Paskalina Bourbon is a doctoral student in philosophy at the University of Chicago. Her central areas of interest include epistemology, ethics, the theory of explanation and aesthetics. Her current work focuses on the structure and function of analogies in inference and explanation.
Who is your favorite philosopher and why?
I love Hume. Even by his admirers, however, Hume can be easily caricatured. I do find the caricatured Hume useful, but I love more the Hume whose vision of the world defies caricature. But I will try a little caricature anyways. Hume’s fundamental preoccupation across all domains of his philosophical work is with versions of this question: How are we bound up with the world and how is the world bound up with us? Hume’s description of this condition is one in which habit and custom, ability and practice, are central: our perceptions, thoughts and sentiments of the world are mixed with the very constitution and manifestation of that world. He is in this way a thoroughly modern philosopher.
What is your favorite book of all time? Why?
John Le Carre’s A Perfect Spy is a very philosophical novel. Like many of Le Carre’s spy novels, A Perfect Spy is about the breakdown of the organizing principle of a particular spy’s life. As we read the novel, we are spying on the perfect spy, Alexander Pym, as Pym spies on himself. And as we do this, we come to realize we are also spying on ourselves, though unlike Pym, we might not have the courage to admit it.
What’s your favorite sound?
The Bach Chaconne, played by Itzhak Perlman. [What we think of as ‘music’ just is sound listened to in a distinctive ‘musical’ way. Or so I have argued.]
What excites you about philosophy?
I had a violin teacher once who described a piece as fit for only ‘finished players.’ Philosophers are not like musicians: there are no ‘finished players.’ Violinists at some point cease to be beginners. But the very notion of a ‘beginning’, even in a particular domain, is at issue for the philosopher. One is always on the verge of screeching. In philosophy one can, and must, constantly begin again.
What’s your personal philosophy?
I just said that philosophers are not like musicians. In another sense, however, philosophers are very much like musicians. Music is a way of life for the musician, an ethic. In committing oneself to philosophy, in being a philosopher, one is committing oneself to a certain kind of life. I also think anyone can so commit oneself, not just professors and students of philosophy.
What kind of life is this? Philosophy is not a means for answering this question as much as for understanding it. But this is a kind of answer—to do philosophy is to be an explorer and cartographer, a creator and interpreter, of questions. At least that is what it is for me.
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.
