Academic Publications |
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Books
Art as Communication: Aesthetics, Evolution, and Signaling (Lexington Books (imprint of Rowman & Littlefield)).
Published October 2024. Here is a link to the book's page on the publisher's website.
Edited works
Invited editor of a Winter 2023/2024 Special Issue on Environmental Philosophy for Diálogos: Journal of the Department of Philosophy of the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras (published February, 2024)
Articles
Pinillos, A. & Simpson, S. (2014). "Experimental Evidence in Support of Anti-intellectualism about Knowledge". In J. R. Beebe (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Epistemology (pp. 9-44). Bloomsbury Academic.
"James and Carnap on Philosophical Systems and the Role of Temperaments," (2023), Metaphilosophy, 54(1): 134-144.
https://doi.org/10.1111/meta.12604
"Introduction to "Diálogos : A Special Edition on Environmental Philosophy," (2024), Diálogos, 55(114): 9-16.
"Limits of Wilderness," (2024), Diálogos, 55(114): 81-115.
"William James’s ‘The Will to Believe’: A Decision-Theoretic Analysis" (revise and resubmit @ William James Studies)
"Problems for the Pleasure Theory of Evil" (under review)
"The Sender-receiver Model, Syntax, and Semantics" (under review)
"The Mosquito Problem: Evaluating New Mitigation Technology and Methods" (under review)
Conferences, Talks, and Other Events |
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Logic and Inference in the Sender-receiver Model
Invited Speaker, Arché Research Centre, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, UK. June 26th, 2024.
"Revenge, Retribution, and the Law"
Invited speaker, University of Pittsburgh, Undergraduate Philosophy Club, Dec 12th, 2023
"The Mosquito Problem"
International Society for Environmental Ethics, American Philosophical Association, Central Division - Denver, CO, February 2023
"Logic and Inference in the Sender-receiver Model"
NY Philosophical Logic Workshop - CUNY Graduate Center, March 20th, 2023
"Re-generation of Wilderness"
Invited talk, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, March 2022.
"Defining Life"
The Society for Social and Conceptual Issues in Astrobiology, University of Mississippi, March 6th-9th, 2022
“Concepts of Wilderness”
Canadian Society for Environmental Philosophy/ Société Canadienne de Philosophie Environementale, University of Victoria, Nov 12-14th, 2021
Mississippi State University Works in Progress Seminar, Dec 3rd, 2021
Mississippi Academy of Sciences annual meeting, March 2022
"The Nature of Moral Evil"
Mississippi State University, Undergraduate Philosophy Club, Nov 18th, 2021
“Communication Between Groups and Collective Organisms”
International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology, Université du Québec à Montréal, 2015
Invited talk, information in Biology Workshop, CUNY Graduate Center.
"James and Carnap on Philosophical Systems and the Role of Temperaments"
Southwestern Philosophy Graduate Conference, Arizona State University, 2013
Works in Progress |
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Books:
A second book-length project on philosophical theories of evil (in progress):
This introductory textbook is based on lectures from my 2023 seminar at the University of Pittsburgh on the same topic. The text begins with an exploration of the differences between what are known as “natural” and “moral” evils and considers the classic "problem of evil" (aka theodicy). However, the main focus of the text is the question of what it takes for a person or an action to count as evil. The book addresses the question of whether evil really exists or whether it is a concept that we should instead "eliminate" from our vocabulary, especially our modern scientific vocabulary. The views of key historical and contemporary figures are assessed - including Leibniz, Kant, and Arendt. Attention is paid to the role of evil in ancient and religious texts. The investigation is guided primarily by the latest research from the sciences (especially psychology and biology). The text will also considers to what extent groups or collective agents might count as evil and what relationship there might be – if any – between things like evil and art.
Articles:
Re-generating Wilderness (in progress - draft available)
Group and Joint Communication (under revision - draft available)
Logic and Inference in the Sender-Receiver Model (co-authored - in progress - presentation slides available)
An article on Aldo Leopold and his impact on Environmental Philosophy (for Aeon - in progress)
Art and Group-level Selection (in progress - draft available)
Communication in Plants (under-revision)
The "General Will" in Rousseau and Kant (slides available)
AI Art and Its Impact on Artists (in progress - short version published in NEWSWEEK)
Interviews/Op Eds/Popular Media |
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"APA Member Interview," American Philosophical Association Blog. July 31, 2020
"Artificial Intelligence Threatens Disaster for Artists," Newsweek. June 6, 2024
PhD Thesis |
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Title: Essays on Communication
Primary Advisor: Noël Carroll
Committee: John Greenwood, Stephen Neale, Michael Devitt
Institution & Defense Year: The Graduate Center, CUNY (2021)
Abstract: One of the central issues of contemporary philosophy and biology is the nature of communication. Early accounts of communication tended to focus on just one side of the communicative divide – the speaker side or the receiver side – and took as their starting point the case of human language. Animal communication, historically, was largely treated as a special case. Now things are different. Now it appears we might have a model that makes sense of sign use in both the human and animal realms and brings together both sides of the signaling divide. It’s still to be seen, however, how much the model actually captures, especially the farther down we go on the animal side, and it’s still to be seen how well the model captures the human cases, especially those around the edges. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the foundations of the sender-receiver model and to show that it can cover more than was previously imagined. Topics discussed include the nature of communication and signaling, animal communication, the nature of meaning or content, the communicative nature of objects such as works of art, blueprints, and maps, and the possibility of communication between groups and collective agents.
Photo taken at the Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge, Mississippi, USA (2021)