Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Toronto | download .pdf

Dissertation

Title: The World in Mind
Committee: Jaegwon Kim (chair), Ernest Sosa, Christopher Hill

Abstract: Belief has a many/one, or part/whole, structure that is poorly understood. It is expressed largely as metaphor: Beliefs are said to be bound together, or to form a web, or to fit together to form a total view, or to construct, form, or build up a picture of the world. My dissertation focuses on clarifying this conception of belief and on understanding in what sense, if any, a subject's beliefs are both many and one. I develop and refine the problematic, examine several possible accounts of the unity of belief, and explore an original theory that takes unity to consist in a subject's taking there to be differences between the states of affairs her beliefs represent.

Brown University
Ph.D candidate, Department of Philosophy, defending Spring 2008

University of Toronto
Visiting Student, Department of Philosophy, 2005-2006 academic year

Queen’s University, Canada
BA (Honours) First Class Degree, 1999

Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Toronto at Scarborough
July 2007 - June 2009 (two year appointment)

Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario
August 2006 - June 2007

The Cogito and the Metaphysics of Mind
Philosophical Studies, 130:2 August 2006, pp. 247-271.

One Race, Many Roads: Human and Cultural Rights
in Proceedings of the Second International Conference on the Theoretical Foundations of Human Rights, held at Mofid University, Qom, Iran, 2003

The Measure of Knowledge
Young Philosophers Lecture Series and Podcast, Inaugural Lecture April 2008 (chosen by blind review)
www.youngphilosophers.org
hosted by the State University of New York at Fredonia

The Measure of Knowledge
Society for Exact Philosophy, May 2008
Trent University, March 2008

The World in Mind
University of Warwick, March 2007
Lancaster University, March 2007
Arché Research Centre, University of St. Andrews, April 2006

The Ontology of Experience
University of Manitoba, January 2007
Centre for Metaphysics and Mind, Leeds University, May 2006

Experience in Time
Queen's University at Kingston, October 2006

Why Brain Scientists Should Give Philosophers Research Money
Brain Sciences Program, Brown University, Oct. 2003

The Measure of Knowledge
The Value of Knowledge Conference, Amsterdam, August 2007

Commentator for the APA Colloquium "Monism and Intrinsicality"
APA Central, April 2007. Speaker Kelly Trogdon.

Commentator for the APA Symposium "Emergence: A Response to Kim"
APA Pacific, March 2006. Speaker Brannon McDaniel.

Two Ways to Beg the Question
University of Toronto Political Theory Workshop, May 2005

Ignorance and Inquiry
University of Toronto Graduate Student Conference, May 2004

The Goal of Inquiry
NYU-Columbia Graduate Student Conference, March 2004

Noetic Skepticism
Contemporary Theories of Knowledge Conference, Amsterdam, Feb. 2004

Another Kind of Skepticism
Skepticism in Contemporary Epistemology Conference University of Sherbrooke, Oct. 2003

One Race, Many Roads: The Metaphysics of Human Rights
Theoretical Foundations of Human Rights, Qom, Iran, May 2003

Securing Democracy
Global Freedoms Conference, Boston College, March 2003

Electing to Vote
Princeton-Rutgers Graduate Student Conference, April 2001

Faculty M & E papers-in-progress group, University of Toronto (ongoing)

Ontario Roundtable in the Philosophy of Language (ongoing)

PMS WIPS: Philosophy of Mind (and/or) Science Works In Progress Sessions (http://www.petemandik.com/blog/pms-wips/

Mental Causation workshop, University of Saarland, August 2001

Mind and Action III, Lisbon, June 2001

Instructor

University of Toronto:
Theories of Mind
Seminar in Epistemology (goal of inquiry)
Philosophy of Science
Intro to Early Modern Philosophy
Intro to Ancient Philosophy
Metaphysics (as visiting student in fall 2005)

Trent University:
Logical Atomism and Ontological Reduction
Philosophy of Art (twice)
Philosophy of Language
Philosophy of Religion

Brown University:
Mind and Matter (philosophy of mind)
Critical Reasoning
The Meaning of Life (summer program, 3x)

Teaching Assistant

Contemporary Moral Issues, 19th Century Philosophy, Themes from Existentialism, Modern Science and Human Values, Early Modern Philosophy, Existentialism, Contemporary Moral Issues, Introduction to Philosophy

Other Relevant Teaching

Brown University, Spring 2005: Lectured regularly on philosophical issues in physics in a physics course taught by Leon Cooper.

Writing Coach: Brown University Writing Center, 2001-2004

Extracurricular

Faculty Advisor to the Undergraduate Philosophy Club, University of Toronto Scarborough
- initiated and organized an international undergrad conference for March 2008

Referee for Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Synthese

Session Chair on Intrinsic Properties, APA Central 2008

Organizing Committee, 2006 Canadian Society for Women in Philosophy Conference, Trent University

Editorial Assistant, 2002 Noûs and Philosophy and Phenomenological Research

Coordinator, 2002 Brown Graduate Philosophy Conference

Jaegwon Kim
William Herbert Perry Faunce Professor of Philosophy, Brown University

Ernest Sosa
Professor of Philosophy, Rutgers University

Christopher Hill
Professor of Philosophy, Brown University

Teaching References:

Bernard Reginster
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Brown University

Kenneth Winkler
Class of 1919 Professor of Philosophy, Wellesley College

Leon Cooper
Thomas J. Watson, Sr. Professor of Science at Brown University and 1972 Physics Nobel Laureate