Jennifer Nagel is a Canadian
philosopher
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
at the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
.
Her research focuses on
epistemology
Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics.
Episte ...
,
philosophy of mind
Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that studies the ontology and nature of the mind and its relationship with the body. The mind–body problem is a paradigmatic issue in philosophy of mind, although a number of other issues are addre ...
, and
metacognition
Metacognition is an awareness of one's thought processes and an understanding of the patterns behind them. The term comes from the root word '' meta'', meaning "beyond", or "on top of".Metcalfe, J., & Shimamura, A. P. (1994). ''Metacognition: knowi ...
. She has also written on
17th century (Western) philosophy, especially
John Locke
John Locke (; 29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "father of liberalism ...
and
René Descartes
René Descartes ( or ; ; Latinized: Renatus Cartesius; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science. Mathem ...
.
Education and career
After a B.A. in Philosophy at the University of Toronto, Nagel earned her M.A. (1994) and Ph.D. (2000) in Philosophy at the
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...
. Her dissertation, ''The Role of Necessity in Empirical Knowledge'', was written under the supervision of
John McDowell
John Henry McDowell, FBA (born 7 March 1942) is a South African philosopher, formerly a fellow of University College, Oxford, and now university professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Although he has written on metaphysics, epistemology, ...
.
In September 2015, Nagel founded a group called Room for More, a Toronto-based group sponsoring Syrian Refugees coming to Canada, in partnership with Humanity First.
Nagel was President of the Central Division of the
American Philosophical Association
The American Philosophical Association (APA) is the main professional organization for philosophers in the United States. Founded in 1900, its mission is to promote the exchange of ideas among philosophers, to encourage creative and scholarly ...
in 2018-19.
Philosophical work
Much of Nagel's research draws on empirical developments from the
cognitive sciences and
experimental philosophy
Experimental philosophy is an emerging field of philosophical inquiry Edmonds, David and Warburton, NigelPhilosophy’s great experiment, ''Prospect'', March 1, 2009 that makes use of empirical data—often gathered through surveys which probe ...
in order to address longstanding questions in epistemology and philosophy of mind. For example, Nagel is well-known for defending the value of intuitions in philosophical methodology. While the emergence of experimental philosophy in the 21st century has often cast doubt on the reliability of intuitions, Nagel argues that intuitions about particular cases and
thought experiment
A thought experiment is a hypothetical situation in which a hypothesis, theory, or principle is laid out for the purpose of thinking through its consequences.
History
The ancient Greek ''deiknymi'' (), or thought experiment, "was the most anci ...
s are a legitimate source of knowledge and justification. Nagel also argues, building on suggestions made by
Timothy Williamson
Timothy Williamson (born 1955) is a British philosopher whose main research interests are in philosophical logic, philosophy of language, epistemology and metaphysics. He is the Wykeham Professor of Logic at the University of Oxford, and fell ...
, that knowledge is a mental state. Whereas knowledge is traditionally thought to be reducible to a form of belief, i.e., a justified and true belief, Nagel argues that knowledge should itself be counted among the fundamental types of mental state, on a par with beliefs, desires, intentions, and so on.
Nagel is the author of ''Knowledge: A
Very Short Introduction
''Very Short Introductions'' (''VSI'') is a book series published by the Oxford University Press (OUP). The books are concise introductions to particular subjects, intended for a general audience but written by experts. Most are under 200 page ...
'', which has been praised as an "admirably clear and engaging" introduction to epistemology. Nagel considers classic questions, including about
skepticism
Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the pe ...
,
rationalism
In philosophy, rationalism is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification".Lacey, A.R. (1996), ''A Dictionary of Philosophy' ...
, and
empiricism
In philosophy, empiricism is an epistemological theory that holds that knowledge or justification comes only or primarily from sensory experience. It is one of several views within epistemology, along with rationalism and skepticism. Empir ...
, as well as more contemporary concerns, such as whether
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...
, "where most articles have multiple and anonymous authors", can be a reliable source of knowledge.
Bibliography
* "The Psychological Context of Contextualism" (with Julia Jael Smith), forthcoming in ''The Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Contextualism''. Jonathan Ichikawa, ed. (Routledge).
* "Armchair-Friendly Experimental Philosophy" (with Kaija Mortensen), forthcoming in ''A Companion to Experimental Philosophy'', Justin Sytsma and Wesley Buckwalter, eds. (Blackwell).
* "Knowledge and Reliability", forthcoming in ''Alvin Goldman and his Critics'', Hilary Kornblith and Brian McLaughlin, eds.
* "Sensitive Knowledge: Locke on Skepticism and Sensation", in ''The Blackwell Companion to Locke'', Matthew Stuart, ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2015, 313-333.
* "The Social Value of Reasoning", ''Episteme'' 12:2 (2015), 297-308.
* "The Meanings of Metacognition", ''Philosophy and Phenomenological Research'' 89:3 (2014), 710-718.
* "Intuition, Reflection, and the Command of Knowledge", ''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society'', Supplementary Volume 88 (2014), 217-39.
* "The Reliability of Epistemic Intuitions" (with Kenneth Boyd), in ''Current Controversies in Experimental Philosophy'', Edouard Machery, ed., New York: Routledge, 2014, 109-127.
* "Authentic Gettier Cases: a reply to Starmans and Friedman" (with Valerie San Juan and Raymond A. Mar), ''Cognition'' 129 (2013), 666-669.
* "Lay Denial of Knowledge for Justified True Beliefs" (with Valerie San Juan and Raymond A. Mar), ''Cognition'' 129 (2013), 652-661.
* "Defending the Evidential Value of Epistemic Intuitions: A Reply to Stich", ''Philosophy and Phenomenological Research'' 86:1 (2013), 179-199.
* "Knowledge as a Mental State", ''Oxford Studies in Epistemology'' 4 (2013), 275-310.
* "Motivating Williamson’s Model Gettier Cases", ''Inquiry'' 56:1 (2013), 54-62.
"Intuitions and Experiments: A Defence of the Case Method in Epistemology" ''Philosophy and Phenomenological Research'' 85:3 (2012).
* "The Attitude of Knowledge", ''Philosophy and Phenomenological Research'' 84:3 (2012), 678-685.
* "Mindreading in Gettier Cases and Skeptical Pressure Cases", in ''Knowledge Ascription: New Essays'', Jessica Brown and Mikkel Gerken, eds. (Oxford University Press, 2012), 171-191
* "The Psychological Basis of the Harman-Vogel Paradox", ''Philosophers' Imprint'' 11:5 (March 2011), 1-28.
* "Epistemic Anxiety and Adaptive Invariantism", ''Philosophical Perspectives'' 24 (2010), 407-435.
* "Knowledge Ascriptions and the Psychological Consequences of Thinking about Error", ''Philosophical Quarterly'' 60:239 (2010), 286-306.
* "Knowledge Ascriptions and the Psychological Consequences of Changing Stakes", ''Australasian Journal of Philosophy'' 86 (2008), 279-294.
* "Epistemic Intuitions", ''Philosophy Compass'' 2:6 (November 2007), 792-819.
* "Contemporary Skepticism and the Cartesian God", ''Canadian Journal of Philosophy'' (September 2005), 465-497.
* "The Empiricist Conception of Experience", ''Philosophy'' 75 (July 2000), 345-376
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nagel, Jennifer
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Canadian women philosophers
University of Toronto alumni
University of Pittsburgh alumni
Epistemologists
Philosophers of mind
Academic staff of the University of Toronto
21st-century Canadian philosophers
20th-century Canadian philosophers
Philosophy academics
20th-century Canadian women writers