ABOUT MEHi, my name is Shawn Simpson. I'm a Post-doctoral Research Fellow in Environmental Philosophy at North-West University in Potchefstroom, South Africa. From 2022-2025, I was a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. From 2021-2022, I was a Lecturer in Philosophy at Mississippi State University. I received my PhD (2021), MPhil, and MA in Philosophy from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. I received my BA in Philosophy (with a certificate in History & Philosophy of Science) from Arizona State University. During the summer of 2022, I was a Visiting Researcher at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. During the summer of 2024, I was a Visiting Scholar at the Arché Philosophical Research Centre at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Much of my research has focused on communication - its evolution and its many forms - on art, on issues in conservation & biology, and on ethics & political philosophy. I'm also interested in certain issues in decision & game theory, philosophy of mind, and logic. The history of philosophy (especially Pragmatism) and meta-philosophy are also keen interests of mine. Lately, I've been learning more non-Western philosophy. I aim to address “big questions” in philosophy and to show how the various specialties tie together. I am inspired in this respect by the systematic oeuvres of philosophers like William James, John Dewey, Nelson Goodman, and Rudolf Carnap. At present, I'm working on projects in art, ethics, language, politics, and logic. Most of my work emphasizes how issues look from a scientific (especially biological) point of view. My first book - Art as Communication: Aesthetics, Evolution, and Signaling - is now available from Bloomsbury Publishing. Outside of teaching, I spend most of my time creating art and exploring the outdoors. Once upon a time, I was a wilderness ranger (non-law enforcement) and EMT for the US Forest Service and the National Park Service (in California, Washington State, and Arizona). You can sometimes find me walking around art museums or exploring wherever it is that I'm currently living. Here is a link to an interview that I did for the American Philosophical Association. PhilPeople: https://philpeople.org/profiles/shawn-simpson Instagram: @shawnmichaelsimpson Pronouns: he/him/his |
Mount Leistchamm. Switzerland. October 2025. |
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"Should We Kill All the Mosquitoes? A Conservationist's Dilemma" in Conservation Mag (South Africa), Nov 5th, 2025.
"Normativity in the Wild" Workshop @ ETH Zürich, Switzerland. October 8-11, 2025.
"Democrats Won't Save Democracy - They Don't Even Practice It" in The Hill, October 6, 2025.
[Original title: "Can Democrats Save Democracy? Probably Not"]
"The Mosquito Problem: Evaluating New Mitigation Technologies and Methods" [talk slides]
- 3rd Annual Colloquium on Animal Welfare, Human Rights, Rights of Nature, and Human-wildlife Coexistence [link], North-West University, South Africa. September 15-17, 2025
"Can Animals Make Art?" The Conversation, March 19, 2025.
"Can Animals Create Art?" Radio New Zealand, Recorded Audio Interview, April 13, 2025.
- a condensed write-up version from RNZ.
"Normativity in the Wild" Workshop @ ETH Zürich, Switzerland. October 8-11, 2025.
"Democrats Won't Save Democracy - They Don't Even Practice It" in The Hill, October 6, 2025.
[Original title: "Can Democrats Save Democracy? Probably Not"]
"The Mosquito Problem: Evaluating New Mitigation Technologies and Methods" [talk slides]
- 3rd Annual Colloquium on Animal Welfare, Human Rights, Rights of Nature, and Human-wildlife Coexistence [link], North-West University, South Africa. September 15-17, 2025
"Can Animals Make Art?" The Conversation, March 19, 2025.
"Can Animals Create Art?" Radio New Zealand, Recorded Audio Interview, April 13, 2025.
- a condensed write-up version from RNZ.
Top photo taken in Bishop, California, where I worked for a summer as an apprentice horse and mule packer for the US Forest Service.