Philosophy Department Faculty
Emeritus Faculty:
Dorit Apollonia Ganson
Assistant Professor (2000)
B.A., Princeton University, 1989
M.A., Cornell University, 1994
Ph.D., Cornell University, 1999
Ms.
Ganson's primary areas of teaching and research interest are
epistemology and philosophy of science, including the feminist and
postmodern critiques of the traditional questions and approaches
characteristic of these fields. She is also interested in Wittgenstein,
philosophy of language, and philosophical issues in psychoanalysis.
Since completing The Explanationist Defense of Scientific Realism
(Garland 2001), she continues to explore philosophical questions
concerning the nature of rationality, and its connection to
explanatoriness. She taught at Cornell University and Yale University
before coming to Oberlin.
E-mail: dorit.ganson@oberlin.edu
Todd Stuart Ganson
Associate Professor and Chair (2000)
B.A., University of California at Davis, 1992
M.A., Cornell University, 1994
Ph.D., Cornell University, 1998
Mr. Ganson's primary interests are in the history of western philosophy and philosophy of mind. His publications and ongoing research are focused principally on sense-perception and secondarily on desire and the will. He has published articles on Democritus, Plato, Aristotle, later Peripatetics, Plotinus, Berkeley, and Reid. He is currently writing about the nature of bodily sensations, Reid's philosophy of perception, and Epicurus' views on freedom. Before coming to Oberlin Mr. Ganson taught at Cornell University and Yale University.
E-mail: todd.ganson@oberlin.edu
Timothy Hall
Associate Professor (2001)
B.A., University of California, Berkeley, 1992
Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 2003
Mr. Hall's principal interests are ethics, including applied ethics and bioethics, and political philosophy. He is currently working on the topics of abortion, the widely asserted moral distinction between killing and letting die, the ethical issues involved in property, and applied ethical topics such as punishment and gun control. He teaches a variety of courses in ethics, political philosophy, and the philosophy of law. Before coming to Oberlin, Mr. Hall taught at UCLA, Yale, and the University of Vermont.
Recent papers include:
"Doing Harm, Allowing Harm, and Denying Resources", forthcoming in the Journal of Moral Philosophy
"Is there a Right to Bear Arms?", forthcoming in Public Affairs Quarterly
"Abortion, the Right to Life, and Dependence", Social Theory and Practice, 31 (2005), pp. 405-29.
"Life Extension and Creation: a Reply to Silverstein and Boonin", Journal of Social Philosophy, 35 (2004), pp. 485-92.
E-mail: timothy.hall@oberlin.edu
Alfred Farnum MacKay
Professor (1967)
B.A., Davidson College, 1960
Ph.D., University of North Carolina, 1967
Mr. MacKay's interests are in the areas of Ethics, Philosophy of Economics, and Philosophy of Language. He has published essays and reviews in journals in philosophy, law, physical education, and higher education. He served as Dean of Oberlin's College of Arts and Sciences from 1984 to 1995. He has co-edited proceedings of the Oberlin Colloquium in Philosophy. His book, Arrow's Theorem: The Paradox of Social Choice, was published in 1980.
Mr. MacKay is currently serving as Provost of the College.
Some recent course syllabi:
Philosophy 102 - Introduction to Philosophy - Spring 2004
Philosophy 104 - Modern Philosophy - Fall 2003
Philosophy 232 - Twentieth Century Ethical Theory - Spring 2004
Philosophy 307 - Philosophical Classics: David Hume - Fall 2002
Philosophy 308 - Philosophical Classics: The British Empiricists - Spring 2004
E-mail: al.mackay@oberlin.edu
Peter K. McInerney
Professor (1976)
B.A., Yale University, 1971
Ph.D., University of Texas, 1976
Mr. McInerney teaches courses in 19th Century Philosophy, 20th Century Continental Philosophy, Existentialism, and Philosophy of Mind. He has edited volumes of the proceedings of the Oberlin Colloquium in Philosophy. His own books include Time and Experience (1991), Introduction to Philosophy (1992), and Ethics (1994). He has published essays in leading journals of philosophy on a number of topics. His recent essays in professional journals concern the nature of persons and personal identity through time.
E-mail: peter.mcinerney@oberlin.edu
Katherine Thomson-Jones
Visiting Assistant Professor (2003)
B.A., Queen's University, 1997
Ph.D, University of Toronto, 2003
Thomson-Jones's
research interests are in aesthetics, ethics, philosophy of film, and
emotion theory. A central question for her research concerns the
ethical and cognitive value of our affective engagement with art. Most
recently, Thomson-Jones has been considering this question in relation
to film. She is also writing Film and Aesthetics, an introductory text in a new series on the philosophy of all major art forms (Continuum Press).
Thomson-Jones teaches philosophy of art, philosophy of film, philosophy
of music, and value theory. Before coming to Oberlin, she taught moral
and political philosophy at the University of St Andrews, Scotland.
E-mail: Katherine.Thomson-Jones@oberlin.edu
Martin Thomson-Jones
Associate Professor (1998)
B.A., Oxford University, 1986
Ph.D., Stanford University, 1991
Martin Thomson-Jones works in the philosophy of physics, metaphysics,
and the philosophy of science, and teaches mainly in these areas and in
logic. His current research is primarily focussed on metaphysical
issues in the interpretation of quantum mechanics, and on
representation, idealization, and the nature of models in scientific
theorizing. He has published papers in both philosophy and physics
journals, and he is co-editor, with Nancy Cartwright, of Correcting the Model: Idealization and Abstraction in the Sciences (Editions Rodopi B.V., 2005).
Recent papers include:
"Holism and Nonsupervenience in Quantum Mechanics" (currently under revision).
"Models and the Semantic View," (forthcoming in the proceedings of the 2004 Philosophy of Science Association Meetings).
"Idealization and Abstraction: A Framework" (in Correcting the Model),
"The Concept of Prematurity and the Philosophy of Science," in Prematurity and Scientific Discovery: On Resistance and Neglect, edited by E. Hook (University of California Press, 2002),
Before coming to Oberlin, Thomson-Jones was an Assistant Professor at
Princeton University (1991-2), and at the University of California,
Berkeley (1992-8), where he was also a member of the Group in Logic and
the Methodology of Science. He is a Centre Affiliate of the Centre for
the Philosophy of the Natural and Social Sciences at the London School
of Economics and Political Science, and an Associate of the Center for
the Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. He has twice
been a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at the
University of Bristol, and in spring 2005 he held a Visiting Fellowship
at the Center for the Philosophy of Science at the University of
Pittsburgh.
E-mail: martin.thomson-jones@oberlin.edu
Emeritus Faculty
Robert Henry Grimm
Professor Emeritus (1965)
B.A., University of Miami, 1956
M.A., Duke University, 1959
Ph.D., Duke University, 1963
Mr. Grimm retired from teaching in 2000. He regularly taught courses in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Metaphysics, and Theory of Knowledge, as well as advanced seminars. He has published essays in philosophy journals and edited or co-edited several volumes of proceedings of the Oberlin Colloquium in Philosophy. His research is on issues that cut across Metaphysics, Theory of Knowledge, and Philosophy of Mind. He also has taught at the University of Iowa and at the Hebrew University at Jerusalem, and has served as Director of the GLCA Program in Jerusalem.
E-mail: robert.grimm@oberlin.edu
Daniel Davy Merrill
Professor Emeritus (1962)
B.A., Princeton University, 1954
M.A., University of Minnesota, 1958
Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 1962
Mr. Merrill retired from teaching in 1998. He has published essays in journals in philosophy and logic, and contributed to scholarship on Charles S. Peirce, and co-edited a number of volumes of proceedings of the Oberlin Colloquium in Philosophy. He published Augustus De Morgan and the Logic of Relations in 1990. He also served as Associate Dean in Oberlin's College of Arts and Sciences from 1970 to 1973.
Professor Emeritus (1961)
B.A., Brandeis University, 1954
Ed.M., Boston University, 1959
Ed.D., Harvard University, 1963
Mr. Steinberg retired from teaching in 1998. He taught in Oberlin's Department of Education as well as the Department of Philosophy, and he also served in a number of administrative positions, including Associate Dean in Oberlin's College of Arts and Sciences during 1987-1995. His essays have appeared in journals in philosophy of education and psychology. His books include Educational Myths and Realities: Philosophical Essays on Education, Politics, and the Science of Behavior (1968), Ralph Barton Perry on Education for Democracy (1970), Behaviorism and Schooling (1980), and The New Lost Generation: Population and Public Policy (1982).