What's new?
9 October 2009: Updated some resources for students
10 June 2009: First draft of "Anti-(Mental) Statism" posted.
2 June 2009: New version of "Evidence You Ought to Have" posted. A few thoughts on living in South Bend posted.
1 May 2009: Website redesign.
Who is this guy?
I am a fifth-year graduate student in the philosophy program at the University of Notre Dame. I took my B.A. in philosophy from the University of California, Irvine.
My first philosophical love is epistemology. I have pondered the nature of knowledge and rationality since I was in high school, particularly in connection what we take to be our common-sense knowledge of the world.
I also have interest in the philosophy of perception (especially disjunctivism), the philosophy of mind (questions about content) and philosophical theology (especially the problem of theological determinism).
In my especially masochistic moods, I am interested in metaphysics (of material objects in particular, and more recently, the nature of this thing metaphysicians call "paraphrase"). Besides, around here, one doesn't have much of a choice about doing metaphysics; the metaphysicians beat you up if you won't play with them.
How do I contact this guy?
Email is the preferred way to contact me: aarnold1 (at) nd (dot) edu. If you're especially into the whole social networking thing, you can also shoot me a tweet @iamnotabiv.
What's here?
Here you can find my current research, my teaching material, as well as a nebulous category of "other stuff" — mostly reflections on being a graduate student at the University of Notre Dame.
What's he up to?
I am writing my dissertation, The Nature of Evidence, which is about — you guessed it — evidence. I aim to defend in Spring 2010. For more of my philosophical work, see my Research section below.
I am also teaching an introductory course in philosophy in the fall of 2009. For the syllabus, see my Teaching section below.
A Request
Philosophy is best done in community. So I appreciate feedback on all the items posted here. However, please do not quote or cite my work without permission. Thanks.
Dissertation project: The Nature of Evidence
Dissertation Proposal — Here, I lay out my initial suspicions on the nature of evidence. I'm particularly interested in three questions: (1) What is the evidence role? (2) What is the ontology of evidence? (3) What is it to have evidence? The project has changed a bit from its envisioned form, but not too much. The proposal also contains a partial bibliography.
As chapter drafts are completed, they shall be posted here
Other projects
Right now, all of my serious projects are epistemological in nature. You should expect a paper on divine sovereignty and divine blameworthiness soon.
Anti-(Mental) Statism — One popular ontology of epistemic reasons claims that all epistemic reasons are mental states. I give a brief argument against this claim.
Evidence You Ought to Have — The traditional view of the epistemic rationality of belief — that it is fully determined by the evidence one has — cannot diagnose salient epistemic failures in certain cases. I argue that broadening our view of what items are epistemically relevant to include the evidence one ought to have allows us to diagnose the salient epistemic failures in these cases. I then propose a condition of adequacy for any account of the evidence one ought to have.
Evidence, Memorial Seemings and Knowledge from Memory — In this short paper, I argue that evidentialism about knowledge is false, since there are plenty of cases of knowledge from memory where we have no evidence for what is recalled. I also critically examine a popular solution to this argument, namely, one that invokes memorial seemings to be one's evidence for some knowledge from memory.
Introduction to Philosophy
Here, my students can find materials for my introductory course in philosophy.
For many graduate students, living in South Bend is a big turn-off. Of course, what individual preferences you have play a large role in whether or not you'd like South Bend. Given my preferences, what plays an important role in determining my living experience is the community around me. In that respect, I am quite content with my experience in South Bend. I am fortunate to enjoy a vibrant philospohical community as well as a vibrant community outside of school. Here are some other things South Bend has to recommend to itself:
Low cost-of-living: it's reasonable for a graduate student with good credit to buy a house in South Bend, especially in today's economic climate. Rent is exceedingly cheap too. Beyond that, the prices of essential goods, like food and gas, are lower than elsewhere. Believe me: I grew up in Orange County, CA, and whenever I go home, I notice that prices there are higher than in South Bend.
Football: if you're a big college football fan, Notre Dame has historic significance for you. And, of course, there's always the opportunity to watch the Fightin' Irish in Notre Dame Stadium. However, student tickets are only sold in season ticket packages, they are $200+ and there are significant restrictions on their resale.
Michigan: South Bend is just over the border from Michigan, which offers a great variety of outdoor activities. Lake Michigan and its beaches are just a thirty minute drive away, and there are wonderful towns by the beach. New Buffalo, MI is one such town.
Chicago, IL: South Bend is a 2.5 hr train ride or a ninety minute drive from Chicago, which is by far my favorite American "big city."
On the other hand, here are some drawbacks:
Cold winters: In January, it starts to get really cold. I mean 15-20 degrees Fahrenheit below freezing during the afternoon (which is usually when the day's high temperature is reached) every day. Towards the end of January and the beginning of February, it is common to have several days where the high temperature is below 0 degrees Fahrenheit.
Snowy winters: Snow is initially very nice, but at some time late in winter, you'll just want it to go the hell away. South Bend averages a little under 6 feet of snow annually, with the bulk of it coming in December, January and February. The snow tends to stick during the winter, which means if you like to commute on a bike, you need to be pretty hardcore and/or get studded tires.
Airport access: South Bend has a regional airport, but it sucks. Flight delays and lost baggage are common. Chicago is far away enough to make a trek to either O'Hare or Midway a real endeavor. There are shuttle buses, or you can always do the South Shore Line + "L" train combo, but that takes a lot of time.