Faculty Research
ANDREW CLING, Professor and Chair. VITA Dr. Andrew D. Cling's research in philosophy is currently focused on questions in the theory of knowledge. In particular, he is interested in a family of ancient skeptical paradoxes that seem to show that some of our core assumptions about having reasons for belief and good standards for intellectual judgment are inconsistent. He is currently at work on a manuscript on the problem of the criterion and the epistemic regress problem, two of these ancient paradoxes. Dr. Cling is also engaged in interdisciplinary work on memory and eyewitness identification with Dr. Jeffrey Neuschatz of the UAH Department of Psychology. Dr. Cling's papers have appeared in such journals as Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Synthese, Philosophical Studies, Philosophy of Science, and Philosophical Psychology.
DEBORAH HEIKES, Associate Professor. VITA Dr. Heikes is an expert on Immanuel Kant, though her current research is focused on contemporary debates surrounding issues addressed in Kantian philosophy. In particular, she is interested in developing an account of rationality that more completely accounts for the subjective and social elements of rationality while nonetheless maintaining an objective ground for reason. Since, feminists have been some of the biggest critics or the philosophical concept of rationality, Dr. Heikes frames her discussion within feminist debates concerning rationality. She argues that, while many of these criticism have merit, to reject rationality is self-defeating for feminists who wish to argue both the reality and immorality of oppression. She has published articles in such journals as Synthese.
NICHOLAOS JONES, Assistant Professor. VITA Dr. Jones's research focuses on methodological issues in the sciences. Some specific questions include: Are idealizations false descriptions of the world or merely devices for ignoring details about the world? How can the standard statistical mechanical accounts of phase transitions and irreversible behavior be explanatory, given that both require idealizing the particle number of real systems? Why does evidence about phenomena for which gravity is important seem not to disconfirm quantum field theory? How can Bayesian confirmation theory accommodate the confirmation of idealized hypotheses? Dr. Jones's current research in epistemology concerns whether belief revision theory can represent systems of belief in a way that is compatible with coherentism. His current research in Asian philosophy focuses on the metaphysics of Huayan Buddhism, and specifically on the thesis that everything is part of everything else.
BRIAN MARTINE, Professor and Director of the UAH Humanities Center. VITA Brian Martine works primarily in the field of systematic metaphysics, focusing on problems concerning individuality, indeterminacy, and immediacy. He is the author of two books, Individuals and Individuality (S.U.N.Y. Press 1984), and Indeterminacy and Intelligibility (S.U.N.Y. Press 1992). His third book, Where are the Philosophers Now?, an essay that draws the theoretical concerns of his first two books into relation with ordinary experience, is nearing completion. He has lectured widely in the United States and abroad on questions in systematic philosophy and has published various shorter essays in journals and collections. His most recent essay, “Why Ask Why? Pragmatic Reflections on Final Causality,” will appear in a volume entitled The Ultimate Why Question, forthcoming from the Catholic University of America Press. He serves as Chief Administrative Officer of The Metaphysical Society of America and as a member of the Committee of Administrative Officers of the American Council of Learned Societies.
WILLIAM WILKERSON, Associate Professor. VITA Dr. Wilkerson's research interests are currently split between two projects. First, he works on gay/lesbian philosophy. He explained how gay and lesbian identity can be both vivid and real while also remaining rooted in historical and social circumstances in his book, Ambiguity and Sexuality: A Theory of Sexual Identity. Since the publication of that book, he has been reading too much Foucault for his own good and working on the origins and genealogy of homophobia. This investigation seeks to place homophobia within broader cultural and political trends of the twentieth century. As for his second interest, he works to understand the relationship between subjectivity, freedom and the consciousness of time. This work takes off from his long interest in the existentialist tradition, and he is in the process of publishing essays on the Kantian roots of the Sartre/Merleau-Ponty debate over freedom. He is also trying to develop his own account of subjectivity and time that satisfies our basic intuitions about freedom.