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Faculty

Department Chair

  • Samuel Rickless

    Samuel Rickless

    srickless@ucsd.edu

    UC Distinguished Professor and Department Chair
    Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles, 1996
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 - Arts & Humanities - Room 0494, Phone: (858) 822-4910

    Ancient philosophy (particularly Plato), early modern philosophy (particularly Locke and Berkeley), ethics, and jurisprudence

Faculty

  • Saba Bazargan-Forward

    Saba Bazargan-Forward

    sbazargan@ucsd.edu

    Professor
    Ph.D. Rutgers University, 2009
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 - Arts & Humanities - Room 0458, Phone: (858) 822-2685

    Normative ethics; individual responsibility for collective action; complicity; war ethics; ethics of benefiting from injustice

  • Reuven Brandt

    Reuven Brandt

    rabrandt@ucsd.edu

    Associate Teaching Professor
    Ph.D. University of Western Ontario, 2015

    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 - Arts & Humanities - Room 0497, Tel: (858) 822-2806

    Applied ethics with a focus on human reproduction and responsibility

  • David O. Brink

    David O. Brink

    dbrink@ucsd.edu

    UC Distinguished Professor
    Valtz Family Endowed Chair in Philosophy
    Ph.D. Cornell University, 1985
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 - Arts & Humanities - Room 0480, Phone: (858) 534-4881

    Ethical theory, history of ethics, and jurisprudence; historical and systematic perspectives on practical reason, moral demands, and the normativity of ethics; nature of law and legal interpretation in substantive areas of constitutional and criminal jurisprudence

  • Craig Callender

    Craig Callender

    ccallender@ucsd.edu

    UC Distinguished Professor
    Tata Chancellor Professor of Philosophy
    Ph.D. Rutgers University, 1997
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 - Arts & Humanities - Room 0456, Phone: (858) 822-4911

    Philosophy of physics, the metaphysics of science, and philosophy of science in general

  • Jennifer Rose Carr

    Jennifer Rose Carr

    j2carr@ucsd.edu

    Associate Professor
    Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2013
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 - Arts & Humanities - Room 0466, Phone: (858) 246-2499

    Theoretical philosophy, including epistemology, logic, decision theory, and philosophy of language

  • Nancy Cartwright

    Nancy Cartwright

    ncartwright@ucsd.edu

    UC Distinguished Professor
    Ph.D. University of Illinois
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 - Arts & Humanities - Room 0449, Phone: (858) 793-1979

    Philosophy of the natural, social and policy sciences with specialization in physics and economics; questions of causality, objectivity in science, and evidence, especially for evidence-based policy

  • Eddy Keming Chen

    Eddy Keming Chen

    eddykemingchen@ucsd.edu

    Associate Professor
    Ph.D. Rutgers University, 2019
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 - Arts & Humanities - Room 0493, Phone: (858) 534-9281

    Philosophy of physics, philosophy of science, metaphysics, decision theory, Chinese philosophy
  • Jonathan Cohen

    Jonathan Cohen

    cohen@ucsd.edu

    Professor
    Ph.D. Rutgers University, 2000
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 - Arts & Humanities - Room 0453, Phone: (858) 534-6812

    Philosophy of mind, language, and perception, particularly as these are informed by the cognitive sciences; color and color vision

  • Matthew Fulkerson

    Matthew Fulkerson

    mfulkerson@ucsd.edu

    Associate Professor
    Ph.D. University of Toronto, 2010
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 - Arts & Humanities - Room 0495, Phone: (858) 534-6643

    Philosophy of mind and philosophy of cognitive science; philosophical issues that arise from the investigation of human haptic touch; multisensory experience, spatial representation, the affective character of perception, and the relationship between perception and bodily awareness

  • Michael Hardimon

    Michael Hardimon

    mhardimon@ucsd.edu

    Professor
    Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1985
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 - Arts & Humanities - Room 0492, Phone: (858) 822-0473

    Critical philosophy of race, 19th century German philosophy (especially Hegel), role theory

  • Monte Johnson

    Monte Johnson

    monte@ucsd.edu

    Professor
    Ph.D. University of Toronto, 2003
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 - Arts & Humanities - Room 0451, Phone: N/A

    Early Greek philosophy; Aristotle Studies; Hellenistic philosophy; the reception of Greco-Roman philosophy in modern philosophy and science; the reconstruction of lost and fragmentary works; and comparative ancient philosophy

  • Alexander (Arc) Kocurek

    Alexander (Arc) Kocurek

    akocurek@ucsd.edu

    Associate Professor
    Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, 2018
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 – Arts & Humanities - Room 0445, Phone: TBD

    Philosophical logic, philosophy of language, metaphysics & epistemology

  • Karen Kovaka

    Karen Kovaka

    kkovaka@ucsd.edu

    Associate Professor 
    Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania, 2017
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 - Arts & Humanities - Room 0450, Phone: (858) 534-6802

    Conceptual foundations of evolutionary biology, public understanding of and participation in science, and philosophy of environmental conservation

  • Andy Lamey

    Andy Lamey

    alamey@ucsd.edu

    Teaching Professor
    Ph.D. University of Western Australia, 2011
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 - Arts & Humanities - Room 0491, Phone (858) 534-9111

    Applied ethics, normative ethics and political philosophy

  • Patricia Marechal

    Patricia Marechal

    pmarechal@ucsd.edu

    Assistant Professor
    Ph.D. Harvard University, 2018
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 - Arts & Humanities - Room 0498, Phone (858) 534-9190

    Ancient Greek philosophy, especially Plato and Aristotle's moral psychology and ethics. And Greco-Roman medicine, especially Galen

  • Kerry McKenzie

    Kerry McKenzie

    kmckenzie@ucsd.edu

    Associate Professor
    Ph.D. University of Leeds, England, 2012
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 - Arts & Humanities - Room 0499, Phone (858) 534-2566

    Metaphysics of science, especially modality, fundamentality, structuralism, naturalism, and realism

  • Dana Nelkin

    Dana Nelkin

    dnelkin@ucsd.edu

    Professor
    Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles, 1995
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 - Arts & Humanities - Room 0479, Phone: (858) 822-3658

    Moral psychology, ethics, and philosophy of action

  • Samuel Rickless

    Samuel Rickless

    srickless@ucsd.edu

    UC Distinguished Professor and Department Chair
    Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles, 1996
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 - Arts & Humanities - Room 0494, Phone: (858) 822-4910

    Ancient philosophy (particularly Plato), early modern philosophy (particularly Locke and Berkeley), ethics, and jurisprudence

  • Rachel Rudolph

    Rachel Rudolph

    rrudolph@ucsd.edu

    Associate Professor
    Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, 2019
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 – Arts & Humanities - Room 443, Phone: TBD

    Philosophy of language and mind, especially their intersections with value theory and social philosophy; conceptual engineering; philosophy of artificial intelligence

  • Gila Sher

    Gila Sher

    gsher@ucsd.edu

    Professor
    Ph.D. Columbia University, 1989
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 - Arts & Humanities - Room 0482, Phone: (858) 534-8504

    Foundational issues involving knowledge, truth, and logic

  • Christopher Shields

    Christopher Shields

    cjshields@ucsd.edu

    UC Distinguished Professor
    Henry E. Allison Endowed Chair in the History of Philosophy
    Ph.D. Cornell University, 1986
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 - Arts & Humanities – Room 0447, Phone: (858) 534-3072

    Ancient Philosophy and Metaphysics

  • Clinton Tolley

    Clinton Tolley

    ctolley@ucsd.edu

    Professor
    Ph.D. University of Chicago, 2007
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 - Arts & Humanities - Room 0496, Phone: (858) 822-2686

    History of modern European philosophy, with focuses on Kant and German Idealism, early analytic philosophy, phenomenology, philosophical psychology, critical theory and the philosophy of culture (incl aesthetics); the reception-history of European philosophy in the Americas (esp the US and Mexico); Mexican philosophy

  • Manuel Vargas

    Manuel Vargas

    mrvargas@ucsd.edu

    Professor
    Ph.D. Stanford, 2001
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 - Arts & Humanities - Room 0468, Phone: (858) 534-8135

    Moral psychology, free will, moral responsibility, Latin American and Latinx philosophy

  • Eric Watkins

    Eric Watkins

    ewatkins@ucsd.edu

    UC Distinguished Professor
    Ph.D. University of Notre Dame, 1994
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 - Arts & Humanities - Room 0486, Phone: (858) 822-0082

    Kant's theoretical philosophy and its place within modern philosophy and science; early modern philosophy (especially Leibniz), German idealism and the history of philosophy of science

  • Yuan Yuan

    Yuan Yuan

    yuy100@ucsd.edu

    Assistant Professor
    Ph.D. Yale University, 2020
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 – Arts & Humanities - Room 0470, Phone: TBD

    Ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of law, and just war theory

Faculty Affiliates

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    Valerie Soon

    vsoon@ucsd.edu

    Assistant Professor, Political Science; Faculty Affiliate, Philosophy
    Ph.D. in Philosophy, Duke University
    Office: SSB 

    Distributive justice and liberty, especially how arrangements in the social sphere, such as social norms and network structures, should influence institutional arrangements in the political sphere. Also interested in questions related to social capital, measures of segregation, spatial inequality, and reparative justice.

  • David Wiens

    David Wiens

    dwiens@ucsd.edu 

    Associate Professor, Political Science; Faculty Affiliate, Philosophy
    Ph.D. in Philosophy, University of Michigan, 2011
    Office: SSB 387

    Political philosophy, philosophy of social science, game theory and social choice theory, political economy.

Emeriti Faculty

  • Henry E. Allison

    Henry E. Allison

    hea@surewest.net

    Professor Emeritus

    Kant, Spinoza, German idealism, and eighteenth and nineteenth-century philosophy 

  • Georgios Anagnostopoulos

    Georgios Anagnostopoulos

    ganagnostopoulos@ucsd.edu

    Professor Emeritus
    Ph.D. Brandeis University, 1971

    Ancient philosophy centered around ethics, metaphysics, science, technology and human values

  • Richard Arneson

    Richard Arneson

    rarneson@ucsd.edu

    Professor Emeritus
    Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, 1975
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 - Arts & Humanities - Room 0489, Phone: (858) 534-6810

    Political and moral philosophy, with an emphasis on theories of justice; some applied ethics 

  • William Bechtel

    William Bechtel

    bill@mechanism.ucsd.edu

    Professor Emeritus
    Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1977
    Ridge Walk Academic Complex - Bldg 1 - Arts & Humanities - Room 0455, Phone: (858) 822-4461

    History and philosophy of the life sciences with a special emphasis on the strategies of mechanistic explanation employed and the invocation of active mechanisms to explain how biological systems maintain themselves far from equilibrium
  • Patricia Churchland

    Patricia Churchland

    pschurchland@ucsd.edu

    Professor Emerita
    B.Phil. Oxford University, 1969

    Interface between neuroscience and philosophy; explores the impact of neuroscientific developments on our understanding of consciousness, the self, free will, decision making, ethics, learning, and religion

  • Paul Churchland

    Paul Churchland

    pchurchland@ucsd.edu

    Professor Emeritus
    Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh, 1969

    Philosophy of science (neurosciences, physics, astronomy); philosophy of mind (psychology); epistemology (cognitive science, artificial intelligence); philosophy of language; and the history of philosophy 

  • Gerald Doppelt

    Gerald Doppelt

    gdoppelt@ucsd.edu

    Professor Emeritus
    Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University, 1969

    Philosophy of science and 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

    Rick Grush

     

    rgrush@ucsd.edu

    Professor Emeritus

    Ph.D. University of California, San Diego, 1995

    Theoretical cognitive neuroscience and the metaphysics of mind and representation; interests in linguistics and early modern; emulation theory of representation, and spatial and temporal representation

  • Edward Lee

    Edward Lee

    enlee@ucsd.edu

    Professor Emeritus
    Ph.D. Princeton University

  • Donald Rutherford

    Donald Rutherford

    drutherford@ucsd.edu

    Professor Emeritus
    Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, 1988

    Early modern philosophy and the reception of ancient philosophy in the early modern period; Kant's critical philosophy and its development, and Nietzsche