humans think, how we solve problems, and why we experience things the way we do. I also love literature and poetry. |
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Charlie
Kurth Email Web I received B.A.s in Economics and US Government from the University of Virginia. After three years of working in finance in New York City (and a year off to regain my sanity), I turned to philosophy. I earned an M.A. in philosophy from Arizona State University before transferring to UCSD. My philosophic interests focus on meta-ethics, metaphysics (especially theories of truth), and the philosophy of language. Other interests focus on outdoor activities: rock climbing, backpacking, fly fishing, cycling... |
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Eric
Martin Email B.A. Biology, The Colorado College (2002). I came to San Diego with a degree in biology from The Colorado College. Most of my work these days is in the history and philosophy of biology. I’m primarily interested in 19th and early 20th century microbiology and biochemistry, and the philosophical debates that were part of the development of those disciplines. I am currently working on a project that examines research in the origins of life. I’m writing about how this first “major transition” in evolution became a viable target for empirical inquiry, how it is that scientists construct and use models of this phenomenon, and the nature of experimentation in this research tradition. I also have interests in science policy, environmental ethics, methods of evidential aggregation used in biomedical contexts, the influence of science upon early modern philosophy, and the history of science and religion. |
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Tarun
Menon |
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James
Messina
Email Web I did my undergraduate work at the University of Rochester, where I majored in English and philosophy; I also minored in history. I am interested in the history of modern philosophy (especially Leibniz, Spinoza, Locke and Kant), philosophy of science, philosophy of language and philosophy of mind. Please see my website for more. |
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Per-Erik
Milam Email I received my B.A. in Philosophy from Pomona College in 2005. Before coming to UCSD, I spent a year teaching English in Japan. My philosophical interest is in philosophy of mind, pragmatism, and Continental philosophy with particular emphasis on agency, self-knowledge, and introspection. I'm also interested in fiction--both in for fun and for its ability to represent philosophical issues in an exciting and readable way. |
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Ioan
Muntean
Email Web Office: HSS 8029 Office Hours: Tuesday 3:00-5:00pm Main interests: philosophy of science (esp. philosophy of physics), cognitive sciences (esp. dynamical models), metaphysics, philosophy of mind, ontology, logic, artificial intelligence. I currently write a thesis on unification in physics and I analyze cases as Kaluza-Klein models, Yang-Mills generalizations and string theory. MA in Philosophy (Univ. of Bucharest, 1997), BS in Physics for engineering (University "Politehnica", Bucharest, 1992). I have taught philosophy at various places in Bucharest. |
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Theron
Pummer Email Web Office: HSS 7093 Office Hours: Tuesday 2:00-3:00pm, Friday 11:00am-12:00pm I graduated from George Washington University in 2006 with a B.S. in an interdisciplinary major in Philosophy and Cognitive Neuroscience. General interests in ethics, philosophy of mind/brain, and epistemology, and issues at the intersection of these areas. Particular interest in theoretical and empirical approaches to characterizing, measuring, and weighing well-being. |
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Erick
Ramirez Email Web Office: HSS 8089 Office Hours: Wednesday 9:00-11:00am My interests here need significant narrowing but primarily my interests lay in rationality and epistemology, justification, decision-making, ethical argumentation, and British Empiricism. Side interests include existentialism (particularly Nietzsche and Sartre). |
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Anna
Salamon
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Aaron
Schiller
Email Web Ph.D. Candidate, UC San Diego (2003) B.A., UC Berkeley (2000) I entered the program in the Fall of 2000. My current research concerns the nature of concepts and their relation to experience in contemporary post-Kantian philosophy of mind and epistemology. My dissertation ("Concepts, Experience, and Knowledge," Rick Grush, Chair) concerns the debate over the notion of "nonconceptual content." I am constructing a new defense of the conceptualist position which takes into account the social nature of conceptual frameworks and is implied by externalist accounts of the mind. |
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Daniel
Schwartz
Email I received a B.A. in liberal arts from St. John's College Annapolis in 2006. My main interests lie in the history of the philosophy of science and in the history of philosophy more generally (mostly early modern). Topics of special interest include: Baconian induction and its implementation by Galileo and others, Whewell's revival of the Baconian project and his debate with Mill, Kant's philosophy of science, and Aristotle's philosophy of science. |
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Sharon
Skare Email Before coming to UCSD in the Fall of 2001, I received a B.A. in Philosophy from U.C. Berkeley in 1996 and then spent five years working in the field of clinical research. I am interested in philosophy of language, logic, ethics (especially biomedical ethics), and moral psychology. |
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Jacob Stegenga Email I am interested in how we come to believe the various things we believe. Currently, I am studying the history of molecular biology to investigate the ways that scientists assess disparate, surprising, and contradictory forms of evidence. I have worked as an epidemiologist for the Public Health Agency of Canada, and am interested in conceptual and social problems in epidemiology-some examples include the problem of inferring causation from correlational evidence; changing standards of evidence; and the integration of incongruent evidence. Other research interests include Nietzsche's epistemology, philosophy of psychiatry, and moral/political philosophy. In my spare time, I enjoy mountaineering, cycling, and reading fiction. M.A., History and Philosophy of Science, University of Toronto 2005 M.Sc., Physiology, University of Toronto 2003 B.A., Philosophy & Biology, University of Victoria 1999 |
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Adam
Streed Email Web B.A., Washington University (in St. Louis), 2003 - Philosophy and PNP After graduating from college, I spent a year in the trenches of corporate offices, coffee shops, and silo construction before coming to UCSD. My interests change fairly often, but these days I'm mostly interested in the nature of logic, and ethical theorizing that doesn't employ reflective equilibrium. My heart has special places for cognitive science and art history. When not reading philosophy I like to draw things, as well as write, record, and perform songs. |
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Michael
Tiboris
Email Web Office: HSS 8037 Office Hours: Tuesday 9:00-11:00am PhD Candidate, UC San Diego (2007): Philosophy BA, University of Wisconsin - Madison (2002)-Philosophy, Political Science, and ILS. My interests are in political philosophy and moral psychology. I work on issues of responsibility, justice, and equality. My current research project is on children's moral agency and diminished moral responsibility. I'm also interested in the place of the family in liberalism, topics in ancient Greek philosophy, and philosophy of education. |