Paulina Ezquerra is an MA Student at the University of Houston. She likes to think about ethics generally, with a particular interest in questions of agency, moral psychology, and, recently, Latin American Philosophy.
What excites you about philosophy?
How personal it is. Philosophy, as I conceive of it, is intimately connected to an inner longing that pushes us to ask questions that point us upward, from experience up to some ultimate point where we may assess our lives and the things that make them worthwhile. Philosophy is exciting because it formalizes this very personal process. It offers up a space for community building around pressing and relevant questions.
What are you working on right now?
Apart from my coursework and TA responsibilities, I am currently preparing to present a paper on transformative experiences at the 25th Annual Philosophy Student Symposium at Texas State University. I engage with L.A. Paul’s Transformative Experiences and Ruth Chang’s account of hard choices. I argue that the real problem L.A. Paul’s account of transformative experiences alerts us to is not that we can’t know prior to an experience what it will be like, but that the values of the experiences within our reach are on par. I thus assimilate Paul and Chang’s accounts and introduce the term transformative parity. Transformative parity holds when an agent faces a choice that possesses the structural features of Chang’s hard choices but involves the epistemic and personally transformative elements Paul identifies in her cases of interest.
What do you like to do outside work?
I recently took up pottery. Every Saturday, I go to a small, local pottery studio and practice wheel throwing for several hours. It’s a neat experience, because of what it requires. When you make pottery, every movement your body makes becomes part of the way that clay forms under your hands. So, you must focus not only on the clay but on the way your body interacts with it. The slightest pressure will move it. It requires gentleness. You must be grounded in your work, and make sure that you don’t let your mind get clouded with thoughts. As soon as you start thinking and stop feeling you risk losing your piece.
What are you reading right now? Would you recommend it?
My husband is a PhD student at the University of Cambridge, so to spend quality time together we have a long-distance book club. We’re currently reading Testosterone Rex: Myths of Sex, Science, and Society by Cordelia Fine. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for an introduction – as we were – to questions of sexuality and evolutionary psychology.
What technology do you wish the human race could discover/create/invent right now?
Teleportation! That way I could visit my husband all the time without spending thousands of dollars on flights and contributing to carbon emissions.
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.
