JOHN W. ROBISON

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Welcome to my website! I'm John Robison. 

I am a Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at Indiana University Bloomington.

I work in moral philosophy and epistemology, and I am especially interested in questions at their intersection. Much of my research focuses on how our values can shape (often unreflectively and in ways of which we are unaware) how we access and process information. I suggest that an empirically informed understanding of how this shaping works is crucial for understanding interpersonally significant phenomena involving the expression of an agent’s values, such as moral and epistemic responsibility, respect, and friendship. My work appears or is forthcoming in Philosophical Studies, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, and Ergo on topics such as exculpatory moral ignorance, awareness or consciousness conditions on moral responsibility, responsibility for mental states, and respect as a proper responsiveness to persons. My current and future research builds on these projects and addresses connected questions about trust, friendship, blaming and excusing, the ethics and epistemology of testimony, and the epistemology and value of self-conception.

At IU, undergraduate courses I have taught or am teaching include: Introduction to Ethics, Biomedical Ethics, Ethics and Responsible Management, and Honors Thesis supervision (topic: Ethics Without Free Will).

Before joining IU, I received a Ph.D. from University of Massachusetts, Amherst. While living in Western Massachusetts, I taught several courses in the Department of Philosophy at UMass Amherst and in the Department of Philosophy at Smith College, including courses on (or with major units in) medical ethics, animal ethics, moral responsibility, normative ethics, social and political philosophy, epistemology, social epistemology, and philosophical problems concerning unconscious influences and processing.

My dissertation, The Epistemic Dimensions of Moral Responsibility and Respect, was written under the supervision of Hilary Kornblith (chair), Sophie Horowitz, Katia Vavova, and Timothy Pachirat (outside member).

Before starting graduate school, I received a B.A. in Philosophy and Music at the University of Rochester, and from 2010-2012, I was a teacher in the Philosophy, Psychology, and Religion Department and the Music Department at a small college preparatory school for grades 9-12 (Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, CT). Much of my pedagogical outlook stems from my time teaching at Loomis Chaffee.