J. Spencer Atkins is a graduate student at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His research interests include applied ethics (especially environmental ethics), metaphysics, and the philosophy of religion.
What excites you about philosophy?
Teaching excites me the most about philosophy! Students in intro to philosophy classes get to think about things that they’ve (likely) assumed their whole lives — God’s goodness, the nature of morality, the existence of other minds — things they may never contemplate deeply again. These topics, I think, make students engage more deeply with the classes in their majors and make them more well-rounded people. Overall, it’s fostering philosophical development and reflection that gets me out of bed in the morning!
What is your favorite thing that you’ve written?
My favorite essay (so far) has been Have You Benefitted From Carbon Emissions? You Might Be a “Morally Objectionable Free Rider.” Written as a term paper in John Nolt’s Climate Ethics course, it deals mostly with compensation for the harmful effects of climate change. I argue that the beneficiary pays principle is superior to the polluter pays principle and ability to pay principle, two popular principles of compensation. It is forthcoming in Environmental Ethics.
What are you working on right now?
I’m presently at work on a response to Karen Bennett’s Making Things Up. She articulates a resemblance class of metaphysical dependence relations — building relations. Bennett argues that independence (the view that the fundamental is unbuilt) is superior to completeness (the view that the fundamental builds everything else) as the definition of absolute fundamentality.
My thesis is that the absolutely fundamental is both independence and completeness. This hybrid view avoids what I take to be an odd implication of the independence only view — an unbuilt object that does no building is fundamental.
What do you like to do outside work?
Work outside! My spouse, Rachael, and I live in a log cabin — 150-ish years old — in the hills of East Tennessee with about 20 other cabin dwellers. Together, in preparation for the winter, we’ll get together to cut and chop wood. It’s oddly relaxing, while simultaneously exhausting. Other than cabin labor, I enjoy reading, spending time with my fellow graduate students, and casually chatting about philosophy with strangers in pubs.
What would your childhood self say if someone told you that you would grow up to be a philosopher?
I’d like to think that, upon hearing the grave news, my kid self would silently look down at his little corduroy pants and sweater vest, and then at his books, sigh, and say in a moment of reflection, “I guess that makes sense.” But, in reality, I probably wouldn’t know what a philosopher is.
What time of day are you most productive and creative?
I’m usually in my most productive state early in the morning. I’m (somewhat successfully) learning to write when I first wake up in the mornings, as the coffee and silence are in abundance. By two o’clock in the afternoon, I’m usually ready for a nap.
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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.
