Graduate Students
Randall Amano (A.B., Harvard University) Randall is writing a dissertation on the role of normativity in Kant's account of our cognitive capacities. His advisors are Hannah Ginsborg and Janet Broughton. He has interests in many areas of philosophy including the history of modern philosophy, epistemology, self-knowledge, normativity, and Wittgenstein.
Joseph Barnes (B.A. and B.S., Computer Science - UNC Chapel Hill) Joseph has broad interests in metaphysics and epistemology, both contemporary and ancient. Or at least that's what he thinks.
Joshua Beattie (B.A., Northwestern University) His main interest is philosophy of mind, and he is working on a dissertation that examines whether mentality is (or important aspects of it are) normative in some fundamental sense, and how that bears on a naturalistic approach to the mind. He is also interested in philosophy of science (esp. biology), philosophy of art, and some 19th/20th-century continental philosophy. He is currently a GSI for Philosophy 133.
Erin Beeghly (B.A., History, UC Berkeley, 2004; B.A., PPE, Oxford, 2006) Erin is interested in ethics, moral psychology, and political theory.
David Berger (B.A., University of Pennsylvania, 1996) David's interests range widely over the history of modern philosophy, especially early modern epistemology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of science. He is also interested in philosophical accounts, within the analytic tradition, of such concepts as objectivity, normativity, and judgment. He is currently working his way into a dissertation on Kant's conception of "reflective judgment," under the supervision of Hannah Ginsborg and Daniel Warren. He hopes to one day work his way back out of it.
Brian Berkey (B.A., Philosophy and Politics (summa cum laude) - NYU, 2004; M.A. - NYU, 2005) Brian is a fourth year student interested mainly in moral and political philosophy. He is currently thinking about issues arising out of G.A. Cohen's critique of Rawls, as well as philosophical questions related to terrorism. He is currently a GSI for Philosophy 138: Philosophy of Society. He maintains a philosophical blog, and contributes to the Law and Society Blog.
Tony Bezsylko (B.A., magna cum laude, U.C. Berkeley, 2001) Tony's primary interests are in the philosophy of mind and epistemology. He also has serious interests in the history of philosophy, particularly the modern period and Descartes, the problem of free will and the philosophy of psychoanalysis. Tony's dissertation is about dreams.
Justin Bledin (MSc History & Philosophy of Science, London School of Economics; B.S. Economics and A.B. Mathematics, Duke University) Justin is a second-year student in the Logic Group with strong interests in mathematical logic and theoretical computer science. He has not yet decided whether to go off in search of some nice technical theorems or write about the jazzier side of computer science from a philosophical point of view. For now, he finds this state of indecision most agreeable.
Benjamin Boudreaux (B.A., NYU, 2003) Ben is primarily interested in political philosophy, and is writing a dissertation on the demands of assimilation in liberal states. He is currently a GSI for Ethical Theories.
Zachary Bruce (B.A., UCLA). His main interests are in metaphysics and philosophy of language.
Michael Caie (B.A., McGill University) Mike is a third year student. He is interested in philosophy of logic, philosophy of mind and, oh lets say... philosophy of language.
Agnes Gellen Callard (B.A., University of Chicago, 1997; M.A., Classics, UC Berkeley, 2000) Agnes' dissertation is on the problem of weakness of will. It is entitled "An Incomparabilist Account of Akrasia." She works in ethics and ancient philosophy, with additional interests in the philosophy of Kant and Hobbes. Her CV and an abstract of her dissertation are here.
Lauren Campbell (B.S. Cognitive Science - UC San Diego) Lauren is a second-year student and her interests are developing; they include the history of analytic philosophy, epistemology, philosophy of science, and a bit of ethics.
William Campbell (B.A., Michigan, 2003)
Rick Canedo (B.A Psychology - Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, 1997) Rick is interested in phenomenology (especially Heidegger), existentialism (especially Nietzsche), philosophy of perception and some philosophy of science.
Jeremy Carey (B.A., Florida State University) Jeremy's main interests are in the philosophy of mind and ethics. He's also interested in the philosophy of music and philosophy of religion.
Fabrizio Cariani (Laurea, Philosophy - University of Bologna) Fabrizio is a fifth year Logic and Methodology student. He specializes in Philosophy of Logic, Epistemology and Philosophy of Language. His main projects concern formal models of deference and testimony, and the semantics of deontic modalities.
Stanley Chen (A.B., University of Chicago, 2004) Stanley is now entering his fifth year.
Eugene Chislenko (B.A., Harvard, 2005) Eugene is interested in moral philosophy and its foundations, and in related issues in the philosophy of action, philosophy of mind, and phenomenology.
Lindsay Crawford (B.A., summa cum laude, Mount Holyoke College, 2005.) Lindsay is a third-year student. She is interested primarily in epistemology, metaphysics, and early modern philosophy.
Vanessa de Harven (B.A., Pomona College, 1991) Vanessa is interested in metaphysics and epistemology, with an emphasis on ancient philosophy, and Aristotle in particular. In addition to questions of ontology, the multitude of possible answers and their justification, Vanessa is interested in philosophy of language including issues of reference, logical space and Intentionality.
Kenny Easwaran (B.A. and B.S., Mathematics - Stanford University) Kenny is a sixth year Logic and Methodology student, with interests in the philosophy of mathematics and probability, writing a dissertation on the foundations of conditional probability.
Andy Engen (B.S., Philosophy and Computer Science, University of Wisconsin, 2001).
Melissa Fusco (B.A., Stanford University). Melissa's interests are in theory of meaning, philosophy of psychology and phenomenology.
Kristina Gehrman (B.A., Williams College, 2000) Kristina is a fifth year graduate student, interested in ethics (particularly neo-Aristotelian ethics), moral psychology, and (recently) philosophy of mind. She has lived in the Bay Area since she graduated from college.
Jessica Gelber (B.A., UC Berkeley 1997) Jessica is in the Classical philosophy program. She also has interests in philosophy of language and contemporary M&E.
James Genone (B.A., UC Berkeley; M.A., Boston College). James works mainly in the areas of philosophy of mind and epistemology, and is especially interested in perceptual experience and the theory of concepts.
Daniel Heider (B.A. Swarthmore College)
Joe Karbowski (B.A., Pittsburgh, 2003) Joe is about to be in his sixth year as a grad student in the Ancient Philosophy program at Berkeley. He specializes in all things Aristotle (or "Big A" as he likes to call him). He is currently working on a dissertation about the method of inquiry that Big A employs in his examination of the human good in the Nicomachean Ethics, which stresses its affinity to his scientific method, while explaining precisely how it differs from the latter. He has serious additional interests in contemporary metaphysics, philosophy of language/logic, and ethics. In addition to philosophy, Joe has a passion for salsa dancing. He takes classes (salsa, cha cha, and jazz) and/or goes dancing about three times a week.
Arpy Khatchirian (B.A., Mathematics & Philosophy - Rutgers University, 1996) Arpy's interests include the philosophy of mind, epistemology, and some issues in the philosophy of language and logic. She is working on questions concerning the relation between content, propositional attitudes and normativity.
Erica Klempner (B.A., Oxford University; S.M., MIT) Erica is currently interested in everything. Eventually, she will have received an education, and will therefore only be interested in one or two things.
Markus Kohl (B.Phil., M.St., Oxford) Markus entered the program in 2006. He is currently searching for a dissertation topic. His main interests are in Moral Philosophy and in the History of Ancient and Modern Philosophy (especially Aristotle and Kant).
Tamar Lando (B.A., Stanford University) Tamar is a first year student.
Erich Matthes (B.A., Yale, 2007). Erich is primarily interested in moral, political, and legal philosophy, both historical and contemporary.
Russ McBride (B.A., Philosophy - UC Berkeley; A.M., Philosophy, emphasis cognitive science - Stanford) Russ is interested in the problems of consciousness, vaguenesss, realism, and artificial intelligence, among others. After finishing a Masters from Stanford he worked as a researcher for the Lexington Institute, which produced a series of argumentation maps called "Can Computers Think: The History and Status of the Debate". He authored the map on consciousness. He is also the author of "Consciousness and the State/Transitive/Creature Distinction", Philosophical Psychology (1999).
Luke Misenheimer (BA, Philosophy, UNC at Chapel Hill). Luke is most interested in philosophy of the mind, especially empirically informed philosophy of the mind and moral psychology. Luke is also interested in giving people questionnaires.
Julia Nefsky (B.A., Mathematics and Philosophy, McMaster University, 2005) Julia is a third year student. She is interested in many things, including philosophy of logic and mathematics, epistemology and ethics.
Ethan Nowak (BA, Reed College; BPhil, University of Oxford) Ethan is interested in the philosophy of mind, in linguistics, and in the 22r Toyota motor.
Matthew Parrott (B.A., University of Michigan) Matt is completing a dissertation on self-knowledge. He concentrates on questions in epistemology and philosophy of mind. He is also intersted in the history of modern philosophy (especially Hume), the philosophy of psychoanalysis, Wittgenstein and Nietzsche.
Laura Pedretti (B.A., UCLA, 1999, summa cum laude - Philosophy, with a minor in Cognitive Science) Laura left an unpromising jingle-writing career in Hollywood to study philosophy at UC Berkeley. She is particularly interested in questions surrounding the relationship of theory and reality. Other interests include philosophy of mind, logic, and the history of philosophy.
Adam Pringle (B.A., Mathematics, Colorado College; M.A., Northern Illinois University) Adam is a third year student primarily interested in Aristotle's theoretical philosophy, ancient rhetoric, and Heidegger.
Aparna Rao (B.A., Brandeis University, 1995) Aparna's interests are primarily in contemporary metaphysics and epistemology. She is also interested in questions found at the juncture of philosophy of mind and philosophy of language. She hopes to broaden her interest in contemporary moral philosophy by investigating the relation between moral relativism and tolerance.
Michael Rieppel (B.A., UW-Madison, 2002) Mike is in his third year. He's particularly interested in the philosophy of language, theory of meaning, and early analytic philosophy.
Stephen Schmall (B.S., Philosophy and Psychology, University of Wisconsin, 2005)
Ian Schnee (B.A., Middlebury, 1999; B.A., Oxford, 2002)
John Schwenkler (B.A., Catholic University, 2003; M.A. - Philosophy, Notre Dame, 2005) John is a third-year student working in the philosophy of psychology. His son Jack was born in early March '07.
Josh Sheptow (B.A., Philosophy - Wake Forest, 1997)
David Sidi (B.A., University of Arizona, 2006). David is a second year student.
Jennifer Smalligan (B.A., Williams College)
James Stazicker (B.A., Classics, Oxford; M.Phil., Philosophy, University College London) James's main interests are in the philosophy of mind and philosophy of psychology. He focusses on perceptual experience, including auditory experience, and he's writing a dissertation about spatial awareness. His wider interests include descriptive metaphysics and ancient philosophy.
Kathryn Swift (B.S., Math/Applied Science & Philosophy - UCLA, 1991)
Stephen Thurman (B.A., Brown University, 2007). Stephen is a second-year student. Lamentably, he is curious about quite a few disparate things. Carving a coherent research program out of that curiosity is what he's most interested in right now.
Mike Titelbaum (A.B., Harvard, 1999) Mike's main interests are in epistemology and ethics. He is currently working on his dissertation, Quitting Certainties: A Doxastic Modeling Framework. For more information (including current cv, dissertation abstract, and papers) please see his website.
George Tsai (A.B., Amherst College, 2002) George is a fourth year student whose interests are mainly in moral and political philosophy. Other interests include the philosophy of action, emotion, Nietzsche, and Wittgenstein. He is writing a dissertation on disagreement, progress, and error in ethics.
Gerardo Vildostegui (B.A. 1996, J.D. 2000, Yale University) He is a sixth-year student whose main interests are in moral and political philosophy, jurisprudence, and the history of philosophy. During the Spring 2007 semester and the 2007-8 academic year, he will be a Visiting Assistant Professor at Rutgers-Camden Law School and a Fellow of the Rutgers Institute for Law and Philosophy.
Aryeh Weinstein (A.B., Philosophy - Harvard, 2002) Ari's main philosophical (though not practical) interest is in Ethics. Ari is currently on leave to pursue a J.D. from Yale Law School.
Katrina Winzeler (B.A. Tufts University, Philosophy and Biology, 2003) Katrina is a third-year student who is most interested in the philosophy of science (both generally, and more specifically, the philosophy of biology and physics). Right now, she is immersed in questions having to do with scientific explanation and reductionism, and levels of selection in evolutionary theory. She also has a strong interest in the intersections between the philosophy of mind, cognitive science, and neurobiology.
Jeff Wolf (A.B., Philosophy - Princeton 2002)
Joel Yurdin (B.A., Major in Philosophy and Minor in Greek, Swarthmore College) Joel is interested in intentional and normative phenomena in a broad range of philosophical areas, including Ancient Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind (especially Philosophical Psychology), Epistemology, and Moral Philosophy. His dissertation, entitled Aristotle: From Sense to Science, examines Aristotle's theory of cognitive development.
Jen Zale (B.A., Philosophy - Colgate University, 1997) After spending six years in Washington DC working mainly as an academic editor, Jen chose her love for philosophy over her love for stable employment and joined the Berkeley department in 2003. Her main areas of interest are in ethics and Kantian philosophy.