Troy Seagraves is a Ph.D. student in philosophy at Purdue University, entering his fifth year in the program. His research is in metaethics and normative ethics, focusing on how agent-relative facts contribute to a permissivism for actions.
What are you most proud of in your professional life?
I’ve a heart for teaching and helping students in philosophy classes. Research is great, but the proudest moments of my professional life are perhaps working with struggling students. I’m sure there are similar moments for all teachers, but one sticks out in my memory. I once received an email informing me that I was specifically identified as an instructor who made a difference in the life of a struggling student. About one year prior, I had a student who was performing quite well in class but suddenly disappeared. Apparently, they were going through a slew of tragic life events and were deeply depressed, struggling to find the motivation to continue in class. This was happening in more than my class, as the student was on academic probation. I reached out to them and communicated that I cared about them and their academic career. I expressed that I was worried about them and wanted to do what I could to help (at least, as far as my class was concerned). We were able to work out what accommodations would make their experience in my philosophy class worthwhile, allowing us to proceed amongst their hardships.
I’m no counselor, but I find that honestly telling students that we care about them makes a significant difference in their lives. Seeing students go from despair and academic probation to having a more hopeful disposition reminds me that teachers can make a positive change in the lives of others. About one year after having this student, I received the aforementioned email from the office of the provost which had been surveying students who were on academic probation, trying to understand how to support them. This gives me hope that other students have similarly found my classes helpful.
What are you working on right now?
Right now, I am working on my dissertation, wherein I argue that agent-relative facts like one’s projects, attitudes, commitments, etc. are agent-relative intensifiers and attenuators of reasons. This invites some subjectivity to the weights of reasons even if we assume a robust moral realism. The reasons still exist independently of a given agent’s psychology or conventions, but the weights of these reasons can vary between agents. This insight allows us to explore a new dimension of permissivism in ethics since agents can work with the same moral reasons but differ in their agent-relative intensifiers or attenuators. Similarly, this has implications for fundamental moral disagreement, perhaps making it less worrisome for the realist. Lastly, this insight even allows us to consider God’s ethics as one where God, via adopting different agent-relative intensifiers and attenuators, has a say in what he is morally required to do.
What do you like to do outside work?
Outside of work, I am an amateur gardener. I have fallen in love with tending my own little patch of earth and caring for plant life, helping them flourish. Currently, my garden is limited to just a vegetable garden, but I have quite ambitious plans for the future. I dream of a day when I can live almost entirely from home-grown produce and have enough (of the right kind of) biodiversity to make the garden carbon negative.
If you could have a one-hour conversation with any philosopher or historical figure from any time, who would you pick and what topic would you choose?
I would love to talk to Aquinas! To be sure, a lot of different philosophers came to mind, but the deciding factor was what we would talk about for one hour. Supposedly, about three months before he died, Aquinas had a vision that made his writings ‘like straw’ in comparison, leading him to stop writing. If he did have such a vision, I would love to sit down with Aquinas for one hour to talk about what he saw. For him to leave his Summa incomplete, it must have been incredible.
What advice do you wish someone had given you?
Fall in love with the process of writing philosophy. It can be quite devastating to see something we have worked on for a long time be torn apart by reviewers. We have all had those comments that shock us and are difficult to read. While many give the advice of not running from the criticism, I find this advice largely unhelpful. Indeed, implying that someone who struggles to read such reviews is a coward or prideful actually contributes to the problem (and their imposter syndrome). Alternatively, ‘fall in love with the process even when the final product is destroyed’ is better advice.
The artist Barron Storey emphasized this way of thinking. He would have his students present their finished work to the art class and the respective student would proceed to physically destroy the work. This can be pretty harsh (since he required them to do so), but Storey wanted his students to not obsess about final products. Instead, the students were to fall in love with the process of making art. I think something similar can be said for philosophy. Even when the final product is criticized, fails to convince others even when published, or even fails to be published at all, there is great value in the process of writing philosophy.
What’s your top tip or advice for APA members reading this?
I think it is really important to not only be inspired to do philosophy but also to not let philosophy be the only thing that inspires you. I’d advise others to draw some inspiration from other kinds of creators. Philosophers are a kind of creator similar to artists, musicians, fiction authors, etc. I, myself, have found it quite helpful to look to visual artists for inspiration. Their discussions of perseverance, creativity, failure, etc. have actually been more helpful than what I’ve heard from most philosophers. This practice of looking to other crafts is employed by other creators as well. I’ve even heard of visual artists who study cookbooks in order to be inspired by the care cookbook authors put into recipes. The options abound, but the point is to find inspiration from outside philosophy that helps one do philosophy.
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.
