Erin C Tarver

I wrote this a year ago. As this administration continues to use football to advance its white nationalist politics, I think the central question of the piece has become even more pressing. nytimes.com/2017/08/21/opi…

@jichikawa what Peirce is saying. On the plus side, I now understand much better why reading Peirce isn't giving you what you want!

@jichikawa meaning that real doubt arises from some experience that motivates it. We don't need to do the thing Descartes does where we doubt by default. It sounds to me like you are thinking of "reasons" for doubt in terms of "justifications" for doubt, which is a bit different than...

One theme in a lot of my research over the past several years has been that epistemology should pay more attention to questions about when doubting is OK, as opposed to when believing is OK. People often tell me that Peirce is relevant for this project. But I don't know Peirce …

@jichikawa No, the point is that for him talking about a genuine doubt being proper or not is a category mistake. Doubts just are as psychological facts (whether we have them will depend on whether we're confronted with something that raises them) and motivate our inquiry.

@drtarver Like for example, I think that lots of people have had genuine doubt about e.g. how serious climate change is, or whether to accept sexual misconduct allegations, which has genuinely shaped their patterns of behaviour and inquiry, where that was a mistake: they should've believed

@jichikawa If it’s a real doubt, it just is, and it becomes the motivation for inquiry.

@jichikawa I think that means that you and Peirce have different answers to the question, not that he’s not addressing the topics you listed. I think he would doubt (haha) that such a class of doubts exist in real life apart from the pretenses of Philosophers.

@jichikawa I’m a pragmatist and not familiar with contemporary normative epistemology as a subfield but I don’t see how “let us not pretend to doubt in Philosophy what we do not doubt in our hearts” isn’t directly about the topics you listed.

@jichikawa I think Perice’s point (or maybe the pragmatist point more broadly) is to reject the idea that those are clearly distinct from normative epistemology.

@jichikawa On this same subject I like James's The Will to Believe and The Sentiment of Rationality.

@jichikawa I assume that people who say this are thinking about The Fixation of Belief and Some Consequences of Four Incapacities, both of which deal directly with these ideas. But I can't imagine that you didn't read them if this is the topic you're pursuing. Were they not detailed enough?

Thanks so much to Femi for this beautiful piece on Charles Mills.

We are excited to report that @EmoryOxford is making a cluster hire in African American Arts and Culture (Art History and Music)! Please circulate and apply! faculty-emory.icims.com/jobs/78821/ass…

@GeauxCori @annehelen Ha! Well, not having been invited, I am obviously not in the best position to know.

@drtarver @annehelen The proselytizing and Jesus stuff seemed pretty up-front to me 😄😬

@annehelen Club for cool kids with college student leaders that was a secret front for proselytizing but tried to keep the Jesus part on the DL. (Can you tell I was bitter about never getting invited?)

How would you succinctly explain Young Life to those who've never been in contact with it?

Heartbroken and speechless today. But I just want to say: Charles Mills, you lived a life of impact. Thank you for sharing it and you with us. Forever Missed.

Reading Charles Mills’s The Racial Contract changed my life and my view of what Philosophy could be. I only met him once but he was as kind and warm as he was brilliant. Thanks to Liam for this beautiful tribute.

@Chris_Bishop My first philosophy prof wrote on my final paper: "How is this paper interesting?" (I'm a philosophy prof now. He had a point!)

@mxrtinli @abharrington @socofthesacred A bit by analogy to sports fandom, and then also in a discussion of white evangelicals and Tim Tebow. Thanks for the shameless plug!

@sarahfank @AcademicChatter I often also try to make very clear that I am not mad at them but want them to know in case they encounter other faculty later who are invested in being addressed by their correct title.

@sarahfank @AcademicChatter I think it’s easier to address w/ 1st year students, esp advisees, since our relationship is already about helping them navigate this new environment. That’s the spirit I talk about it in, ie while we’re getting you important info, the default title for faculty is “Prof” or “Dr”