What’s your most treasured memory?
That would probably be my earliest memory, which is of me canoeing with my parents — no doubt on some lake in Northern Manitoba or Alberta. It was a big metal lake canoe, which my parents still owned until a few years ago. The scene would’ve looked something like this:
What I remember is sitting in the middle of the canoe, with my parents front and back, and then reaching out with one hand to touch the side — and being amazed at how cold it was. I feel like this memory forms a big part of my identity. I’ve now lived in the States for almost twenty years, but I still think of myself as a northern, outdoorsy type. And I get back to that as often as I can.
I also remember my earliest philosophical puzzle. I was sitting in the backseat on one of our long summer road trips, and I kept asking myself: “If all ducks are birds, then why aren’t all birds ducks?” I could find no solution to this puzzle, and, when my parents did not explain the matter to my satisfaction, I was likely condemned to a life of philosophy.
What’s your favorite thing that you’ve written?
My area of specialization is Kant, and my micro-specialization is the debate over whether Kant offers a conceptualist account of perception. (I’m on the pro-conceptualism side.) Much of my published work has been in this area, and I’m happy with my contributions to this topic. But the work that brought me the most joy to write was an article on a topic way outside my comfort zone: Plato’s account of the soul. This work, Departed Souls? Tripartition at the Close of Plato’s Republic, looks at Plato’s surprising remarks on the soul at the end of the dialogue. There, when discussing the soul after death, he seems to abandon the tripartite model that is essential to his earlier account of justice. I offer a new solution to this very old puzzle, but you’ll have to read the paper to find out what it is.
The Plato paper was spurred by a conversation with a student when I was teaching ancient philosophy. It’s very unlikely I would’ve pursued the project if I was in a regular research-focused position. I’m an Instructor here at Rowan University, and tenure for the position is based on teaching. Removing the pressure to publish steadily and to maintain a focused research program has been liberating for me. It’s allowed me to pursue potentially Quixotic projects like the Plato paper, and it’s given me the chance to let ideas percolate before I commit them to print.
In another life, I might have specialized in ancient philosophy. I’ve always loved the classics—and admired the level of scholarship in this field. I toyed with the idea early in grad school, but the language demands were daunting. And then I found myself pulled more deeply into Kant’s orbit. But I’ve continued to follow the field, and I’m lucky to get to teach a survey in ancient philosophy regularly. It was pretty thrilling to be able to make a tiny contribution to the immense scholarship on Plato. And I like to think that I came up with a pretty clever title.
What have you been reading recently?
You mean other than email? When I find time for recreational reading, it’s mostly science fiction these days. As a kid, I devoured sci-fi and fantasy. (I read so much slower now — it astonishes me how much I got through in those early years.) I read everything Tolkien had published multiple times before I was a teenager. My parents had a beautiful hardcover edition of Lord of the Rings, with a big foldout map of Middle-Earth that I would stare at for hours. Later, I avoided genre fiction, sticking to more high-brow stuff. When I found out that Wittgenstein loved reading mysteries, I found this inexplicable — it seemed beneath his genius. Now the choice makes more sense to me. (This is clearly where my family resemblance to Wittgenstein ends.) In the last five years or so, I’ve re-embraced science fiction. Some of my favorites are: Walter Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz; Roadside Picnicby the Strugratsky brothers; and Stanislaw Lem’s His Master’s Voice. I do lean toward the more conceptual stuff — I guess I like being able to engage with big ideas in an entertaining, pressure-free way.
What topic do you think is under explored in philosophy?
I think most of us realize that the philosophy curriculum needs to be decolonized in the way that’s already happened in most of the Humanities. We need to teach more non-western philosophers — and engage more with Indian, Chinese and other philosophical traditions in our own research. For someone like myself, trained on the Greeks and Germans, this realization is a little bit terrifying. It feels a bit like being asked to ride a bike for the first time in one’s mid-forties. But it’s important we do this. And in a few decades, people will look back and wonder why we were so resistant to this change.
This section of the APA Blog is designed to get to know our fellow philosophers a little better. We’re including profiles of APA members that spotlight what captures their interest not only inside the office, but also outside of it. We’d love for you to be a part of it, so please contact us via the interview nomination form here to nominate yourself or a friend.
Dr. Sabrina D. MisirHiralall is an editor at the Blog of the APA who currently teaches philosophy, religion, and education courses solely online for Montclair State University, Three Rivers Community College, and St. John’s University.
