Cogito - Furman University · 2013-11-01 · philosophical and theological thought of Ignacio...

Dear Friends of the Furman Philosophy Department,

Well, the air is crisp and the leaves are falling here in Greenville. With the mountains

beginning to show forth their autumn color, your Alma mater is preparing for another

great homecoming celebration Nov 7-9, 2013. We hope that you will all join us for

the festivities. If you do, please stop by Furman Hall 125 for the Departmental

Drop-in on Saturday, November 9 from 10:00 a.m. - noon. We would love to

see you there!

There are a lot of exciting things going on in the Furman Philosophy Department and

we hope that this issue of the newsletter gives you a good sense of some of them. In

general, though, a year after the retirement of Dr. David Shaner, the department is

moving forward with the excellence and energy that all Furman philosophy alumni are

sure to remember and cherish. Here are just a few short updates on faculty activities.

Having taken on the role of Department Chair, Dr. Sarah Worth is working on a

book defending a wide interpretation of literature. The book will include discussions

of the differences between literary genres, the moral, cognitive and social benefits of

high levels of literacy, philosophical puzzles that are only problems for philosophers in

reference to literature, and the possibility of genre-bending toward the end of the

book. Hopefully the book will make relevant some old philosophical debates with

current worries about whether or not fiction is relevant in the 21st century and what

role it will play in the Common Core Educational Standards.

From the Editor

INS IDE THIS

ISSUE:

From the

Editor

1

In the Spotlight:

Dr. M. Carmela

Epright

3

Departmental

Activities

9

Student

Research …

In their own

words

10

Where are they

now?

15

Alumni

Spotlights

23

FURMAN

UNIVERS ITY

Furman Philosophy News

F A L L 2 0 1 3 V O L U M E V , I S S U E 1

Cogito

Cogito: Furman Philosophy News, page 2

Dr. Carmela Epright just returned from a year sabbatical working on issues dealing with

criminal justice and mental illness (we are pleased to include an extended interview with

Dr. Epright about her research in this area). As a result of this work, the University of

South Carolina School of Medicine has recommended that she be appointed to the rank

of Professor of Clinical Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Science at their institution.

Dr. David Gandolfo continues to chair the popular and growing Poverty Studies Minor.

The focus of the minor dovetails with much of his philosophical research. This past

summer he took part in an invitation-only conference in El Salvador focused on the

philosophical and theological thought of Ignacio Ellacuría; Gandolfo’s contribution was

on Ellacuría’s model of a university that takes social justice seriously, and the lessons of

that model for universities in the United States. Gandolfo is also working on topics in

Economic Ethics. His wife, Elizabeth, finished her Ph.D. in religion this past year (at Emory)

and has been teaching as an adjunct at Furman. Her book, The Power and Vulnerability of

Love, a re-working of her dissertation, will be out in 2014 with Fortress Press. The two Dr. Gandolfos are expecting their fourth child in April.

Dr. Mark Stone is now teaching the popular “Realizing Bodymind” course originally

designed by Dr. Shaner. He also continues to work on issues dealing with informal

Logic and Cartesian philosophy. This May he and Dr. Eiho Baba will lead a May X

travel study course to Japan titled “Garden, Temple, Dojo: Embracing Japanese Arts

and Culture.”

Dr. Erik Anderson is helping to organize a major philosophy conference to be held

at Furman in the spring. The South Carolina Society of Philosophy will be hosted at

Furman in February and feature a keynote address from Dr. Robert Talisse (Vanderbilt

University). This year Dr. Anderson has also published an article in a special issue of

Philosophia (with responses from Nicholas Wolterstorff and Christopher Eberle), and

an essay in Ethical Theory and Moral Practice. He is also hard at work on a book dealing

with sexual ethics.

Dr. Eiho Baba has taken over the “Japanese Philosophy” course from Dr. Shaner and is

currently working on a book dealing with Zhu Xi. Along with Dr. Stone, he will be leading

a May X course to Japan this summer.

I am also staying busy with various projects and a four-year-old son at home.

We hope that you enjoy this newsletter and we hope that you will take the opportunity

to reach out to us however works best for you. You can join the “Friends of Furman

Philosophy Department” Facebook group, drop an email to any of us, or hopefully, stop

by the Homecoming Drop-In.

On behalf of the Department,

Aaron Simmons

From the Editor continued


Looking for Justice in Courts and Hospitals: An Interview with Dr. Carmela Epright

J. Aaron Simmons (JAS): The department was thrilled last year when you were awarded one of two full year sabbaticals in a very competitive process here at Furman. I’m sure Furman alumni would like to hear about what you’ve been doing during this sabbatical year and especially how it has broad social relevance. That is, you seem to do technical philosophy for social benefit. How so? Carmela Epright (CE): Nothing I have ever done has been narrowly focused on traditional approaches

to philosophy. The sabbatical came as a continuation of the work that I’ve been doing at the

intersection of philosophy and psychiatry for the last 10 years, and, perhaps to a lesser extent, as part

of the work that I have been doing as a clinical bioethicist for the last 20 years. For me, this work has

always been about social justice and has always been about trying to use philosophy to affect some

change for the patient in front of me and to impact the way that we think about both medicine and

philosophy. I am interested in the way the mind works, how to think through questions about normal

human function, health and illness, and how all of this relates to what it means to be human. These

interests have come together for me in a philosophical investigation of psychiatry. I think that I must

be the luckiest philosopher in the world because clinicians have granted me the gift of allowing me to

explore these questions from the standpoint of clinical medicine and especially, clinical psychiatry. In

2005 I served as a visiting scholar at the Institute for Ethics

at Dartmouth College. As a result, I was introduced to a

number of psychiatrists who were committed to thinking

through ethical issues in their discipline. They allowed me

to work with their residents and medical students in the

inpatient unit at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Hospital. This

experience made it very clear to me that this work was

exactly what I was supposed to be doing in my life – I don’t

think that a philosopher with my background would have

been able to witness the suffering of inpatient psychiatric

patients without thinking about larger questions of social

justice, the distribution of resources, the meaning of health

and illness, and what it means to be a rational, autonomous

being. Since then, I’ve been voraciously reading psychiatry –

trying to develop an expertise in a field in which I was not

formally trained. It has been a steep learning curve. Thus

my current project is an outgrowth of this general trajectory

in my thinking and a vast amount of catch-up work and

studying.

In the Spotlight: Dr. M. Carmela Epright


It took me more than a year to set the sabbatical project up. I wrote to people all over the

country and was even put in contact with one of my idols, Peter Neufeld, one of the lawyers

who started the Innocence Project. He was enormously generous with his time and he gave

me lots of contacts, but everything kept falling through. It was pretty depressing. The

summer before I started the sabbatical I was working as a visiting scholar at the Medical

University in Charleston and I approached their forensic psychiatrists about allowing me to

observe their work, but the Chair flat out told me that he wasn’t interested in working with

me. My friends at the medical university were probably more upset about this than I was – I

had worked with many of them for more than a decade. The chair of the Ethics Board, a well

respected neurologist and a rather famous cardiothoracic surgeon lobbied on my behalf, to

no avail. Eventually, I think that the guy who had said no to me got so tired of hearing about

me that he forwarded all of the emails to the Chair of the Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship at

University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC. I had never thought to contact USC because I

didn’t know anyone there. The man who became my mentor at USC, Dr. Richard Frierson –

who I plan to thank in every paper and presentation that I produce for the rest of my life –

wrote me back 15 minutes later and said, “I don’t know, sounds interesting, want to come

to one of my evaluations?” I was so stunned that I stuttered, “yes…yes… please… thank

you,” something that I would say to him over and over throughout the course of the year.

The very first evaluation that I observed was of one of the most mentally ill defendants that

I would meet throughout the course of the year. He, like just about every other genuinely

mentally ill defendant that I would meet, was accused of committing a horrible crime;

however, unlike most of the defendants that I would observe, he wasn’t accused of murder

since the victim survived. My overwhelming sense after meeting him was that his crime

might have been prevented. He had a long history of mental illness and had been in and out

of Psychiatric facilities for more than 15 years – which is a pretty typical story for someone

who is so ill. Before I say this I should mention that Dr. Frierson would sternly remind me

that “one can never predict that a particular mentally ill person will go on to commit a

violent act,” and he is, of course, right, but I’m pretty sure that he wouldn’t chastise me

for saying that there are indicators, and that violent acts committed by defendants with

such a long history of psychosis, paranoid fantasies and delusions are not entirely

surprising. If I were going to state the only simple, pat answer that I have taken away from

this experience is that we need to have an effective mental health system in America, and

we simply don’t. For example, here in Greenville, psychiatric patients are lined up in the

ER’s hallways on gurneys for days at a time because there are no mental health beds.

Meanwhile, the major state psychiatric institute in Columbia has been closed down for

years. Every time I drove to Columbia I would have to drive by this now empty hospital. Its

enormous campus that has recently been sold to contactors who are going to make it into

In the Spotlight: Dr. M. Carmela Epright continued


apartments and shopping facilities while we continue to line psychiatric patients up in the hallways of

Greenville Memorial and all of the other hospitals throughout the state. Having seen this from the

inside, I am enormously motivated to make it clear that something must be done about this, or we

will continue to imprison mentally ill offenders rather than take steps to prevent these crimes from

happening. After this first evaluation, Richard Frierson said to me, “you do know that the American

Association of Psychiatry and the Law has an ethics statement, it’s online, you can read it, why don’t

you just do that?” I explained that my investigation was concerned with philosophical questions about

the nature of justice and how we perceive justice in the face of severe mental illness. I think that

this was a bit of a learning curve for him, too, he had never worked with a philosopher before. He

ultimately said something like, “well you seem pretty knowledgeable and it is clear you have done

your homework. Do you want to work with the fellowship program?” I again said, “yes…yes…please…

thank you.” Fellows are doctors who have completed a residency in psychiatry, thus they are already

fully trained psychiatrists. A Fellowship program offers them the opportunity to complete a year

of subspecialty training specifically in forensic psychiatry. Among other things they learn how to

evaluate, treat and offer testimony in court regarding defendants who are, or who are purported to

be, criminally, mentally ill. In other words, Dr. Frierson took a huge chance and opened up his

department to me, he allowed me to attend the fellows’ lectures, his own evaluations, and to attend

trials. He tolerated the fact that I couldn’t stop myself from talking and steering the lectures towards

philosophical issues. In other words, he offered me the opportunity that changed everything. He

helped me to solidify my suspicion that this is the work that I am supposed to be doing.

JAS: If you were maximally successful in the work you’re doing, do you see the upshot as creating a mental health system or do you see it as creating awareness for the need of a mental health system? CE: It is more the latter. I am accustomed to educating physicians, patients, and the general public

about issues in medical ethics that they think they understand, but once they confront terribly

complicated situations regarding treatment, they discover that they do not. This lack of understanding

renders people unable to foresee essential implications of medical practice. But never in my career

have I worked on an issue for which the difference between what the general public thinks is

happening is so fundamentally opposed to what is actually happening. By and large the average

person believes that every defendant who launches a defense regarding mental illness is lying and

attempting to “get away with it.” The fact of the matter is that no one is getting away with anything.

The “Not Guilty for Reason of Insanity” or NGRI defense is only attempted in 1% of all cases, and

even when it is presented as a defense it is successful only 25% of the time. But the public

perception is that this is a very common defense. Moreover, even if a defendant is found not

criminally responsible, they don’t just get to walk away. Instead, they end up in a forensic psychiatric

facility. And if you have been to one, which I have, they look an awful lot like prisons. Despite popular

belief, people found NGRI are not put into country clubs, they are not having a good time. The

In the Spotlight: Dr. M. Carmela Epright cont.



difference is that in a forensic facility they receive mental health treatment. If this project were maximally successful it would help to educate the public, to make the public recognize that their perceptions of the criminally mentally ill are not only inaccurate, but are wildly wrong. Patients that attempt to fake a mental illness are said to be “malingering.” And I certainly witnessed some malingering (which, in some cases was so obvious that it was difficult not to laugh), but the vast majority of what I saw were defendants with some form of mental illness. It is important to understand that having a mental illness itself is largely irrelevant in a criminal context. What matters is whether or not one’s illness prevented one from understanding that his or her actions were wrong. This is a distinction that most people don’t understand. Many people have said to me such things as “my sister is depressed, but she hasn’t killed anyone.” In the state of South Carolina, what matters is whether the defendant knew that the act was wrong at the time that it was committed. Our state has a separate defense for people who were unable to control their actions. In South Carolina, if you cannot conform your actions to the law you might be found “Guilty But Mentally Ill.” Most people think that this is a mitigating defense, that when the courts acknowledge that a defendant is mentally ill this declaration would necessitate a lesser penalty. But, the truth is that people found “GBMI” tend to get more punitive punishments – and we even have people that we know were actively psychotic when they committed the crime on death row. One possible explanation for this disparity is that our society is afraid of the mentally ill, thus acknowledging the mental illness of the defendant actually makes judges and juries more intent to keep such people locked up. JAS: So how does one engage in such an education project? CE: Well, simply knowing the facts is an important step. But I want to dig deeper, to

consider how we can make sense of mental illness and criminality, given our ethical and

legal paradigms. We tend to operate according to a classically liberal framework in which

the notion of guilt and punishment is that we punish you because we respect your

rationality. You are being punished because you could have acted otherwise, you chose

your actions, and thus chose your punishment. But, how do we make sense of this

paradigm in light of people who were truly incapable of acting otherwise? I have heard

extremely intelligent people say “well, they did it, didn’t they? If they did it they should

be locked up, whether or not they knew it was wrong or could control themselves.” Yes,

in many cases they did “do it,” and “it” was an unspeakable act. I am a parent, if someone

killed my child I would be overcome with a desire to punish the person who did it,

whether or not he or she was delusional or psychotic at the time. But as a philosopher I

hold that our rules of justice ought not be based on our desires at our weakest and our

worst. I think justice must be based on our best and most thoughtful approaches to these

questions. Accordingly, we just can’t make sense of the criminally mentally ill according


to the frameworks that we usually deploy.

JAS: One of the growing movements in ethical theory over the last decade or so has been the field of “neuroethics.” How do you think that field stands in relation to the work you are doing? CE: Some of the work I am doing is specifically in neuroethics. In fact, I am presenting in November

on the brains of sex offenders and what neuroscience can – and cannot – tell us about whether

their neurology will dictate their future actions. One of the parts of this broader project that I hope

to take up in the future has to do with psychopathy. There is a lot of evidence that there are brain-

based reasons for personality disorders in general and antisocial personality disorder in particular.

So-called “psychopaths” tend to commit the worst possible crimes and treating them is nearly

impossible. That is a big problem for us as philosophers. If it is true that “their brain made them do

it”—which I am not convinced is the right way to think of it—then, in some sense, they are being

punished because they could not have acted otherwise. There are a lot of interesting and open

questions at the intersections of psychiatry, neuroscience and criminality but even advances in

these fields will not immediately impact the courts. It takes a long time for the courts to react to

new medical information, assuming they should or can react to it at all. The courts have a very

weird relationship with medicine and with psychiatrists who act as expert witnesses. Judges and

juries hope that these professionals will provide meaningful insight, they want them to testify.

But, ultimately, what their evaluation and testimony means and how it should be interpreted is

decided not by psychiatric experts, but by those judges and juries – who know nothing about

psychiatry, and tend to believe that all defendants who launch a NGRI defense are malingerers.

I don’t have an answer to how to deal with this. The problem in the case of psychopaths is that,

for the most part, they can’t be effectively treated. The severely mentally ill tend to have bad

treatment outcomes as well. So, the answers are not easy to find. I am not suggesting that we

should let them all go free, but, my general sense is that we could be doing a lot better than we

are. I also have to add that most mentally ill people never hurt anyone. Mentally ill people are far

more likely to be victims than to be perpetrators of crime. As a society, we just don’t know that

and fear of the mentally ill makes these questions even more intractable.

JAS: It sounds like the work you are doing is in very specific areas: notions of justice, conceptions of

criminality, links between neuroscience and applied ethics, etc. Yet, it seems like this work might be

a pivot point with some larger questions in contemporary ethical theory. It is not as if our ethical

theories stay in place, and now we do this narrow work regarding the criminally mentally ill as a

case study in applied ethics. Instead, it seems like your suggestion is that doing this applied work

helps us to reconceive our moral theories more broadly. Does that sound right?

In the Spotlight: Dr. M. Carmela Epright cont.


CE: This is the way I approach everything I do. In some ways I am this weird philosopher who hangs out in the foreign world of hospitals and psychiatric institutions. Neither philosophers or physicians know what to make of me. But, from my point of view, I want to know what is going on in the world so that I can change the way we think about it, so that we can develop moral theories that respond to these realities. Philosophy must be brought to bear on questions of justice and morality, and this has always been my project. There are really two questions that guide my thinking. The first is a question of justice: how do I make things different and better for the person in front of me and then, in turn, for the larger society? And the larger philosophical question: How do we respond to, and if necessary, revise our understanding of ethical theory to make room for new questions – questions that Aristotle, Kant, Mill and the other great theorists could never have predicted. How, for example, do our new understandings of neuroscience, of the brain, impact the ways in which we think about the self and free will? How does our understanding of serious mental illness and psychotic disorders impact the ways in which we can think about agency and personal responsibility? JAS: As a way of bringing this interview to a close, let me ask how you see this work during your sabbatical year as already impacting (or likely to impact) your activities here at Furman (especially your teaching)? CE: Well, I can’t stop talking about it, so my students will certainly hear about it! I am completely incapable of keeping quiet about these questions – which one would think would make me boring at parties; however, I have found that people’s eyes do not glaze over, that people are, as am I, genuinely riveted by these questions. In terms of a direct impact on my classes, this work will completely alter my approach to my philosophy of psychology course, I suspect that my entire syllabus will change as a result. It is already impacting my clinical bioethics course, because what I have learned has tremendous impact on the ways in which I conceive of the questions raised in the study of medical ethics. I did a research project with a student this summer that flows out of this work, and I hope to do another in the summer of 2014. I have never been more passionate about anything and I imagine that this passion does and will color my teaching. I just became a full professor, which means that Furman is not likely to get rid of me if I don’t write like a maniac and drive all over the state in order to do clinical work for three academic medical centers; but these issues have only made me more curious and more eager to learn and to write. I want to do more work, more work with students, more work with the public.

Dr. M. Carmela Epright with son, Luca



Departmental Activities

“Continuing to Realize Bodymind at Furman”

By Dr. Mark Stone

Ring a bell and the sound continues long after you strike it. The consequences of our actions

continue similarly into the future. Dr. David Shaner

retired from the Furman Philosophy Department

last fall, but his influence is still actively felt. Some

of the courses that he taught such as the Philosophy

of Science and his First Year Seminar on Monism

are no longer being offered. But Japanese Philosophy

and Realizing Bodymind are still a significant part

of the department's current class offerings.

Dr. Eiho Baba, whose specialization is Chinese and

Confucian philosophy, is currently teaching Japanese

Philosophy. One of the new things to this course is

the use of an excellent collection of primary sources

that has recently been published, Japanese

Philosophy: a Sourcebook. Dr. Mark Stone, whose

philosophical training is in the history of Western

philosophy but who has been an avid Aikido student

of Dr. Shaner’s for over twenty years, is currently

teaching Realizing Bodymind.

Dr. Stone and Dr. Baba are also teaming up to offer a May X travel study course to Japan in 2014

called “Garden, Temple, Dojo: Embracing Japanese Arts and Culture.” This course explores the

cultural and philosophical context of Japanese Arts. Students in this program have a chance to

learn about and experience a variety of arts and explore the connections between these arts and

the Japanese religious traditions of Zen Buddhism and Shinto. It involves an introduction to

the disciplines of Ki-Aikido, which include Aikido arts, meditation, and Kiatsu. The study further

includes opportunities to experience tea ceremony and Japanese calligraphy. Students also

travel to visit significant temples and shrines in Tokyo, Nikko, Kamakura, Kyoto, and Nara. To use

a very Western metaphor, the strength of these course offerings in non-Western philosophy and

their continuing development can be clearly traced back to the impetus of Dr. Shaner who acted

in this regard as a First Cause.


During the summer of 2013, the philosophy department faculty were extremely active in research, as usual. But, what was especially exciting about this particular summer was that five students were involved in this research. Erik Anderson, Sarah Worth, Mark Stone, Aaron Simmons, and Carmela Epright all had students working with them as collaborators on individual research projects. These projects were primarily funded by the Furman Advantage program and addressed issues ranging from mental illness to the new atheism. In what follows, we offer short accounts of these exciting research projects as written and explained by the students themselves.

Emery Sloan and Dr. Erik Anderson

“A Critical Analysis of the New Atheism”

Dr. Anderson and I spent the summer researching the New Atheism; this belief consists of the notion that religion is futile when science is the only route we can take in order to Properly define our world. We read four books, each written by an author who associates with these New Atheists, and found reviews and articles on each of them to aid us in our understanding of the various perspectives on faith. We began by reading Daniel Dennett’s book, Breaking the Spell, which emphasizes the idea that we can reduce religion to its most basic of elements, scientifically define its individual aspects, and reunite its parts to leave us with religion as wholly and entirely explained by science. We shed light on the fact that that there is a personal aspect of religion that each individual has with God that cannot be explained, much like

falling in love. After reading Dennett’s book and researching criticisms of his work, I found myself able to outline his theory and explain why he is likely mistaken. We also read The God Delusion, written by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. His main claim is that it is unethical to raise children in a devout environment. He writes that to corrupt our younger generations with our religious influence would be immoral and unfair, and our children should have the right to decide for themselves what they want to believe about the world. My research focused on the notion that the authority figures in every child’s life are the people who provide them with manners, habits, morals, and identities. Thus, we must encourage parental influence for the benefit of our youths.

The End of Faith, by philosopher and neuroscientist Sam Harris, focuses primarily on Islam and blames the Muslim community as a whole for causing today’s most pressing issues. Harris creates labels for individuals of specific faiths and groups them to be “the same” as every other person who identifies with that religion. My understanding of his work

Student Research… In their own words


compelled me to argue why we must condemn the labeling and stereotyping of individuals based on their religious belief. Dr. Anderson and I also read God is not Great, by Christopher Hitchens. His primary thesis is that organized religion is threatening, irrational, and detrimental to our morality, causing racism and ethnic stereotypes. I used his perspectives on faith to contribute to my understanding of New Atheism and aid in my writing on the previous three books. My essays were joined together with an introduction to form a three-part thesis on New Atheism and the considerations we must have when examining religion from a scientific viewpoint.

Jessica Corey and Dr. Sarah Worth

“Philosophy, Videogames, and Fictional Worlds”

When Dr. Worth approached me and asked if I wanted to do summer research on philosophy and video games, I couldn’t have been more ecstatic. I have been playing video games for as long as I can remember, but for me it was never something I thought about, I just played for entertainment. At the beginning of our research, it was difficult for me to get a grasp on what it meant to look at videogames philosophically. When my friends asked what kind of research I would be doing, the best I could tell them was that we were looking at philosophy and videogames, but I couldn’t say much more. As it turns out, however, there is a wealth of topics that pertain to videogames, and the question for Dr. Worth and I became more about how we would focus our research, rather than if there would be enough on which to focus. Our differing backgrounds contributed to our differing areas of interest, while Dr. Worth wanted to explore in the use of videogames within the military, I was interested in the idea of personal identity through videogames. Luckily, we were able to combine the two in our paper entitled, “On Videogames and Players: Immersion, Effects, and Gameplay.” We threaded the two interests together with the idea of blurred lines between the virtual and reality. While there is much debate surrounding the nature of fiction as it pertains to reality, (such as with the paradox of fiction), videogames are a unique type of fiction given their interactive nature, and as a result makes them a much more interesting case. While there is not enough space to go in depth about it here, the idea is that when a person is playing a game, he or she is making decisions that affect the game, and in turn can affect him or her—a blurring of the lines between fiction and reality. In this context, the question of the use of videogames in the military became incredibly interesting. We found that drone operators are trained using videogame systems that closely resemble the actual drone operating system. Soldiers have reported that operating a drone, even when targeting real military targets and personnel, feels just like a videogame. Usage of videogames in the military, while perhaps effective training and recruiting tools, blurs the line between reality and virtual and is problematic as such because it can treat human life as if it were fictional.

Student Research cont.

Student Research… In their own words cont.


Matt Kearns and Dr. Mark Stone

“The Philosophy of Richard Rorty”

The goal of this project has been to study the work of philosopher Richard Rorty with specific attention to the understanding of truth he presented in his 1979 publication Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Rorty argues that epistemology, as understood as a discipline primarily concerned with the problem of representation, is a new field in philosophy emerging from the philosophical language of the modern period. For Rorty this suggests that philosophical problems related to the correspondence theory were in fact pseudo-problems without merit and that no theory of truth is needed at all. Drawing from the American tradition of pragmatism Rorty argues that truth is recognized when consensus has been achieved in matters of inquiry. In addition to studying Rorty's argument to determine whether it is successful and internally consistent, this study has aimed at proposing a possible response to Rorty's criticisms of philosophy. Such a response would contain a view of philosophy in which it addresses real rather than pseudo-problems. While research is ongoing, a final paper is being developed to defend Rorty against some of his critics and offer a new presentation of the debate in terms of the possibilities of social criticism and the limitations of human knowledge.


Zach Jolly and Dr. Aaron Simmons

“Kierkegaard’s Prophetic Philosophy of Religion” In Kierkegaard’s Critique of Reason and Society, Merold Westphal raises the question of whether or not the scientific/objective approach that for so long has characterized so much of academic inquiry is appropriate for philosophy of religion. Objectivity, he notes, fails to capture the individual profundity of religious experience. Even worse, objectivity itself cannot be characterized as truly disinterested—and this raises another problem. If the scientific approach is improper to philosophy of religion, then what approach should philosophers of religion take? Westphal’s answer is surprising and stark: philosophers should adopt the model of the Hebrew prophet. Although Westphal outlines what the prophetic model would look like (personal, political, untimely, and eschatological), Abraham Joshua Heschel and Søren Kierkegaard provide a more detailed analysis of what it means to be a prophet. The relevant questions then become a matter of distinguishing between prophets and philosophers on the one hand and the relation between prophecy and philosophy on the other. Can philosophers be prophets, or can they merely be prophetic? Does philosophy allow a place for prophecy? If so, what are the philosophical consequences of this allowance? This summer, we looked at these questions in detail and ended up writing a short essay together that has now been published on a philosophy and religion blog. We are currently engaged in finishing a longer essay in which these ideas will be developed at length. Ultimately, we aim to present this research at a conference and have it published in a philosophy journal.

Student Research cont.

Student Research… In their own words cont.


Christina Downes and Dr. Carmela Epright

“Public Perceptions of the Criminally Mentally Ill”

This summer, I did research with Dr. Epright in the field of forensic psychiatry. To begin, I researched background information and famous cases that involved mentally ill defendants (including the cases of John Hinckley, Andrea Yates, James Wilson, Jared Loughner, and James Holmes), and how the outcomes of these trials influenced reform of the insanity defense. Additionally, I looked into public opinion and statistics concerning persons who are found not guilty by reason of insanity, such as the statistical frequency of insanity defenses and the percentage of acquittals, the frequency of Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity vs. Guilty but Mentally Ill, how often malingering occurs and how often it is successful. As this stage came to a close, I began to study the public’s myths concerning the insanity defense and the criminally insane, and how these myths influence people’s opinions and knowledge of the criminally mentally ill. I looked largely at popular media sources (both fictional and nonfictional) as informants of public myth that the mentally ill have a tendency to be violent, yet many of those labeled “criminally insane” in the media do not have a diagnosable mental disorder. Even among children’s programs, there was an apparent bias that associated “insanity” with criminality. As a result of the implicit bias built into these sources, the NGRI verdict in everyday life is seen largely as an easy way for criminals to “slip through the cracks,” and viewed as an injustice to the public.

As a psychology major, doing research in this area from a philosophical approach was of great interest to me and, at least as I perceive it, an issue of great import in society. In terms of the recent cases of Jared Loughner and James Holmes, the media was quick to label them “psychotic” but never explained why. Therefore, many myths were propagated about these people and people with mental illness in general, thus obscuring public knowledge about the symptoms and outcomes of mental illness.


Where Are They Now?

Page Anderson (1991) graduated with a dual major in philosophy and psychology and earned her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Georgia in 1998. Dr. Anderson is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Georgia State University, where she is the director of Clinical Training and Chair of the Clinical Psychology Program, a nationally accredited doctoral program. Her research focuses on developing and testing treatments for anxiety disorders, with an emphasis on how technology can be used to improve access to evidence-based treatments. Her work with virtual reality exposure therapy has been featured in multiple media outlets, including the Today Show and CNN. She lives with her husband, Dan (also a psychologist), and 3 kids, Tessa (13), Jack (10), and Sam (8), in Decatur, GA, where she cheers madly for her kids’ sports teams. [email protected]

Courtney Krueger: I have been pastor of First Baptist Church of Pendleton since 1996. In January I will become the longest serving pastor in FBC’s 172 year history. My wife (a 1988 Education Major Furman Grad) and I have two children. David is 20 years old and in culinary school in Charleston, SC. Sarah is 16 years old and a junior in High School. Philosophically speaking, as I have aged into my mid (and now post-mid) forties I have become more aware of and intentional about the mind-body-spirit connection. I spend as much time as I can outdoors running, mountain biking, horse riding, etc. Those pursuits fuel both my mind and spirit.

Bill Martin (1978):

I'm at the beginning of my 24th year at DePaul University (Chicago), having been a professor here since 1990. I'm leaving for Shanghai in a couple of days, I will spend a month at Fudan University teaching French Marxism (Sartre to Badiou) to Chinese students in English. I did this last year as well, and it has been a fantastic experience. I've been all about China and Japan these last few years, and my work has recently congealed around a strange combination of French Marxism, Maoism, and Buddhism. I am hoping to retire in five years; I am now at the start of a grand plan to earn two master's degrees at DePaul in that period, an interdisciplinary MA in Buddhist Studies, and an MA in music composition. We'll see how that goes, but for me it is an opportunity to get back to what I really love, to study and learn. I am playing music quite a bit in recent years, centered around my main instrument, the bass guitar, but just as much of it contemporary experimental music as rock. I remain an avid cyclist, but I was in a major accident in Sept. 2011 (I was hit by a van and spent two months in hospital) and am still coming back from that in some ways. I would love to hear from anyone connected with Furman philosophy, especially on Facebook. I'll be back on FB after Nov. 11--I'm deactivating as of Oct. 4, as FB is blocked in China.

mailto:[email protected]

Where Are They Now? cont.


Sean McCann (2004) has recently been called as the Associate Pastor at Sovereign Grace Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, NC. Sean is married to Lindsey McCann and they have four daughters: Lucy, Ellie, Anna, and Mary Neal.

Szamor Phillips-Williams: I graduated from Furman in 2010 (I was originally part of the 2008 graduating class). Since graduation I have done a few different things but am currently living in Grand Junction, CO working as on-air radio talent for the Vault 100.7 (I do the morning show 6-10, 7 days a week). Also, I work as a bartender for a local winery called Two Rivers Winery and as a Marketing Consultant for MBC Grand Broadcasting, a private national broadcasting company which specializes in television in the North-East and radio in the Mid-West. Other than that I volunteer monthly and am the president of the Synergy Chapter of Business Network International. After attending Furman I have attained my RYT Yoga instructor certification and completed two Dale Carnegie courses.


From Stephen M. Crotts: I am a philosophy major, class of '72....during the Dr. Gragg, Buford years. I am now teaching a fall class in Christian Apologetics in divinity school here in the Chapel Hill area of N.C. It has been great stimulation! Theodicy, authority of the Bible, epistemology, Science and faith, metaphysics, the resurrection, evolution and creationism, the uniqueness of Christ, arguments for the existence of God. I told my wife that I have not studied this hard since my Furman and Emory days!

From Rich Reynell: As a 1969 graduate, I go back to the days when Dr. Albert Tibbs was the head of the philosophy department. By this time the debate between the analytics and the lotus eaters had been going on for a number of years but he was able to guide us through the arguments which allowed us to intelligently chose our sides. What I learned from my philosophy studies has guided me my entire life. The training in logic and reasoning has provided me with the tools to maneuver in life and business. That said, my introduction to Kierkegaard at Furman has been by far the greatest influence. SK's extraordinary spirituality and genius still challenges my mind and leads me to the right path. I have lived in Atlanta for over 20 years after spending the previous years since graduation in New York and overseas. I worked for a number of years as a broker in the financial industry but am now a private investor. I met my wife Elaine, a native Londoner, overseas and we lived in Bermuda for about 10 years. Upon returning to the States our son Robbie was born and is now in college. Our daughter, Kaitlin, is a senior in high school and is busy applying to music conservatories. I spend much of my time with reading, carpentry and fishing and hanging out at the Methodist church (looking for someone to discuss SK with). Should anyone be interested in getting in touch I can be reached at [email protected].

Where Are They Now? Cont.




Chris Hagebak (1985) gave up the practice of law in 1993 when he became disabled and is currently the owner and manager of 809 Gallery of Art in LaGrange, Georgia. Chris is primarily known for his watercolor portraiture, but works in a variety of media and styles. His most recent exhibition was at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in April; he is looking forward to 2014 exhibitions in Germany, Taiwan and Japan. Chris is married to the former Pepper Ellis of LaGrange and has one daughter, Saga, who is a student at College of Charleston.

"Flatiron", an original acrylic that Chris used on his business cards when he went to Japan.

"Sakura, Sakura", a nice watercolor that's based on the style of Helen Hyde.


From Samuel Robinson: I graduated from Furman in 2007. I'm currently working on my Ph.D. in history at the University of California, Berkeley. My field of study is early modern Europe (c. 1500-1800) and my research focuses on post-Reformation England with interests in radical religious practice, theology, and intellectual history. Actually, at the moment I'm in the United Kingdom doing research in several archives for my dissertation on the relationship between the spirit and the body in seventeenth-century England. I'm examining how religious thinkers of the time reformulated the relationship between the divine and the corporeal and the influence this had on the wider intellectual milieu's understanding of the spiritual and the material worlds. I'm interested in linking some specific historical changes to broader Enlightenment trends by putting religious thinkers in conversation with philosophers like Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, and Leibniz. So, I'm actually putting my Furman degree in philosophy to good use! If all goes well (a big if!), I hope to enter the academic job market a year from now. My partner, Caitlin, and I live in the dusty hills of Oakland, California. Having competed for the cross and track teams at Furman, I still run way more than is socially acceptable. :)

Jonathan Hensley, Class of 1997 After practicing law for several years, I returned to school a few years ago to pursue a Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Maryland, College Park. I'm currently ABD and hoping to finish my Ph.D. in spring 2014. I live in Baltimore with my wife, Nadia, our six-month-old daughter, Clementine, and our loyal pit bull mix Tyler. I can report that while getting a Ph.D. is hard, being a dad is probably harder, but well worth the effort.

The following is one of the most interesting emails we received from one of our Alumni and found it too good not to share: Purely by accident, I was seated next to a descendant of Immanuel Kant at a fundraiser for a local nonprofit last Friday. I nearly fell out of my chair when she revealed her identity. Turns out, she’s a gracious lady who rescues orphans and ferments her own tawny port, which she described as “gentlemen’s wine.” She has survived two hurricanes (in Florida) and at least one mugging (in Brazil). She now resides in our fair state of South Carolina, in a residential subdivision. (I cannot be more specific regarding her current residence, for fear she would be accosted by the press.) All of this is true. Surely – surely – this warrants an honorable mention in the department newsletter. If not, I shall cancel my subscription. Sincerely yours, David “Cole” Kimball




From Shay Dunn: Hey All, I'm Shay, Shay Dunn (was Shannon Smoak in school). I live in Columbia, SC, graduated in '99, divorced, no kids. The job I work at currently is typing test results on 2nd shift for a local hospital radiology department. After going through a few personal challenges in my life, though, I became fascinated by alternative healing methods/pain relief and am now studying in the clinical massage therapy program at Midlands Tech. With school and work both being full-time, I do stay pretty busy but enjoy making time for my hobby of aerial dance classes, including aerial silks (like what they do in Cirque), trapeze, and lyra (a big metal hoop suspended from the ceiling). I definitely had to wrap my brain around working off the ground like that at first, but it's a joy when you get it. Would highly recommend as an interesting way to get fit :-) (And if anyone is ever in the area and wants to give it a try themselves, let me know!) My contact info is [email protected], 803-413-1742. Even if you didn't know me in school, feel free to drop a line or leave a message. I'm happy to chat or grab a cup of coffee sometime if anyone's local. Hope everyone is doing well, take care! Shay


tel:803-413-1742


Lauren Angelo, Class of 2007

After spending my first few years out of Furman renting and selling cars, I achieved the highest honor of "car salesperson of the month" before returning to school and graduating with a Master of Public Health degree from the University of South Carolina. I currently live in Columbia and work at United Way of the Midlands, managing research, reporting and evaluating for a federally required homeless database. I rely on both lessons from the Toyota dealership and lessons from philosophy in my work every day. Kant's categorical imperative is, after all, a good principle to follow when working with those who are homeless. I married my husband Michael in June and am currently immersed in the art of marital compromise over paint colors and furniture choices. I miss Greenville, Furman, and the philosophy department often, and I have never regretted my bold and parentally-concerning decision to major only in philosophy without a sensible second major.



Mike Martinez (B.A., philosophy and political science, class of 1984) has written a book about the history of the environmental movement in the United States. The book, titled American Environmentalism: Philosophy, History, and Public Policy, was published by CRC Press, an academic publisher of scientific topics and materials, in July 2013.

As Mike explains in the book, protecting the natural environment and promoting sustainability have become important objectives in the United States, but achieving such goals presents myriad challenges for even the most committed environmentalist. American Environmentalism examines whether competing interests can be reconciled while developing consistent, coherent, effective public policy to regulate uses and protection of the natural environment without destroying the national economy. It then reviews a range of possible solutions.

According to the publisher, the book: Provides an interdisciplinary approach to environmental issues that draws on philosophical, historical, and public policy elements;

Discusses the philosophical foundations of American environmentalism;

Traces the history of American environmentalism from the Ancient Greeks to the present;

Explores the process and development of public policy in the American regime;

Includes 20 photographs of key historical figures and environmental processes;

Covers life cycle management for corporations along with related regulatory recommendations;

Contains complete coverage of contemporary literature, recent policies, agencies, laws at the federal level, global conferences, industrial trends, and the climate change debate; and

Introduces policy makers to comprehensive foundational knowledge of environmental philosophy, economy, and history of competing concepts.

American Environmentalism is Mike's seventh book. Visit his website at www.jmichaelmartinez.com for more information.


http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781466559707

http://www.jmichaelmartinez.com/


Michelle Pugh was born in Atlanta, Georgia, but grew up mainly in Wilbraham, Massachusetts. She moved to Greenville, South Carolina, to attend Furman University, where she earned a degree in philosophy (2005). After college, she hiked the Appalachian Trail, which was the inspiration for her book, Love at First Hike. Michelle has lived in five states since college, but has now settled in Simpsonville, South Carolina, where she works as an Emergency Medical Technician. When she is not working she enjoys hiking, camping, reading, cooking, and quilting. Interview Highlights: Worth: What interested you enough to major in Philosophy? Pugh: When I started Furman I had no idea what I wanted to major in. My first semester I took Intro to Philosophy with you, Dr. Worth. You was a fabulous professor and the material was different from anything I had ever encountered before. After trying out two other majors I remembered how much I had enjoyed Philosophy. I took another course and soon I had declared Philosophy as my major and asked you to be my advisor. Worth: What are you doing now? Pugh: I work as an Emergency Medical Technician for Greenville County EMS. I have been lucky to have the opportunity to work in many different fields since college, including Outdoor Education, Not-for-Profit Management, and now the Medical Field. Each job has taught me different things about myself and the world around me. In this job I love that every day I have the opportunity to help people, and that I never know what my day will entail. Worth: How has your philosophy degree impacted life after college? Pugh: Being a Philosophy major taught me to read complicated material well, write strongly, argue effectively, and analyze absolutely everything -- those are skills I have used in every single job.

Worth: You just published a memoir. Can you tell me about that? Pugh: Someone once told me that people who have written Bucket Lists accomplish more in life. I started a Bucket List in college and I have been ticking items off whenever possible. Hiking the Appalachian Trail was one of my major items, and I completed that after graduating Furman. This seemed to provide great writing material, so I decided to complete another Bucket list item by writing a memoir about my hike. Writing a book was an extremely challenging process and I had to learn so much along the way. Editing, marketing, cover design, and publishing guidelines were just a few of the previously uncharted territories. My book, Love at First Hike, is doing well. I am about to begin my first round of book talks up and down the east coast.

Alumni Spotlights


Alumni Spotlights cont.

Interview with Timothy Kyle Thomas By Dr. Mark Stone Mark Stone (MS): Remind me, Kyle, what year did you graduate from Furman? Timothy Kyle Thomas (TKT): May 2009 MS: Since then what have you been doing in the way of work and further education? TKT: In May 2012, I graduated from Harvard Divinity School with a Masters of Theological Studies in Buddhism. In September 2012, I began work at Harvard Business School and I am now a Research Associate in support of two professors. I currently live in Cambridge, MA across the street from Harvard Law School. MS: What is the nature of the research that you’re doing with the Harvard Business School? TKT: My primary role is to assist in the development of cases - tightly focused studies that are used to facilitate in class discussion. Cases - HBS cases in particular - are the cornerstone of the MBA curriculum in America. I also aid my professors in support of their research agenda. MS: Can you give an example? TKT: I'm in a nascent stage of researching several cases at the moment. A case I worked on that was recently published is "Cisco Systems and Offshore Cash" (HBS Case No. N9-114-027) and a paper that I helped with, that was recently published, is "How Do Staggered Boards Affect Shareholder Value? Evidence from a Natural Experiment” (Journal of Financial Economics). MS: I just read a book that argues for the importance of acquiring research skills in college. I guess you would agree with that? TKT: Most definitely. Although, I would point out that professional-grade research skills really begin with persistence. With the Internet, finding data is a research skill relatively easy to learn, the real value-differentiating research skill is how to efficiently organize and present what you know. MS: Could you share your thoughts about the value of a philosophy degree and how that ties in with what you've been doing since you graduated from Furman? TKT: Even though the world is transitioning to economies powered by intellectual capital, it can still be difficult to articulate the value of studying thinking. There is a practical value in philosophy in cultivating informed individuals able to efficiently and critically engage in the world around them. But I would say the real value of majoring in philosophy is personal empowerment: the systematic intellectual rigor acquired allows for deeper engagement


with almost anything, from business models to Netflix. It was somewhere around studying Kant's transcendental idealism that I realized the potential for significance exploding out of every idea and object. Of course I would also point out that this value-proposition is nothing new - I see this idea of living a satisfactory life empowered by thought as reiteration of the Greek concept of eudaimonia or the Indian concept of shanti. MS: In reflecting on a philosophy major now, what philosophy classes would you argue are especially valuable? TKT: Logic! How this class isn't mandatory curriculum at all universities is itself illogical. You're telling me that what is essentially a humanities class with immediate applicability to math and science and that also underwrites our politico-legal system that surrounds us isn't at the core of a liberal arts education? At the very least, it teaches you how to write clearly and efficiently - a skill all too lacking outside and in the humanities. MS: Where do you see academic education going in the next few years, especially philosophy? TKT: I think we are sauntering towards a revolutionary period in the democratization of education with the potential to completely reimagine the education system. Some of my classes at Furman (not the Philosophy ones!) could easily be replaced with material found at Kahn Academy, Coursera, or Harvard's own edX. That being said, I don't think there is a substitute for human interaction. I would also say that the future value of philosophy might rely more on its past rhetorical elements. MS: What's next for you? TKT: The Ph.D. is always an option, but that's beginning to look more and more like an outdated model. My primary agenda right now is to contribute to a free and open mode of scholarship - particularly as it pertains to topics of diachronic cross-cultural resonance. You would be amazed at how well Hindu mimasaka theory complements the works of Frege, Russell, et al. More concretely though my plan is to continue researching at Harvard while taking classes in computer science and trying to finish my multi-lingual translation of the Heart Sutra. Om Bodhi Svaha! MS: Ok, one last question. This is from the Heart Sutra, right? Om Bodhi Svaha. How would you translate it? TKT: Yes, the Heart Sutra ends with the famous mantra: Om gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha. This phrase is subject to endless debate as to what it means or translates to, but looking at it as a dharani you could describe it as a compressed zip file containing all the wisdom in the universe in a few syllables. Om bodhi svaha is a kind of oblation or invocation meaning “om supreme wisdom/enlightenment amen.” It really is meant more for meditative purposes than actual understanding purposes. (By the way, this should be the mantra of the Philosophy department). MS: Thank you very much, Kyle. Om Bodhi svaha!




Hillary Mullet c/o 2011 Furman University: What are you doing now? HM: I'm in my third year of graduate school at Duke University, studying cognitive psychology. So far in grad school, much of my research has focused on how to help students learn and remember information better. FU: What are some of your fondest Furman philosophy memories? HM: When I reflect on my experiences as a Furman philosophy major, I remember stimulating and animated class discussions that left me thinking long after class was over. Perhaps even more memorable are conversations that I had outside of class, both with my classmates (several of whom became close friends) and with professors who served as wonderful mentors and role models. These discussions-- about important, interesting, and complicated topics like religion, relationships, goals, and values-- were among my most meaningful moments at Furman. FU: How are you using your philosophy major? (This will be easy for the two of you who are in philosophy grad programs!) HM: The philosophy major helped me to develop communication skills, both as a writer and a speaker. I was challenged to think critically and creatively; to argue persuasively; and to understand, interpret, and analyze complex ideas. These skills have been important in graduate school, and I know that they will continue to be valuable for the rest of my career and life. FU: Do you have any advice for current Furman philosophy students? HM: Challenge yourself to speak up in class; to improve as a writer and thinker; and to have critical discussions with your professors and peers. Right now, you are part of an intelligent, interesting, thoughtful, caring, and supportive community. This is a special environment, and there is no better opportunity to hone your ideas, take risks, and seek feedback.


Scott Greenberg c/o 2011 Furman University: What are you doing now? SG: Pursuing a Masters in Philosophy at NIU and writing a food blog. FU: What are some of your fondest Furman philosophy memories? SG: Definitely the political philosophy reading group we put together. Nothing feels better than taking an hour to go over 3 pages and REALLY going deep into what those pages are all about. And sometimes way past what they're about. I miss it. FU: How are you using your philosophy major? (This will be easy for the two of you who are in philosophy grad programs!) SG: Using it to study more philosophy! (and really? only two of us?)

FU: Do you have any advice for current Furman philosophy students? SG: Stop focusing on the little numbers and grades at the top of your papers and start focusing on the ideas. Plenty of brilliant ideas have probably gotten B’s and C’s, and plenty of boring ones have probably gotten A’s. Nobody remembers the numbers...they remember the ideas. John Helsel c/o 2011 Furman University: What are you doing now? JH: I'm in my 3rd year of doing a PhD in philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder. FU: What are some of your fondest Furman philosophy memories? JH: For the last class of the year, Dr. Edwards would take the whole class out to Barley's and buy a round for everyone. We never covered much material at Barley's, but it brought home how deeply he cared about all of us. Another great memory was when Dr. Shaner took our Indian Philosophy class out to the Place of Peace and we spent the hour meditating and listening to the birds singing in the surrounding trees. FU: How are you using your philosophy major? (This will be easy for the two of you who are in philosophy grad programs!) JH: I'm working on a graduate degree in philosophy. I only wish I had done more classics at Furman. FU: Do you have any advice for current Furman philosophy students? JH: Take advantage of office hours. Most of the philosophy that I did at Furman took place in Erik's or Jim's office long after the class had let out.




Grant Allard c/o 2012 FU: What are you doing now? GA: I am the Director of Operations for Furman University Men's Soccer. My job encompasses developing an exciting game day experience that instills pride in Furman, assisting in managing the budget, assisting with fundraising, alumni, and donor relations, and developing a marketing strategy to enhance existing Men's Soccer activities. It is a great honor to be at my alma mater and being able to use my degree everyday as I try to understand people's motivations. FU: What are some of your fondest Furman philosophy memories? GA: By far, the people in the Philosophy program comprise my fondest memory. The professors I had in class each inspired me in their own way. Sarah Worth liberated me into this world of thinking called philosophy. Erik Anderson helped me think about problems methodically and explore them systematically. David Shaner guided me to find myself in the world around me. Jim Edwards helped me learn to persevere and read critically: philosophy takes time! Mark Stone helped me learn to stay focused on the small things—to pay attention to detail both in what I and others say (I may not have understood fallacies then, but I'm willing to point out any fallacious argument now, ask Coach Allison!). And Carmela Epright helped me learn to listen as much as to speak.

My fellow students are also important to me. I have thought many times about some of the discussions left unresolved because of class' end. I particularly remember some great conversations with Jonathan Cote and John Helsel and those awesome philosophical walks around the lake with Alexa Rancourt. One of my fondest memories was running into Brandon Sebirumbi in the summer at the PAC (or at Timmons) and talking about Wittgenstein in the middle of a workout. There are so many good memories. As an alumnus, I fondly remember the Philosophy Department Smores' Out at Aaron Simmons’ house after I graduated and standing outside in the cold with Eiho and Aaron talking about how we all fit together into this university (and talking about David Shaner's pig roast!) FU: How are you using your philosophy major? (This will be easy for the two of you who are in philosophy grad programs!) GA: I use my philosophy major everyday because philosophy has taught me how to learn and think about relationships. I took Shaner's Japanese Philosophy and Epright's Philosophy of Gender my last semester and those two classes left me thinking about how I am not an integral, autonomous being but a being defined by the web into which I fit. As I have developed professionally, my identity is closely tied to the relationships in which I am engaged.


This works well because the two sectors (college athletics and Furman) in which I am deeply entwined are comprised of relationships. College athletics is a network of relationships within the organization of one's team, another within the context of a conference, and yet more when you look at sponsors, communities, professional teams, and businesses that support your student-athletes. Furman, of course, is a university founded upon intimate relationships between faculty, students, and staff. We all become better by working together across our disciplinary boundaries to think about problems in new and diverse ways. At the end of the day, I find myself thinking about how I can help those around me find happiness (or understanding) through that, finding happiness or understanding myself. I also use my philosophy degree to understand how we play. Soccer is basically a big, physical language game. Team A plays strategy A and then Team B must understand that strategy, decide how they will respond, and execute the response. Thus defining success in soccer is often arbitrarily deciding what "good" soccer is and then trying to implement quantitative measures to show this success. In effect, each team speaks its own language and the goal of soccer is to speak your language and not let any other languages interfere. If you really are good you embrace other languages and use them to build your own so that you can play an ultra fluid style and allow the other team’s "successes" (such as getting the ball over midfield) to open space for you to speak your language and score (by catching that team without defenders back). FU: Do you have any advice for current Furman philosophy students? GA: Get out of the classroom and think about philosophy every day. Philosophy is not just an enterprise reserved for coffee shops, the 24-hour room, or geeky (awesome) parties; it is a way of life that can help you make every second of your day special. It can help you "live poetically" (Shaner's words) by taking the same things/situations you see everyday and seeing them in new ways. Philosophy is a creative enterprise so write philosophically, play your sport philosophically, love the people you have in your life philosophically. Also, as you develop your desire to find out what you will do after Furman, get out of the bubble and live in the world around us. Take advantage of Furman's amazing internship and undergraduate research office! Do summer research with one of your professors (I heard Dr. Anderson is the best advisor ever!). Get a summer job. Grow your knowledge of other disciplines so that you can be the linchpin that ties everything together. Find out what you are good at and where you need to grow; and most importantly show others the great achievements of which Furman Philosophy majors are capable. Remember that earning the Furman BA is not the end but the right of passage to become a full-fledged member of the Furman Alumni Family, the most loyal and largest academic family of which you will be a part. It is also the start of actually being able to learn and live life fully. Hang in there because life only gets better!

And for those commencing to the next stage of life. Embrace uncertainty, insecurity, and ambiguity for




you are prepared. Seek out challenges so that you may live, and lead others to live, a life in which they can find peace. Seek to try so that you may have a chance of success--and if you should fail, that you may learn. Use your humility to learn from others yet be competitive enough to strive for the architectonic achievements that you can accomplish. Remember your alma mater, your friends whose camaraderie enriched you and your professors who have taught you that no challenge is insurmountable. Go forth and live. Go forth and be the change you want to see. FU: Why do you stay connected to the philosophy department? GA: I stay connected with the Furman Philosophy department because it has helped me become who I am today and is an amazing academic family of which to be a part. My mentor (and boss) Coach Allison has taught me the importance of remembering from where you came. I am proud to remember Furman Philosophy. I am proud to see the community that our department's students and faculty have now and honored to be able to partake in it when there is an opportunity for an alumnus who doesn't have an academic job. The work that Erik Anderson, Aaron Simmons, and Sarah Worth and the rest of the philosophy profs are doing to make our department matter at Furman is a huge source of pride. It is also quite awesome to see that philosophy is leading the charge when it comes to integrating athletics into the main part of campus (Aaron is the only prof who I have ever seen paint up for a range of sporting events, not just one!). Philosophy is a department that lives what it means to be a Furman Paladin and to educate the whole of a person and not just one part. These are the reasons I stay connected.


Amy Godenick c/o 2009

I graduated from Furman in 2009 with a double major in Spanish and philosophy. I'm currently a second-year Masters student of Spanish Literature at the University of Virginia. I'm also a Spanish instructor for intermediate undergraduate Spanish. I have so many fond memories of the philosophy department. Just to name a few, I decided to declare my major after the intro class with Carmela Epright. I specifically remember reading selections by Descartes and Nagel in the philosophy of science and being fascinated. I also took two classes with Erik Anderson where we grappled with many of the legal and philosophical problems that face our country today. Another great memory was the capstone course with Jim Edwards. The course was entitled "Happiness," and it traced the concept of happiness/eudamonia/well-being/etc. all the way from the Greeks to contemporary times. Being able to write a 20-page paper in that course, and engaging with the secondary literature really gave me a taste of what grad school would be like, and now I'm here. I'm using my major by applying all those critical thinking skills (thanks, Furman!) to the literary analysis that I now do daily. I also often think about various concepts of the good life, of "happiness," and how it will ultimately manifest itself in my own life. My advice to majors would be to not continue directly into a graduate program. If you think about it, by the time you graduate from college, you'll have spent the past 15+ years of your life in school. Why not go out there and see what the rest of the world is like? I grew as much in the three years that I spent outside of graduate school after college as I did in my four full and enriching years in college. I think that after that time, (however long it may be), you can make a more informed decision to continue onto graduate school or not. Another piece of advice is to enjoy those college years while you can--there really is nothing else like them!




Beth Hupfer c/o 2008

FU: What are you doing now? BH: After Furman I took a year off to travel, and then I got my MA in philosophy from Virginia Tech. Right now I am in the 3rd year of my Philosophy Ph.D. program at Rice University in Houston. FU: What are some of your fondest Furman philosophy memories? BH: My fondest Furman philosophy memories were working with department faculty during the summers. It was then that I really got to know the faculty personally, and in doing my own philosophical projects outside of class they taught me what it really means to have a career in philosophy. FU: How are you using your philosophy major? BH: I'm using my major everyday studying to pass my qualifying exams! FU: Do you have any advice for current Furman philosophy students? BH: My advice is to definitely use the great resource at your disposal: the professors in the philosophy department. Students at Furman are so lucky to have passionate instructors who expose them to useful teaching styles. As a Furman student I was fortunate enough to have professors who not only cared about me and wanted me to succeed but were great examples of pedagogy that I continue to emulate.


Sydney Hammond c/o 2011

FU: What are you doing now? SH: I have been the Volunteer Coordinator with Harvest Hope Food Bank since May. I did AmeriCorps for a year and a half right after graduating. FU: What are some of your fondest Furman philosophy memories? SH: I really miss Furman philosophy. My roommates and I all took several Philosophy classes together and we were always talking about what we were reading and bouncing ideas off each other for our papers. We loved to stop by the Philosophy department or run into a professor in the hallway and start some unexpected and awesome philosophy conversation. That kind of community really made philosophy come alive. FU: How are you using your philosophy major? SH: I find myself often being reminded of what I learned in different philosophy classes. I have worked in nonprofit since I graduated and the constant debate that surrounds charitable work reminds me of a lot of discussions, from Nietzsche to Kant. Thanks to Philosophy, those who argue against the work I'm involved in aren't the first to make me pause and critically examine everything I believe, which is so valuable! FU: Do you have any advice for current Furman philosophy students? SH: My advice is to make the most of your time! Really get involved in the Philosophy department outside of class. Enjoy it, it flies by!



Philosophy Department

Furman University

3300 Poinsett Hwy

Greenville, SC 29613

Phone: 864-294-2083

Fax: 864-294-3598

Website: www.furman.edu/philosophy

Facebook: “Friends of Furman Philosophy Department”

Cogito - Furman University · 2013-11-01 · philosophical and theological thought of Ignacio...

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