Dr. Deborah Heikes

Professor, Philosophy

Contact

1310 Ben Graves Drive
Morton Hall
Room 221
Huntsville, AL 35899
Campus Map

256.824.2335
deborah.heikes@uah.edu

Biography

Dr. Heikes is an expert on Immanuel Kant, though her research focuses primarily on the shift away from modern accounts of mind. As an alternative, she has developed a concept of rationality as a virtue concept. In particular, she is interested in building an account of rationality that more completely includes subjective and social elements while still maintaining an objective ground for reason and for moral concepts like equality and justice. While her earlier work focused primarily on reconceiving of rationality based on feminist criticisms, her latest work also considers how modern accounts of rationality led to the development of race and how a post-Cartesian rationality is better able to accommodate the differences that exist among people. She has published three books on the topic of rationality: Rationality, Representation and Race (Palgrave Macmillan forthcoming 2016); The Virtue of Feminist Rationality (Continuum 2012), and Rationality and Feminist Philosophy (Continuum 2010). She has published articles in such journals as Synthese, The Journal of Mind and Behavior, and Southwest Philosophy Review.

Curriculum Vitae


Education

  • Ph.D., Philosophy, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1998
  • M.A., Philosophy, Baylor University, 1992
  • B.A., Philosophy, University of Kansas, 1991

Honors & Awards

  • Outstanding Faculty Member, College of Liberal Arts, UAH, 2011-12
  • Study Sphere Award of Excellence
  • Lightspan Study Web Academic Excellence Award
  • American Philosophical Association, Central Division, Graduate Student Travel Stipend, 1996
  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Fellowship, 1995-1996
  • Clifford P. Osborne Fellowship, University of Kansas, 1993
  • Phi Kappa Phi
  • Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools Award for Distinguished Scholarship and Research at the Master's Level (nominee) 1992
  • Edward S. Robinson Essay Contest winner, University of Kansas, 1991

Affiliations

  • American Philosophical Association
  • Southwestern Philosophical Society
  • Society for Women in Philosophy
  • Society for Analytic Feminism
  • International Association of Women Philosophers

Expertise

  • Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Mind
  • Kant
  • Wittgenstein

Recent Publications

  • "Epistemic Ignorance and Moral Responsibility," Southwest Philosophy Review, January 2020 (36: 1): 93-100.

  • "Don't Be Ignorant," Southwest Philosophy Review, January 2018 (34: 1): 49-57.

  • "Rationality as an Epistemic Virtue," The Bloomsbury Companion to Analytic Feminism, ed. Pieranna Garavaso, forthcoming.

  • "On Being Reasonably Different," Southwest Philosophy Review, January 2017 (33:1): 53-62.

  • "Race and the Copernican Turn," Journal of Mind and Behavior, Summer and Autumn 2015 (36. 3&4): 137-156.

  • "Can Mind Be a Virtue," Southwest Philosophy Review, January 2015 (31.1):119-128.

  • "Being Reasonable," Southwest Philosophy Review, January 2012 (28.1): 187-196.

  • "Out of the Cave: Understanding Rationality," Journal of Mind and Behavior, Autumn 2010 (31.2): 237-252.

  • "Let's Be Reasonable: Feminism and Rationality," Southwest Philosophy Review, January 2009 (25.1): 127-134.

  • "Wittgenstein and the Private Language of Ethics," Southwest Philosophy Review, July 2004 (20.2): 27-38.