Faculty

James Anderson

Faculty Associate and Assistant to the Chair

Phone: 608-263-5162

e-mail: jcander1@wisc.edu

Office: 5185D Helen C. White
John Bengson

Assistant Professor (University of Texas, Ph.D. 2010)

Philosophy of Mind, Epistemology

Phone: 608-890-4362

e-mail: bengson@wisc.edu

Office: 5169 Helen C. White

Professor Bengson’s research focuses on issues in philosophy of mind, epistemology, and philosophy of action, including perception, intuition, knowing how, intelligence, and understanding. His publications include “A New Framework for Conceptualism” (Nous, 2010), “Asymmetries in Judgments of Responsibility and Intentional Action” (Mind & Language, 2009), and “Know-how and Concept Possession” (Philosophical Studies, 2007). He is also co-editor of Knowing How: Essays on Knowledge, Mind, and Action (Oxford University Press).
John Bengson’s Web site
Harry Brighouse

Professor (USC, Ph.D. 1991)

Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Education

Phone: 608-263-8136

e-mail: mhbrigho@wisc.edu

Office: 5119 Helen C. White

Professor Brighouse’s current research explores the place of the family in egalitarian liberalism and examines school reform ideas in the light of an egalitarian liberal theory of social justice for education. His recent publications include Justice (Polity, 2004) and On Education (Routledge, 2005).
Harry Brighouse’s Web site
Claudia Card

Emma Goldman Professor (Harvard, Ph.D. 1969)

Ethics, Feminist Philosophy

Phone: 608-263-3726

e-mail: cfcard@wisc.edu

Office: 5139 Helen C. White

Professor Card's research in ethics and social/political philosophy focuses on evil and injustice -- conceptual issues, normative issues, and practical issues arising in the areas in which she has teaching affiliations: Women's Studies, Jewish Studies, Environmental Studies, and LGBT Studies. Her books include Confronting Evils: Terrorism, Torture, Genocide (Cambridge 2010); Genocide's Aftermath (ed. with Armen Marsoobian, Blackwell 2007); The Cambridge Companion to Simone de Beauvoir (2003); The Atrocity Paradigm: A Theory of Evil (Oxford 2002); and The Unnatural Lottery: Character and Moral Luck (Temple 1996). In 2011 she received the UW Hilldale Award in the Arts and Humanities Division. In 2010-11 she was President of the American Philosophical Association Central Division. In 2008 she delivered the John Dewey Lecture at the Central APA convention. From 2002-2007 she was a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Research in the Humanities (UW-Madison). She is currently at work on the third volume, Surviving Atrocities, of her trilogy on evil.
Claudia Card’s Web site
Malcolm Forster

Professor (University of Western Ontario, Ph.D. 1984)

General Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Statistics, Philosophy of Physics

Phone: 608-890-4360

e-mail: mforster@wisc.edu

Office: 5137 Helen C. White

Professor Forster’s research has focused on issues in general philosophy of science, particularly the role of simplicity and unification in confirmation and statistics; more recently his research has expanded into philosophy of quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics. Recent philosophy of physics publications include “The Miraculous Consilience of Quantum Mechanics” in Probability and Science and “The Emergence of the Macro-World: A Study of Intertheory Relations in Classical and Quantum Mechanics,” Philosophy of Science (with Alexey Kryukov, 2003). He is currently writing a book on unification and evidence.
Malcolm Forster’s Web site
Martha Gibson

Senior lecturer (UW Madison, Ph.D. 1989)

Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Mind

Phone: 608-263-3747

e-mail: migibson@wisc.edu

Office: 5117 Helen C. White

Professor Gibson’s current research concerns the issue of atomist vs. holist theories of meaning and the role that idealizations such as “the principle of charity” and “optimality conditions” play in such theories. Her recent publications include From Naming to Saying (Blackwell, 2004) and “The Unity of the Sentence and the Connection of Causes” Philosophy & Phenomenological Research (1998).
Paula Gottlieb

Professor of Philosophy and Affiliate Professor of Classics (B.Phil, Oxon. 1983; Ph.D., Cornell 1988)

Ancient Greek Philosophy, Ethics, Metaphysics

Phone: 608-263-0253

e-mail: plgottli@wisc.edu

Office: 5161 Helen C. White

Professor Gottlieb’s research concerns ancient Greek philosophy, especially issues in ethics and metaphysics. Her recent publications include a book-length analysis of and commentary on books Ⅰ and Ⅱ of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics for Project Archelogos (2001), an introduction to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics in Central Works of Philosophy Volume 1: Ancient and Medieval Philosophy ed. John Shand (Acumen Publishing, 2005) and “The Practical Syllogism” in The Blackwell Companion to Aristotle’s Ethics ed. Richard Kraut (Blackwell, 2006). She recently wrote an entry on Aristotle on non-contradiction for the Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy (2007). She is the author of The Virtue of Aristotle’s Ethics (Cambridge University Press, 2009).
Paula Gottlieb’s Web site
Daniel M. Hausman

Herbert A. Simon Professor (Columbia, Ph.D. 1978)

Philosophy of Economics, Metaphysics

Phone: 608-263-5178

email: dhausman@wisc.edu

Office: 5197 Helen C. White

Professor Hausman’s research focuses on ethical, epistemological, and foundational issues at the boundaries between economics and philosophy, and on related questions concerning causation and health measurement. His main work on economic methodology is his The Inexact and Separate Science of Economics (Cambridge, 1992). His recent publications include Causal Asymmetries (Cambridge, 1998) and Economic Analysis, Moral Philosophy and Public Policy (with Michael S. McPherson, Cambridge, 2006).
Daniel M. Hausman’s Web site
Lester H. Hunt

Professor (UCSB, Ph.D. 1976)

Ethics, Political Philosophy, Nietzsche

Phone: 608-263-5956

email: lhhunt@wisc.edu

Office: 5165 Helen C. White

Professor Hunt’s research has touched on ethics (both theoretical and applied), political philosophy, and the philosophy of Nietzsche. His recent publications include Character and Culture (Rowman & Littlefield, 1997), and “Nussbaum on Emotion” Ethics (2006). He is currently at work on several projects in the area of aesthetics and on the presentation of ideas in particular works of art.
Lester H. Hunt’s Web site
John Mackay

Assistant Professor (Princeton, Ph.D. 2011)

Philosophy of Language, Epistemology, Philosophical Logic

Phone: 608-890-4361

email: jmackay2@wisc.edu

Office: 5167 Helen C. White

Professor Mackay works in the philosophy of language and associated areas of metaphysics, epistemology and philosophical logic. His current research is focused on modality and conditionals.
John Mackay’s Web site
Steven Nadler

William H. Hay II Professor (Columbia, Ph.D. 1986)

Early Modern Philosophy

Phone: 608-263-3741

e-mail: smnadler@wisc.edu

Office: 5109 Helen C. White

Professor Nadler’s research focuses on philosophy in the seventeenth century, particularly issues in metaphysics and epistemology, as well as conceptions of reason and happiness. He has written extensively on Descartes and Cartesianism (especially Malebranche and Arnauld), Spinoza and Leibniz. He also works on medieval and early modern Jewish philosophy. His recent publications include The Best of All Possible Worlds: A Story of Philosophers, God, and Evil (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2008; paperback, Princeton 2010); and The Cambridge History of Jewish Philosophy: From Antiquity through the Seventeenth Century (2009), co-edited with Tamar Rudavsky. A collection of his papers, Occasionalism: Causation Among the Cartesians, is forthcoming (Oxford), as is his next book, A Book Forged in Hell: Spinoza’s Scandalous Treatise (Princeton). He has held visiting professorships at the University of Amsterdam, the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (Paris), Stanford University, and the University of Chicago. He is currently the editor of the Journal of the History of Philosophy.
Steven Nadler’s Web site
Sarah Paul

Assistant Professor (Stanford, Ph.D. 2009)

Philosophy of Action, Philosophy of Mind

Phone: 608-890-3744

e-mail: skpaul@wisc.edu

Office: 5163 Helen C. White

Professor Paul’s research focuses on issues in philosophy of mind, epistemology, and ethics that concern intention, agency, and practical reason. Her publications include “How We Know What We're Doing” (Philosophers’ Imprint 2009) and "Intention, Belief, and Wishful Thinking: Setiya on ‘Practical Knowledge’" (Ethics 2009).
Sarah Paul’s Web site
Trevor Pearce

Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow

Phone: 608-263-3725

e-mail: trpearce@wisc.edu

Office: 5123 Helen C. White

Dr. Pearce’s research focuses on the philosophy of biology and the exchange of ideas between science and philosophy (past and present). He is currently working on conceptual problems in macroevolution and experimental biology, and on the role of biological ideas in American pragmatism. His publications include “Evolution and Constraints on Variation” (Philosophy of Science, 2011) and “From ‘Circumstances’ to ‘Environment’” (Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 2010).
Trevor Pearce’s Web page
Russ Shafer-Landau, Department Chair

Professor (Arizona, Ph.D. 1992)

Ethics, Philosophy of Law

Phone: 608-263-3727

e-mail: shaferlandau@wisc.edu

Office: 5185 Helen C. White

Professor Shafer-Landau’s research focuses primarily on issues in metaethics. He is the organizer of the Annual Metaethics Workshop, held each fall in Madison, and is editor of the series Oxford Studies in Metaethics. His recent publications include The Fundamentals of Ethics, 2ed (Oxford, 2012) and its companion volume, The Ethical Life, 2ed (Oxford, 2012). Other publications include Moral Realism: A Defence (Oxford, 2005 — Honorable Mention, APA Book Prize), and Whatever Happened to Good and Evil? (Oxford, 2004). He is also the editor of Reason & Responsibility (Cengage, 2010), Ethical Theory (Blackwell, 2007) and co-editor, with Terence Cuneo, of The Foundations of Ethics (Blackwell, 2006).
Russ Shafer-Landau’s Web site
Lawrence Shapiro

Professor (University of Pennsylvania, Ph.D. 1992)

Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Psychology

Phone: 608-265-4637

email: lshapiro@wisc.edu

Office: 5111 HC White Hall

Professor Shapiro’s research spans philosophy of mind and philosophy of psychology. Within philosophy of mind he has focused on issues related to reduction, especially concerning the thesis of multiple realization. His The Mind Incarnate (MIT, 2004), as well as articles in The Journal of Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, and Philosophy and Phenomenological Research examine these issues. His interests in philosophy of psychology include topics in computational theories of vision, evolutionary psychology, and embodied cognition. He’s published numerous articles on these topics in journals such as The Philosophical Review, British Journal for Philosophy of Science, and Philosophy of Science. A new book, Embodied Cognition (Routledge Press), has just been published.
Lawrence Shapiro’s Web site
Alan Sidelle

Professor (Cornell, Ph.D. 1986)

Metaphysics, Philosophy of Language, Epistemology

Phone: 608-263-3724

email: asidelle@wisc.edu

Office: 5121 Helen C. White

Professor Sidelle’s research focuses centrally on the metaphysics of material objects, modality, and personal identity. He is also interested in questions at the interface of philosophy of language and metaphysics, and in questions about the nature and extent of verbal disputes (which he believes to be widely prevalent in both philosophy and everyday life). His recent publications include: “Is there a True Metaphysics of Material objects?” Philosophical Issues (2002), and “Some Episodes in the Sameness of Consciousness” Philosophical Topics (2002)
Elliott Sober

Hans Reichenbach Professor & William F. Vilas Research Professor (Harvard, Ph.D. 1974)

Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Biology, Philosophy of Mind

Phone: 608-263-7478

e-mail: ersober@wisc.edu

Office: 5199 Helen C. White

Professor Sober’s current research concerns metaphysical and epistemological issues raised by evolutionary biology. His publications include Did Darwin write the Origin Backwards? (Prometheus Books 2011), Evidence and Evolution — the Logic Behind the Science (Cambridge University Press, 2008), Unto Others — The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior (with David Sloan Wilson, Harvard University Press, 1998) and Philosophy of Biology (Westview Press, 1993).
Elliott Sober’s Web site
Hank Southgate

Lecturer, Managing Editor of the Journal of the History of Philosophy (Northwestern, Ph.D. 2010)

Kant, 19th century philosophy

Phone: 608-890-3743

e-mail: southgate@wisc.edu

Office: 5137 Helen C. White

Dr. Southgate specializes in Kant and German Idealism. His current research is focused on Kant and Hegel’s responses to the Rationalist thesis that reality is intelligible to reason.
Robert Streiffer

Associate Professor of Philosophy, Bioethics, Agricultural & Applied Economics, and Veterinary Medical Science (MIT, Ph.D. 1999)

Bioethics, Ethical Theory

Phone: 608-263-9479

email: rstreiffer@wisc.edu

Office: 5123 Helen C. White

Professor Streiffer's research encompasses bioethics (both medical and agricultural), ethical theory, and political philosophy, with a focus on ethical and policy issues arising from modern biotechnology. His recent publications include "Ethical Issues in the Application of Biotechnology to Animals in Agriculture," with John Basl, in The Oxford Handbook of Animal Ethics (forthcoming), "Chimeras, Moral Status, and Public Policy: Implications of the Abortion Debate for Public Policy on Human/Nonhuman Chimera Research," The Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics (2010), "Human/Non-Human Chimeras," The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2009), "Informed Consent and Federal Funding for Stem Cell Research," Hastings Center Report (2008), and "Genetically Engineered Animals and The Ethics of Food Labeling," with Alan Rubel, in The Labeling of Genetically Modified Foods (2007).
Robert Streiffer’s Web site
Michael G. Titelbaum

Assistant Professor (University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D. 2008)

Epistemology, Ethics, Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, Logic, Decision Theory

Phone: 608-263-6708

email: titelbaum@wisc.edu

Office: 5113 Helen C. White

Professor Titelbaum’s research focuses on rationality, primarily as it comes up in epistemology and ethics but also as it arises in decision theory, political philosophy, logic, and the philosophy of science. His publications include “Not Enough There There: Evidence, Reasons, and Language Independence” Philosophical Perspectives (2010), “Tell Me You Love Me: Bootstrapping Externalism, and No-Lose Epistemology” Philosophical Studies (2010), “The Relevance of Self-Locating Beliefs” Philosophical Review (2008) and “What Would a Rawlsian Ethos of Justice Look Like?” Philosophy & Public Affairs (2008).
Michael G. Titelbaum’s Web site
Peter B. M. Vranas

Professor (MIT, Sc.D. 1992; Michigan, Ph.D. 2001)

Philosophical Logic, Ethics, Philosophy of Science, Formal Epistemology, Metaphysics

Phone: 608-263-3740

email: vranas@wisc.edu

Office: 5171 Helen C. White

Professor Vranas’s research in philosophical logic focuses on imperative and deontic logic. He is also currently working on moral dilemmas, time travel, and the implications of situationist psychology for ethics. His recent publications include “The indeterminacy paradox: Character evaluations and human psychology” Nous (2005), "I ought, therefore I can" Philosophical Studies (2007), “New foundations for imperative logic I: Logical connectives, consistency, and quantifiers” Nous (2008), “Against moral character evaluations: The undetectability of virtue and vice” The Journal of Ethics (2009), “In defense of imperative inference” Journal of Philosophical Logic (2010), and “New foundations for imperative logic: Pure imperative inference” Mind (2011).
Peter B. M. Vranas’s Web site