Phil Corkum is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Alberta; he previously taught at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He works on ancient philosophy, the history of logic, and metaphysics; his Neo-Aristotelian Metaphysics is now out with Cambridge University Press.
http://philcorkum.com/Home.html
Who is your favorite philosopher and why?
Recently, after twenty-some years of teaching, a student finally approached me after the first class and asked who my favorite philosopher was. My response, waiting in readiness all these years—‘Me.’—did not impress. You, reader, are of course a close second.
Who do you think is the most overrated/underrated philosopher?
I don’t know about ratings, either over- or under-. But the impact of a philosopher seems directly proportional to the ease with which their name admits of adjectival form. ‘Platonic’ rolls off the tongue. ‘Lewisian’ or ‘Rawlsian’ ain’t bad, either. On a side note: ‘Corkumian’? My career faces innate challenges; let’s just admit it.
What are you working on right now?
A venerable tradition in metaphysics holds that taking metaphysical inquiry to be objective, and so responsive primarily to facts which obtain independently of human interests, entails that theory choice in metaphysics is both resistant to variation from one context of inquiry to another, and insensitive to nonepistemic values. I’ve been raised in that tradition. So naturally, I disagree with all of that.
Or rather, I hope that viewing metaphysics as, in part, a context-sensitive, value-laden inquiry is not to abandon its goal of describing the objective structure of the world. This hope is getting cashed out in a variety of ways. For example, I argue here that one contribution scholarship on the history of metaphysics makes to its contemporary practice is in the assessment of certain nonepistemic values, such as novelty and conservativeness, which influence the selection of methodology, the setting of the research agenda, and the presentation of results. I’m now wondering whether viewing the ameliorative ends of much social metaphysics as having similar influence allows for debates in social metaphysics to be substantive, and not hinge on stipulative semantic decisions over the meaning of the relevant terms or the domain of the quantifiers.
A final example. Our causal talk is shot through with context-sensitive features, such as selection effects, when we identify some event in the causal history leading to an effect as the cause, and relegate other events to mere background conditions. Some causal theorists, dismissing such features as only reflecting our interests and so as irrelevant to causal theory building, view these features as pragmatic artifacts easily detachable from the semantics of causal discourse. Others, viewing these features as not easily detachable, and so as undermining the use of linguistic judgments for theory building, despair for causal theory. I sketch a dynamic interpretation semantics to model these features here, and in further unpacking this sketch, I aim to respond to both dismissers and despairers.
What do you like to do outside of work?
Aristotle tells us that leisure is a requirement for human flourishing. I suppose he meant that activities like philosophy are intrinsically, not merely instrumentally, valuable. These activities can be done only after the basic necessities of life are taken care of. But the conditions that allow us to do such activities are the best conditions in which to live a human life. Insofar as philosophy then isn’t really work, I’m all for it. But if you need another member for next year’s faculty evaluation committee, sorry, I’m busy.
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.
Jessica Castellani
Jessica Castellani had a unique high school experience attending Toledo School for the Arts, where she played in a percussion ensemble and steel drum band for six years. She earned her dual Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Religious Studies from the University of Toledo. Her primary focus was ‘the Self’ and the mystical experience of losing it. She earned her Master of Art in Philosophy from the University of Toledo as well, with a specialization in Comparative Philosophy, Eastern Studies, and Continental Philosophy. She has taught World Religions and Introduction to Philosophy at The University of Toledo both in person and virtually. She is a member of the Buddhist Temple of Toledo, tutors students, and has worked in the service industry for over a decade. In her free time likes to spend time outside and with her pets, friends, and family.
