Jared Jones is a doctoral student at Columbia University. His research interests include 19th-and 20th-Century German philosophy and Spinoza, his primary focus being on Hegel. He received a BA in Philosophy and Mathematics from the College of William and Mary in 2022.
What excites you about philosophy?
What excites me most about philosophy is what originally drew me to it. It’s a discipline that speaks to a fundamental need, I think, that drives a lot of research and human reflection generally. “What’s the world like, and what’s my place in it?” may be a way to put this need as a question. Part of the philosophical approach is a kind of stepping back: philosophy is at its best when we don’t just make claims to knowledge, arguments about what exists, and so forth but also step back and question the categories we are employing in so doing. To take just two examples, we not only argue for specific claims to knowledge but also give an account of what this knowledge or knowledge in general really involves, and we not only question whether such-and-such exists but also what it would even mean to be that thing (e.g., a whole, a substance, etc.). This critical step is necessary to adequately address the most basic questions about what we know, what is real, what’s right, and so on, and for that reason, I think philosophy is positioned very well to address this need which risks being eclipsed by increasing specialization. Related to this point, I also think philosophy has a unique ability to speak across multiple domains and disciplinary boundaries. In virtue of its tendency to “step back,” philosophy asks questions whose significance often cuts across multiple domains and which opens up avenues to intersect and integrate more localized knowledge. This fact, in my view, is also important. Questions are only addressed in isolation by a work of abstraction; to take only one example, to make a knowledge-claim about “reality” is to make a claim to “knowledge,” and this same claim may carry implications for how we should conceive findings in natural science, psychology, sociology, or the like.
Who is your favorite philosopher and why?
My interests grow out of my experience in engaging with these kinds of integrative projects, undertaken in German Idealism, critical theory, and phenomenology, as well as by Spinoza. Without a doubt though, my favorite philosopher is Hegel. Hegel’s system is extremely ambitious, addressing effectively all major philosophical questions in an integrated, cohesive way. But what draws me to him in particular is the depth of his thought and his method. Reading Hegel in any area—from metaphysics to aesthetics—is always a challenging and rewarding task, and no matter how long I keep reading him, I feel I’m always discovering new ideas and new lines of thought in his work. His dialectical method is attractive to me for more systematic reasons. Hegel always begins by taking some minimal version of whatever subject matter is up for consideration and showing that its own internal structure and requirements lead to new contents other than what we began with. The theme of “presuppositionlessness” in the Science of Logic, I continue to think, is important given this method, as together they promise to found a system that avoids some of the pitfalls of traditional foundationalism and anti-foundationalism.
What are you working on right now?
I haven’t started writing my dissertation yet, so I just have a couple of smaller projects I’ve been working on. Right now, there are three that are on the top of my mind. I’m working on a paper about Hegel’s transition from the Logic to the Realphilosophie: the central question there is what the relationship between logical categories and empirically existing things is. I am also working on a paper on Hegel’s aesthetics; I’m trying to explain why Hegel thinks of art as, in part, a form of knowledge and what activities are involved in art using his account of the cognitive faculties. (I’ll be presenting that one at the upcoming APA Eastern Division Meeting!) I’ve also been working on something about Freud and Hegel’s concepts of drive, arguing for their broad compatibility and that Hegel’s model of drives could save Freud’s late drive theory from a couple of conceptual difficulties.
What do you like to do outside work?
A few things. I love to walk my dog. When I’m in New York, I walk him in Central Park every day for over an hour; it’s always refreshing to get the blood flowing and take one’s mind off things. He likes to bask in the sun while we’re supposed to be walking when it’s warm outside (which onlookers love), and then despite acting tired during the walk he’ll get the zoomies and want to play once we’re home. I also enjoy going to the gym and swimming. I swam competitively year-round for 8 years or so; it’s refreshing exercise and often kind of meditative. I try to take advantage of the city on weekends. Date night at the Met is a go-to favorite (highly recommended), as well as the classic choice, just a bar with friends.
If you could wake up tomorrow with a new talent, what would you most like it to be?
I would say knowing an instrument, probably the piano. I have a lot of friends and loved ones who know instruments, and so I think it would be a nice experience to play with them. Plus, I would like to understand music more deeply, and that would be a nice avenue into it. (I’ve been saying this for years; maybe eventually I’ll just start learning something. But overnight would be nice!)
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Alexis LaBar has a Master’s degree in Philosophy from West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Before attending West Chester, she graduated from Moravian University with a Bachelor’s in Philosophy, a minor in Global Religions, and an Ethics certificate. She is the recipient of the 2022 Claghorn Award in Philosophy, awarded by West Chester University, and the 2021 Douglas Anderson Prize in Philosophy, awarded by Moravian University. She is the Editor of the Teaching Beat and Work/Life Balance Beat.
