"My research is in the philosophy of explanation and understanding, as considered from the pragmatic perspective within the philosophy of science (van Fraassen, Achinstein). I am interested in current work on explanation in cognitive science (Lombrozo, Gopnik) and in the transmission of understanding as an alternative to the philosophical project of justification, in light of Pyrrhonian-style failures. Other research interests include: experimental philosophy; the Humean and Rortyan senses of contingency; Arthur Fine's NOA; Hacking's styles of reasoning; the ethics of care; and the scholarship of teaching and learning.

"Recently, I have been exploring alternative methodologies in order to think about how one might work, authentically, as a naturalist philosopher and, more broadly, how empirical data might work to constrain a possibility space. I co-authored an experimental study with cognitive scientist Seth Chin-Parker (Denison), which suggests that different backgrounds prime participants to generate different explanatory styles when responding to the same question; I conducted an x-phi study on Judith Jarvis Thomson’s violinist thought experiment; and I wrote up a qualitative study about my brother Jay Bradner’s work in chemical biology on open source drug development.

"I presently serve as the executive director of the American Association of Philosophy Teachers and formerly served on the Board of the American Philosophical Association as the chair of the APA Committee on the Teaching of Philosophy. In these roles, I work with committee members to help philosophers throughout the profession develop their teaching and to promote the teaching of philosophy as culturally, politically and socially vital. I self-identify, primarily, as a teacher of undergraduates and have more than eight years of teaching experience in the liberal arts college environment. I have been teaching undergraduates all told, i.e. at many different kinds of institutions, for more than 20 years and have just loved every minute of it. I regularly teach courses in philosophy of science, epistemology, philosophy of biology and metaphysics. Here at Kenyon, I will be teaching epistemology, philosophy of biology, bioethics, philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, metaphysics, introduction to philosophy, and logic.

"Plato writes in the Republic that 'education is the craft concerned with … turning around…. It isn’t the craft of putting sight into the soul.' This passage identifies education’s special super power — what the best philosophy courses can do for students — turn them around, spin them a bit, and leave them a little disoriented. After the course, when they go back into the 'cave,' they’ll question the oppressive ideologies that keep people in the dark by shining false lights. Though I work within the naturalistic tradition of Aristotle, rather than the rationalistic tradition of Plato, I have fully embraced Plato’s suggestion that philosophers should play an activist role in their societies (rather than remaining in Descartes’s sphere of reflection) once they have come to understand the aporetic limits of a priori dialectic. In this spirit, I have written several popular essays for Slate, The Atlantic and Salon on topics that matter to me: the effect of the wealth gap on educational opportunity, the media bullying of Appalachia, and the struggle to remain engaged as a parent while pursuing a career, among others."

Areas of Expertise

Philosophy of science/biology, epistemology/social epistemology, ethics of care, scholarship of teaching and learning.

Education

2005 — Doctor of Philosophy from Northwestern University

1996 — Master of Arts from Northwestern University

1993 — Master of Arts from University of Illinois- Urbana

1991 — Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University

Courses Recently Taught

The primary aim of this course is to acquaint the student with the spirit, methods and problems of philosophy. Students will explore the range of issues in which philosophical inquiry is possible and to which it is relevant. Major works of important philosophers, both ancient and modern, will be used to introduce topics in metaphysics, theory of knowledge, ethics and other traditional areas of philosophical concern. No prerequisite. Offered every semester.

This course is an examination of the informal reasoning used in everyday life as well as in academic contexts. We will aim to both describe and understand that reasoning, on the one hand, and improve our competence in reasoning, on the other. We will explore the nature of explanation and causation, and we will discuss ways of articulating our reasoning patterns that make their nature clear. Thus we aim both to improve critical thinking and reading skills, and to understand in a deeper way the role that those skills play in human life. This counts towards the logic requirement for the major and minor. No prerequisite. Offered every year.

One of the greatest human achievements is scientific knowledge. But what is scientific knowledge? Is it different from other kinds of knowledge? Should we take scientific claims as literally true or as useful fictions? What status should we accord scientific work? We will examine the answers to these questions offered by the Logical Positivists, the Popperians, Kuhn, Quine, Lakatos and Boyd. On the way, we will consider the issues surrounding induction, explanation, theoretical entities, laws, observation, reductionism and so on. No formal background in the natural sciences is assumed. This counts toward the epistemology requirement for the major. No prerequisite. Offered every third year.

This course examines concepts and issues at the intersection between moral philosophy and psychology or theory of human nature. We discuss philosophical ideas regarding the nature of action, agency, practical reasoning, moral heuristics and moral freedom. We examine these issues through the writings of Aristotle, Spinoza, Nietzsche, Murdoch, Frankfurt, as well as novels by Jane Austen and Tolstoy. This counts toward the ethics requirement for the major. No prerequisite. Offered occasionally.

In this course, all senior philosophy majors spend the fall semester revising a previous paper that they present to the department at the spring Symposium. Work includes oral presentations to the class and rewrites. Each student is also graded on written and oral critiques of their colleagues' papers. In this way, they conceptualize their work as a collaborative enterprise, and they learn about the philosophical topics their fellow classmates have been studying. Students also include general instruction on the use of resources, oral presentations, and the practice of responding to audience questions. This is a capstone experience for senior philosophy majors.

Individual studies are offered to those students who are highly motivated in a specific area of inquiry and who are judged responsible and capable enough to work independently. Such courses might be research oriented, but more usually are readings-oriented, allowing students to delve in greater depth into topics that interest them or which overlap or supplement other courses of the philosophy department. Students must seek permission of the instructor and department chair before enrolling. They are urged to do this in the semester prior to the one in which they hope to be enrolled. Individual study is at the discretion of the instructor, and schedules may limit such an addition. An individual study cannot duplicate a course or area being concurrently offered. Exceptions to this rule are at the discretion of the instructor and chair. Individual study is usually considered an advanced course. Required work should be viewed as on a par with a seminar or a 300- or 400-level course. The instructor and student(s) should establish and agree upon the extent and nature of the work expected. The work may take one of the following forms: several short papers, one long paper, one in-depth project, a lengthy general outline and annotated bibliography, public presentation(s), etc. An individual study can apply to the major or to the minor with permission of the department. Individual studies may be taken for either 0.25 or 0.50 credits. This decision must be agreed upon with the instructor. The student(s) and instructor will meet on a regular basis. The frequency of contact hours is to be determined by the instructor in consultation with the student. Because students must enroll for individual studies by the end of the seventh class day of each semester, they should begin discussion of the proposed individual study preferably the semester before, so that there is time to devise the proposal and seek departmental approval before the established deadline.\n

Logic is ultimately about peace. Once a society or culture has agreed upon styles of reasoning or argument forms, that society or culture has a way to resolve arguments without force or violence. But logic is also about equality, respect, and human dignity. When authority figures, like professors or politicians, use reason to generate and defend their conclusions, they are sending the message to their audiences that, instead of it being okay to overtake or compel those audiences with power, these audiences should be appealed to with reason. In other words, people have free, creative minds of their own. They have the ability to disagree with what other people say. An authority figure might try to compel someone with less power to think something by overpowering them. Doing that treats the other person’s mind as an object that can be affected by some physical force. But when a person with authority decides to appeal to the less powerful person with reason, it’s like saying, “You’re free\nthinker, someone with their own recalcitrant ideas, you have a mind that my physical power might not be able to change. So I’m going to have to try another tack.” Deciding to reason with someone, instead of overpowering them, is a way of affording that person dignity, recognizing their personhood (i.e. their non-objecthood). Said in a more ethical and less metaphysical way, when one person is more powerful than another, but decides to use logic or reason to change that other person’s mind, that decision is a decision not to hurt that person. It’s good. \n\nEqually important is the fact that logic is useful. Students who study logic become quick, careful, and exacting thinkers. Though the actual content of this logic course may never find its way into your everyday decisions, logical training, like athletic conditioning, works in the background to make you a sharper, faster thinker. For this reason, logic is valued in almost every industry. But logic is especially valued in philosophy, where our goal is to construct arguments that are recognized as reasonable by populations with many different backgrounds. \n\nBut what is logic? What is reason? What does it mean to say a conclusion “follows from” a premise? In this introductory survey course, each unit explores a different form of reasoning, a different “logic.” We will study (fallacious) informal reasoning, Aristotle’s categorical reasoning, a bit of\nmodern propositional logic, pictorial reasoning, the probability calculus, statistical reasoning, scientific reasoning, and analogical reasoning in case law. Throughout the semester, we will rely upon the concept of validity to distinguish good arguments from bad arguments, and we will pay special\nattention to the role that semantics seem to play in this seemingly syntactical measure. We will wonder whether it is possible, in the end, to distinguish syntax (form) from semantics (content). And we will consider whether our aim should be to identify one best logic or to accept the possibility that there are many appropriate ways to reason.

This course provide students with critical frameworks for thinking about the social construction of gender at the personal and institutional levels. Emphasis is placed on diverse women’s significant contributions to knowledge and culture; to other areas of gender studies, including men’s studies, family studies and the study of sexuality; and to the intersections of various forms of oppression both within and outside of the U.S. The course includes both scholarly as well as personal texts, visual as well as written text. This counts toward the introductory requirement for the major. This course paired with any other 0.5 unit WGS course counts toward the social science diversification requirement. Offered every semester.