Jeremiah Tillman is a PhD candidate at the University of Maryland, College Park. Prior to Maryland, he studied philosophy at Bard College and The New School for Social Research. His primary research interests are in ethics and moral psychology broadly construed. His dissertation project concerns the normative and temporal significance of the emotions; namely of love, grief, and regret.
What excites you about philosophy?
On the one hand, philosophy can unearth new, surprising truths about ourselves and our world, which demand that our intuitions be revised and that we reorient how we live our lives. Yet, on the other hand, philosophy is a kind of sense-making, clarifying project that aims to keep everything in its place. This internal tension between the revisionary and the ordinary most excites me about philosophy, but not because it is a tension to resolve or to be explained away, as we might—as philosophers—be tempted to do. Once at a party, someone asked me if studying philosophy for years has made me cynical and pessimistic. It has made me feel the exact opposite: philosophy exhibits the richness and depth of the human life and the world. Its internal tension between the revisionary and the ordinary helps to do so and to ward off dullness.
What topic do you think is under explored in philosophy?
I think that the ethics and politics of being a low-income and/or first-generation college student is an underexplored topic in philosophy. While the social sciences have recently done significant work to bring this thorny topic into view, philosophers haven’t paid too much attention to it. Jennifer Morton’s recent book Moving Up without Losing Your Way: The Ethical Costs of Upward Mobility, is, as far as I know, the exception. The topic doesn’t merely concern the complaints of people who are on the cusp of joining the educated elites in the richest nations in the world. Rather, it brings into view—often starkly—the ways in which class and race bear on the aims of higher education, and whether justice is achieved in the pursuit of those aims. This is why moral and political philosophers should care more than they have about it.
Name a trait, skill, or characteristic that you have that others may not know about.
One thing about me that others may not know is that, from my teens until my late twenties, I played bass guitar and ‘sang’ in a noisy DIY rock band with my two best friends. We toured basements, art spaces, and colleges along the East Coast and self-released tapes, records, and CDs of our music. Coming up with and writing philosophical ideas often reminds me of coming up with and composing new riffs and songs. Writing philosophy daily is like practicing an instrument daily: slow-going and full of ideas that go nowhere. But when you do hit upon a good idea, in philosophy and in music, you can develop and play around with it. In music, I’d play the riff in different keys, bend some of the notes, or play it with a different rhythm. In philosophy, I try to rearticulate the idea in new words, try to illustrate it with new examples, or to support it with new arguments. And in each case, if the idea is a good and interesting one, it sounds like it.
Which books have changed your life? In what ways?
One book that has changed my life in a very concrete way is William Gaddis’ novel The Recognitions. I had first ‘read’ it when I was in high school, but, as a mere high schooler, I could barely follow its obscure references to Flemish and Dutch painting, Mithraism, and bohemian New York culture. Still, I went around telling everyone that it was my favorite novel. One person to whom I, now a freshman in college, said this was J. Hayes Hurley, the instructor of my Introduction to Philosophy course at the now defunct University of Connecticut, Greater Hartford campus. It was a revelation to learn that Hurley had not only read the 956-page novel, but had read it at least 25 times, and that he himself was a philosopher and a novelist. That discovery began an ongoing, and now decade-long, friendship for which I owe Hurley very much. Since my parents never attended college and had no idea what philosophy was, Hurley became my mentor, helping me to transfer to Bard College, where I earned a BA in philosophy. Along the way, he informed me of the existence of graduate school, its norms and expectations, and how I might, with luck, be able to turn my passion for philosophy into a career someday. Through countless summer reading groups and many hours of the deepest conversation, Hurley showed me that the life of the mind was possible for me. I would certainly not be where I am today were it not for his enthusiasm and support, and, in a way, William Gaddis’ The Recognitions.
Who is your favorite philosopher and why?
While I don’t know if I have a single favorite philosopher, I do have a favorite kind of philosopher. My favorite philosophers are usually those who deeply appreciate and are informed by the history of philosophy, those with wide-ranging rather than narrow interests, those whose research is interdisciplinary and draws on intellectual realms ostensibly alien to philosophy in order to provide philosophical insight, and lastly, those who embrace the quirky and weird in their theorizing.
What’s your favorite quote?
A favorite quote of mine is Henry James’ maxim in his essay “The Art of Fiction”: “Try to be one of those people on whom nothing is lost!” Although James’ advice is aimed at aspiring literary artists, I have always understood it as in part a philosophical call to cultivate a sensitivity to and appreciation for the significance of the experiential complexity, nuance, and messiness of our emotional and ethical lives.
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.
