Jacob J. Andrews is a PhD candidate at Loyola University Chicago. He received his MA from Marquette and MPhil from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. His dissertation is on early 13thcentury epistemology. He grew up in Chicago and currently lives in Wheaton, Illinois with his wife and son.
What are you working on right now?
My dissertation is on the religious epistemology of William of Auxerre (d. 1231) and Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274). The question at hand: Is it possible to believe in a proposition by religious faith when you know a proof for that proposition? Suppose someone believes that God exists because of their faith, but then learns a proof of God’s existence. At that point, do they still believe that God exists by faith? Aquinas says that they don’t. William says that they do: a mark of true faith is that one believes in Christian dogma by faith even if he or she is able to prove them. This is an unusual position, and much of the dissertation is taken up with explaining how and why William holds such an odd view.
When not working on my dissertation, I’ve been focusing on two upcoming papers, one correcting a misunderstanding of Aquinas’ reception of Avicenna’s metaphysics, and another on ritual and virtue ethics in the Confucian thinker Xunzi and medieval Latin liturgical commentary. Abstracts of both are available here.
What topic do you think is under explored in philosophy?
The topic explored in my dissertation: the role of different grounds for belief in the development of intellectual virtue and in human fulfillment.
The discussion of faith and argument in the 13thand 14thcentury resonates with contemporary responsibilist virtue epistemology. In the medieval view, not just the propositional content of your belief (“God exists,” “God is triune”), but your grounds for belief (faith, demonstration, testimony…), is relevant to your proper development as an intellectual being. Both Aquinas and William root their view of faith and philosophy in their conception of human beings as rational animals whose fulfillment is found in the perfection of their intellectual powers.
Here’s a non-religious example. Posthumus loves and trusts his fiancée Imogen. His friend, Iachimo, wagers that he can seduce Imogen. Posthumus accepts the wager. Iachimo attempts and fails to seduce Imogen. At this point Posthumus has two possible grounds, for believing that Imogen is faithful to him: his relationship with her, and the fact that she rebuffed Iachimo’s advances. Even if he is aware of both grounds, it is an open question which of the two actually grounds his belief. Either one can justify or warrant his belief just as well as the other, but that doesn’t mean the grounding question is epistemically neutral. It seems obvious to me that someone who tends to believe in their spouse’s faithfulness on the basis of trial and experiment does not exhibit intellectual virtue and will be inhibited in developing it in the future. The problem is not just ethical, but epistemic: the grounds are inappropriate to the belief, even if they justify/warrant/etc. the belief.
What’s your personal philosophy?
The purpose of all human effort is to prove its own futility without losing heart. We must learn everything we can learn in order to sketch the outlines of what we can never know. We must love with all our heart in order to uncover the wickedness of our hearts. Through action we learn non-action and become open to outside help. The second to last step is to see that outside help works in, not in spite of, our futility. I don’t know what the last step is.
What do you like to do outside work?
I play with my 14-month-old son’s toys (sometimes he joins in). I make puns and read books and the news with my wife. I practice Irish traditional music on a hundred year old flute, make wooden toys, bake bread, and write notes for a series of fantasy novels that I tell myself I’ll write someday.
Which books have changed your life? In what ways?
Hume’s Enquiry and Treatise turned me into a philosopher. Whether or not Hume’s answers are right- indeed, whether or not his formulations of the questions are right, he asks the questions with an urgency that forces you to consider them. When I started in philosophy, much of what Hume said just seemed obvious to me, which made me especially suspicious of it.
In Avicenna’s Metaphysics of the Healing, I encountered for the first time a metaphysical system that seemed manifestly true (but see that last sentence on Hume!) and which could be lived out. Aquinas’ Summa Contra Gentiles refines and expands that metaphysics and its practice (again, see above).
Bonaventure’s Itinerarium and William of Auxerre’s Summa Aurea taught me how to integrate philosophy with spirituality, and Confucius’ Analects and the writings of Xunzi taught me how to integrate philosophy with the rhythms of everyday life.
J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings prepared me, as a child, for philosophy and for adult life. It stocked my memory with models of virtue and vice. It inspired me to seek the most important things. It set my imagination on fire, which is the first step toward philosophy. Tolkien said in On Fairy Stories that myth begins with the invention of the adjective, and so, I think, does philosophy: “When we can take green from grass, blue from heaven, and red from blood, we have already an enchanter’s power”.
The Bible and the liturgy of the Church provide the pattern against which philosophy is tested: Does it fit with the structure of human life? Does it lead to love of one’s neighbor?
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.
