 I'm currently an Assistant Professor of Ethics at Louisiana State University. If you're nearby, my office is Coates 314, and my office hours are Tuesday, Thursday 3-4:30 and by appointment. My email address is below to make an appointment. My philosophical interests, these days, relate to questions of autonomy, respect, coercion, and aspects of identity (such as race, gender, and sexuality). "Autonomy" tends to be a rather abstract topic that can easily be relegated to philosophical discussions, but I believe it can be very fruitful for telling us about the unwritten, but substantially important rules of ordinary agent engagement. And here, I don't mean the "big" moral rules like don't lie, steal, cheat, or torture small animals. I mean the moral rules that underlie how regular people interact in acceptable ways on an everyday basis, such as why it is acceptable to ask you to perform a favor for me even though that implies your agency will be serving my interests. And, of course, that relates to when it is not acceptable, which we generally have a feeling of (there's a philosophically important Seinfeld episode where a player for the Mets rudely asks Jerry to help him move apartments), though not much work has been done to capture the theoretical side of this feeling. And, on the other side, there is also a sense in which we can coerce each other in acceptable ways as long as we know we are only moving the agents towards what would be their autonomous actions, from their own point of view. For more information on my views, you can check out my current research page, where you'll find abstracts for the papers I'm currently working on. I've also provided links that will give more information about my work history, education history, and my teaching. If you would like to contact me, email me at James@RationalAutonomy.com. Current Research Work History Education History Teaching Websites Personal Story If you have questions about the website, contact Webmaster@RationalAutonomy.com |