What are you going to work with at IFIKK?
I am a postdoctoral researcher in philosophy at UiO (2022-2024) for the GoodAttention project (PI Sebastian Watzl), funded by the European Research Council. This research project considers normative questions about attention, such as what makes for ‘good’ attention; the moral, epistemic, and practical dimensions of attention, and its role for individuals as well as groups and societies. My research in this project will focus on natural norms for attention. Here, I take a broadly evolutionary approach, by considering what effects attention might have had historically for creatures with a capacity to attend that explains its continued proliferation. This research will draw from my familiarity with the pioneering work of Ruth Millikan on proper function and its applications (in Language, Thought, and Other Biological Categories, 1984, MIT Press, and elsewhere). Methodologically, my approach is to examine instances where attention seems to be going wrong, or not functioning well, as providing insight into what attention is supposed to accomplish when functioning properly. I am also interested in exploring the function of attention in moral cognition.
Can you tell us a bit about your research interests?
My research interests span topics in metaethics and epistemology, and associated areas of philosophy of language and philosophy of mind. In my PhD dissertation (University of Connecticut, 2022) and other published work I have developed a theory of ethical thought and discourse designed to accommodate both the cognitive aspects of ethical claims and judgments—their connection to reasons, justification, and moral inference—and their affective, action-guiding nature. This theory also draws from Millikan’s work, explaining ethical thought and discourse in terms of proper function. Relatedly, I am becoming increasingly interested in questions about the evolutionary origins of ethics and other normative and social phenomena. I am a member of the Expression, Communication, and Origins of Meaning research group (directed by Dorit Bar-On).
I am interested in the epistemological significance of deep disagreement, especially in morality and politics. I have worked on this project as a research fellow at the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute (2021-2022). I take inspiration from Ludwig Wittgenstein’s enigmatic On Certainty (1969) as an insightful approach to the nature of firmly held conviction in addressing this topic. I am also interested in the puzzle of basic self-knowledge of current mental states (e.g., my knowledge that I want a cup of coffee right now); how such knowledge could be, as it appears, at once especially epistemically secure but also epistemically baseless.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
I like to play chess, cook, and have nice walks (not at the same time). I am also learning to play the piano. Currently, I am obsessed with the piano works of Philip Glass.