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CURRICULUM VITAE
Abrol Fairweather
1432 Bancroft Way
Berkeley, CA 94702 |
W: (510) 885-3578
H: (510) 848-8183
abrol@earthlink.net
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EDUCATION:
| PhD (ABD) (Philosophy) |
University of California, Santa Barbara |
| MA (Philosophy), 1996 |
University of California, Santa Barbara |
| BA (Philosophy), 1992 |
University of California, Los Angeles |
AWARDS:
| Ralph Church Fellowship, 1993-1995 |
University of California, Santa Barbara |
| Honors In Philosophy, 1992 |
University of California, Los Angeles |
TEACHING EXPERIENCE:
| Lecturer, CSU-Hayward |
1998-00 |
| Human Rights and Social Justice,
Logic, Ethics, Clear Thinking |
Lecturer,
University of San Francisco |
1998-00 |
| Metaphysics, Ethics, Philosophy of
The Human Person, Great Philosophical Questions |
Lecturer,
San Jose State University |
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| Introduction To Philosophy |
Lecturer,
Loyola Marymount University |
1997-1998
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| Ethics, Human Nature |
Instructor,
Pasadena City College |
1996-1998 |
| Contemporary Moral Issues, Logic,
Philosophy of Religion, Critical Thinking |
| Teaching Assistant, University of California,
Santa Barbara, |
1994-97 |
| History of Ancient Philosophy, History of Medieval
Philosophy, History of Modern Philosophy, Ethics (Upper Division), Introduction to
Philosophy, Critical Thinking |
Teaching Associate,
Ohio State University |
Fall, 1992 |
| Critical Thinking |
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OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES:
| Grants: I have had 8 grants accepted for conference support, some to
outside sources and some internal to a university. Last year I raised $25,000. |
| Consulting Editor of STOA: AN INTERNATIONAL UNDERGRADUATE JOURNAL OF
PHILOSOPHY and Member of Advisory Board for The Center For Philosophical Education, Santa
Barbara City College, 1996-Present |
| Conference Co-ordinator, Santa Barbara City College, 1996-1998 |
| Conference on Time, Tense and Reference (11-96) |
| Conference on War Crimes: Moral and Legal Issues (11-97) |
| Conference on Consciousness (11-98) |
| Conference on Duty, Virtue and Knowledge (11-99) |
AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION:
| Epistemology |
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| Metaphysics |
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| Ethics |
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| Logic |
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AREAS OF SPECIAL COMPETENCE:
| Philosophy of Mind and Language |
| History of Philosophy |
| Political Philosophy |
AREAS OF COMPETENCE:
| Wiitgenstein |
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| Kierkegaard |
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| Nietzsche |
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DISSERTATION:
The Role of Epistemic Motivation in Virtue Epistemology
Virtue Epistemology (VE) is committed to the proposition that an epistemic agent possesses
knowledge if and only if she is exercising intellectual virtue in coming to hold a belief.
The normative framework that is used to fill in this account of knowledge is usually taken
from virtue ethics, but some philosophers utilize a concept of virtue from another domain.
The divisions we see within virtue epistemoloy are largerly explainable in terms of
disagreements over which general concpet of virtue to use in defining the particular
virtue of Intellectual Virtue. Clearly our definition of the species depends heavily on
the definition of the genus. I argue that the project of choosing a general conception of
virtue is an important and distinct phase of argument in VE, but has been largely ignored
in the contemporary literature. I consider three plausible analyses of virtue: (1) as the
excellence of a faculty (2) as a skill (3) as a state of character. Only (3) requires that
an agent have a particular motivation in order to receive positive evaluation under the
standard of virtue. When applied to epistemic issues, this implies that a believer must
have an epistemic motivation in order to possess epistemic virtue.
Is this a plausible epistemic requirement? I argue that it is. An agent’s
motivational state plays an independent role in positive epistemic evaluation. I go on to
develop a theory of epistemic motivation which focuses on the role affective states play
in knowledge possession. I also look at how the thoretical structures of Social
Epistemology and Virtue Epistemology incorporate one another.
COMMITTEE
Tony Brueckner Francis Dauer and Hubert Schwyzer
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