Simona Aimar is an Assistant Professor at University College London. She works on ancient and contemporary philosophy, mainly focussing on metaphysics and semantics. Sometimes she branches into other areas too, and may end up dwelling in some of those more in the future.
What is your favorite thing that you’ve written?
I am pretty sure this is the answer I am supposed to give you… but I’ll tell you about the thing which was the most fun to write: this dialogue between Socrates and Trump, just after Trump’s election.
What are you working on right now?
Way too many things! The biggest project is about Aristotle’s metaphysics of modality – a book project. Paper projects includes a number of issues revolving around Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics, and some questions about his notion of power (dunamis). I also have a joint project on craft (techne) with my friend Carlotta Pavese. When I am not doing ancient philosophy, I am very interested in contemporary metaphysics and semantics. Right now, besides the gradability of modality, I am looking into causation and the semantics of causal claims.
What topic do you think is under explored in philosophy?
All the things listed in my previous question? Just kidding!
In some respects, the notion of social class needs to be discussed much more (my colleague Han van Wietmarschen is pursuing a very interesting project on social hierarchy that addresses some of these gaps). Criminal justice also strikes me as something that would benefit from further explorations. Also, one thing we know still too little about is the extent to which Indian philosophy influenced Ancient Greek philosophy.
What cause or charity do you care about most?
Perhaps I can tell you which one I am doing the most for at the moment. Together with a group of friends, I co-founded Living Voices (Dalla Viva Voce), an NGO devoted to help ex-prisoners to successfully transition back into society. We are planning to develop projects aimed at proposing alternative measures to prisons too. In addition to this NGO thing, in summers I teach in prison. As long as we are going to keep prisons, we might at least make them more human places to be.
What would you like your last meal to be?
I wouldn’t mind being at the dinner with Spiderman, Batman, Wonderwoman, and Supergirl. That dinner we already talked about above. They’ll advise me on tricks to make sure the meal isn’t my last one after all:
Spiderman: “Eat in the air, not on the ground!”
Batman: “You’ve got a batcave to hide into, right?”
Wonderwoman: “Just make sure you have a sword in your dress…”
Supergirl: “Don’t listen to any of them! We both know you’ll just need my cape tricks to stretch time and minds.”
And…I’ll with go Supergirl’s.
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.
