Jaime Edwards is currently an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at St. Norbert College. He completed his PhD at the University of Chicago in 2018. He specializes in social & political philosophy and 19th & 20th century continental philosophy.
What excites you about philosophy?
First, I think that philosophy provides the least dogmatic venue for seriously working through the most fundamental questions concerning human life. Of course, individual philosophers are often quite dogmatic, but there is a generally respected norm that even the most dogmatic philosopher owes a sincere justification of their views to even their most ardent critics and on the basis of reasons that even they could accept. That is quite special! Second, I think that philosophy is unique in its ability to seriously engage with other disciplines. It both has a lot to contribute and to learn from them, which means that a philosopher gets to try (and should try) to study everything!
What are you working on right now?
I am currently writing the Marx volume in the Routledge Philosophers series with Brian Leiter, which I will be busy working on for the next year. This volume will serve as a general introduction to Marx’s thought, while also taking distinctive positions on central interpretive issues that will be of interest to more advanced scholars.
I am simultaneously chopping up my dissertation, which was an articulation and defense of a Marx-ian theory of ideology, into essay-sized bits for publication. Marx claims that most moral, political, and religious thought is ideological — that is, it consists largely of beliefs that have been systematically distorted by social circumstances and which support the interests of the ruling class. Marx’s various remarks, however, though incredibly provocative, are more assertions than a worked-out theory detailing the origins and functions of such beliefs. This undertheorization of ideology has persisted since Marx’s time, and so to the question of how seriously we should take the concerns he raises. My work on ideology attempts to correct for this by articulating and defending Marx’s core insight, while filling in several central gaps in his account. First, appealing to contemporary research in social psychology, I argue that the causal origins of ideological beliefs can be found in pervasive cognitive and motivated biases that favor the status quo in systematic ways. Second, I argue that there is in fact a dominant group whose interests ideology functionally serves, and who in turn act to articulate, refine, and promote these beliefs. The two accounts are complementary — the former explains why so many system-justifying moral, political, and religious ideas come into being in the first place; the latter explains how the dominant group promotes and manages their wider circulation throughout society in a self-serving fashion. Finally, I try to show that there are both epistemological and psychological explanations for why those in non-dominant positions accept the ideological beliefs produced and disseminated by the ideologists, even though doing so frustrates their own interests. Taken together, I find that the core idea behind Marx’s incendiary remarks is largely correct — a troublesome and far-reaching result that must be taken quite seriously in moral, social and political philosophy, and which I hope can shed light on our current political crises.
What are you most proud of in your professional life?
Uh oh, this is the embarrassing part. Okay, first, I suppose that I am proud to have a professional life in philosophy at all. I grew up in a pretty tough working-class part of the country where college wasn’t really an option for most people. My Dad was smart and courageous (he had spent time in prison as a conscientious objector), but neither he nor my Mother had a high school degree, and I wasn’t really encouraged by them or by anyone else to take school very seriously. Compounding matters, though I was bookish, I was also a bit despondent and quite unruly! I dropped out of high school after my freshman year, and my plan was just to adventure around the world until I was twenty-five and then throw myself off of a bridge or something. Fortunately, I stumbled upon a few things that really grabbed me, especially philosophy, which felt like a calling. So, I’m proud that I ended up a philosophy professor given the odds. I’m also proud that I have been able to make a space for myself in philosophy working on projects that are a bit out of the mainstream but which I think really matter. Above all, though, I am really proud of the people that I have met along the way. I have been surrounded by brilliant colleagues and mentors, and I have had the opportunity to collaborate with people that have been real philosophical heroes of mine.
What’s your favorite quote?
I love this Doris Lessing quote from her 1971 preface to the Golden Notebook: “Ideally, what should be said to every child, repeatedly, throughout his or her school life is something like this: You are in the process of being indoctrinated. We have not yet evolved a system of education that is not a system of indoctrination. We are sorry, but it is the best we can do. What you are being taught here is an amalgam of current prejudice and the choices of this particular culture. The slightest look at history will show how impermanent these must be. You are being taught by people who have been able to accommodate themselves to a regime of thought laid down by their predecessors. It is a self-perpetuating system. Those of you who are more robust and individual than others will be encouraged to leave and find ways of educating yourself — educating your own judgments. Those that stay must remember, always, and all the time, that they are being molded and patterned to fit into the narrow and particular needs of this particular society.”
What is your favorite film of all time? (Or top 3)
It is too hard to narrow down, but three films extremely high on the list are Chaplin’s Modern Times, Fassbinder’s Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, and Kiarostami’s Close Up. Three of my favorite documentary films are Davis’s Hearts and Minds, Kopple’s Harlan County USA, and everything Frederick Wiseman has made considered as one very, very, very long film. (Seriously, Wiseman is an absolute treasure!)
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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.
