Robert Barnard is Professor of Philosophy at The University of Mississippi. He joined the faculty at the University of Mississippi about twenty years ago after finishing his Ph.D. at the University of Memphis. He works broadly in metaphysics and epistemology and in the history of analytic philosophy. He is the co-editor of the Bloomsbury Companion to Metaphysics.
What excites you about philosophy?
Questions that resist easy answers have always been what draws me to philosophy. It is a way of exploring and testing alternatives. I like to work out the shape of the question through conversation and chase possible answers as far as they’ll go. If an especially odd or curious thought experiment shows up, so much the better! I think this is an especially exciting time in philosophy; so many of the old questions are being replaced and reframed.
What common philosophical dilemma do you think has a clear answer?
I think of myself as a metaphysician, but debates over free will fail to capture my interest. One of the first things I ever read on the subject was William James’s Dilemma of Determinism. I simply buy that if determinism is true, then things will seem the way they do and if there is free will, then things will seem they way they do. Is that a clear answer? Maybe not, but it seems to be the kind of question elimination that someone like Wittgenstein would hope for.
What are you working on right now?
For the past several years I have been working on truth. I have a series of papers with Joe Ulatowski that are empirically informed and a couple of papers with Terry Horgan that are traditional armchair takes on the same sorts of issues. I am trying to figure out how to tune my theoretical views to better align with some of the empirical results. This is harder than it might seem, but I think its worth trying to do.
What would your childhood self say if someone told you that you would grow up to be a philosopher?
I’m not sure that childhood Barnard would be all that surprised. At various times I wanted to be an architect and an archeologist; I started college studying international relations. But, I first read Plato’s allegory of the cave in 3rd or 4th grade as part of a junior great books program. We were required to “journal” about what we read (and I resented it). However, I clearly recall what I tersely wrote after reading the cave: ‘I want to be a philosopher’. I’ve done some philosophy for kids work recently, maybe one of those kids will join the fun in a few years.
What 3 items would you take to a desert island other than food and water?
A good knife/multi-tool, a couple hundred feet of paracord, and a heavy bottomed medium sized metal bowl.
What books are currently on your ‘to read’ list?
Kris McDaniel’s The Fragmentation of Being is on top; I’m using it in the fall. After that I have been looking to find time to read Kate Manne’s Down Girl, as well as Thomas Piketty’s Capital and Shoshanna Zuboff’s Age of Surveillance Capitalism. I just taught a Philosophy of Technology course and a lot of the worries my students had were about the economic impact of technology. It has me thinking.
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.
