Slides for an Introduction to Philosophy course at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, Canada. These give an introduction to Mill’s utilitarianism as well as to consequentialism generally. Then they discuss intellectual and sensual pleasures, the argument Mill gives for why the Greatest Happiness Principle should be how we…[Read more]

The Public Philosophy Journal’s 2018 New Engaged Scholars Digital Pilot Program, which officially kicks off on February 7th, is designed for doctoral students seeking guided, collaborative opportunities to develop early drafts into publishable content. This is the program agenda.

Slides for an Introduction to Philosophy course at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, Canada. These are about Thomas Nagel’s text called “Death,” which is a chapter in his book called Mortal Questions. They connect Nagel’s view to Epicurus’ view of death, and discuss some of the main points about Nagel’s view.

A set of slides introducing the Chinese philosopher Mozi and his view of “impartial caring.” These are for an introduction to philosophy course at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, Canada. They were created in January 2018.

These slides are for Introduction to Philosophy at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

There are also two videos that students watched, to accompany the class on this material:

Slides for an Introduction to Philosophy course at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver BC, Canada.

These slides are about Epicureanism, focusing on texts by Epicurus and Cicero.

It is commonly assumed that Aristotle thinks that his claim that being exhibits a category-based pros hen structure, which he introduces to obviate the problem of categorial heterogeneity, is sufficient to defend the possibility of a science of being qua being. We, on the contrary, argue that Aristotle thinks that the pros hen structure is…[Read more]

Introduction to The Late Voice: Time, Age and Experience in Popular Music.

Popular music artists, as performers in the public eye, offer a privileged site for the witnessing and analysis of ageing and its mediation. The Late Voice undertakes such an analysis by considering issues of time, age, memory, innocence and experience in modern popular…[Read more]

In today’s academic philosophy, we have “philosophy of biology,” which deals with creatures’ biological phenomena, “philosophy of
death,” which concentrates on the concept of human death, and “philosophy of meaning of life,” which investigates difficult problems concerning the meaning of life and living, but we do not have “philosophy of…[Read more]

In today’s academic philosophy, we have “philosophy of biology,” which deals with creatures’ biological phenomena, “philosophy of
death,” which concentrates on the concept of human death, and “philosophy of meaning of life,” which investigates difficult problems concerning the meaning of life and living, but we do not have “philosophy of…[Read more]

“Confessions of a Frigid Man: A Philosopher’s Journey into the Hidden Layers of Men’s Sexuality” is the translation of a Japanese 2005 bestseller. Soon after the publication, this book stirred controversy over the nature of male sexuality, male “frigidity,” and its connection to the “Lolita complex.” Today, this work is considered a classic in…[Read more]

“Confessions of a Frigid Man: A Philosopher’s Journey into the Hidden Layers of Men’s Sexuality” is the translation of a Japanese 2005 bestseller. Soon after the publication, this book stirred controversy over the nature of male sexuality, male “frigidity,” and its connection to the “Lolita complex.” Today, this work is considered a classic in…[Read more]

This paper presents an introductory overview of Plato’s poetics, aesthetics, and literary theory, with particular reference to his notion of mimesis, and grounding the discussion on his Theory of Ideas. It is part of a lecture series on the history of literary criticism, partly available online as HYPERCRITICA: A HYPERTEXTUAL HISTORY OF LITERARY…[Read more]

This article considers the question ‘What makes hope rational?’ We take Adrienne
Martin’s recent incorporation analysis of hope as representative of a tradition that views the
rationality of hope as a matter of instrumental reasons. Against this tradition, we argue that
an important subset of hope, ‘fundamental hope’, is not governed by instru…[Read more]

This rubric is designed to facilitate a creative and lively philosophical dialogue online by encouraging strong writing in blog posts and comments. These criteria will be used for the qualitative evaluation of the blog posts and comments.

‘In The Inhumanist Manifesto, Gary Hall writes that “[i]f the inhuman equals the human intertwined with the nonhuman, then the inhumanities are the humanities.” Articulating the latest version of his radical theories on posthumanism, piracy, Marxism, open access and the commons, this bold remix of Hall’s self-proclaimed pirate philosophy detai…[Read more]

An Honours course taught by me at Edinburgh in 2011

An Honours course taught by me at Edinburgh in 2009 and 2012

This infographic illustrates the PPJ Formative Peer Review process from start to finish.

Very short essay on the way Deleuze uses images in his book on Bacon. In the original French edition, the images are in a separate volume; he does that in order to mime, or enact, the theory of sensation in his text. It seems to me this is an unusual and promising strategy for art history (disposing images so their sequence and arrangement…[Read more]