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The Stetson Gadfly

DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY
NEWSLETTER

Ronald Hall (ronhall@stetson.edu) Susan Peppers-Bates (speppers@stetson.edu) Joshua Rust (jrust@stetson.edu) Melinda Hall (mchall@stetson.edu)
Departmental Secretary, Divina Bungard (dbungard@stetson.edu)

Is John Bolton a diplomat? An Inquiry into the Persistence Conditions of Status Functions

Status functions are institutionally-defined categories—professor, President of the United States, Federal Reserve Note, parolee, and diplomat. When does something or someone come to count as an instance of a status function? This is the question I’ve been asking in my latest research.
Before addressing that question we need to say a bit more about what a status function is. First, status functions carry a deontology of rights and obligations. A professor is obliged to grade assigned work and the President must submit a budget request to Congress. Diplomatic immunity is to be found among the various rights and obligations entailed by the status. Money gives one the right to extinguish a debt. When one falls under a status function one has reasons to act that one might not have otherwise had. Second, status functions have functions or purposes, and the deontic powers typically help advance those purposes. Presidents lead and professors teach and research. The function of a diplomat includes representing and protecting the interests of a state by way of the formal right to, e.g., negotiate a treaty. Money serves as a medium of exchange. Finally, many status functions come into being when certain constitutive rules or conference procedures are satisfied. One becomes President when one is elected. Diplomats are appointed. Dollar bills are printed by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
So when does a person become a diplomat? The last feature of a status function suggests an easy answer to that question—when he or she satisfies the constitutive rules. As soon as someone is appointed to the office and swears an oath of office he or she becomes a diplomat.
But then consider the case of John Bolton, who controversially served as U.S. Under Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005. Jeane Kirkpatrick said of Bolton: “He loves to tussle. He may do diplomatic jobs for the U.S. government, but John is not a diplomat.” While he was appointed by President Bush, so satisfying the constitutive rules of the institution, he also infamously flaunted many of the deontic obligations entailed by the status of diplomat. Kirkpatrick suggests that Bolton is not a diplomat, despite having been appointed by the President. What gives?
Maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to tie the persistence conditions of a status to the satisfaction of the status’ constitutive rules. Afterall, these statuses exist to serve a purpose or function and maybe something’s ability to realize that purpose or function ought to have something to do with the determination of the kind of thing it is. A computer that can’t compute may not be a computer. And a diplomat that doesn’t correctly represent the interests of the state shouldn’t be considered a paradigm case of diplomat—even if that person satisfies the constitutive rules of the institution.
I’m not here claiming that Bolton isn’t a diplomat. But neither am I saying that he definitely is. If all status functions are metaphysically vague, as Lynn Baker thinks they must be, we can explain, rather than explain away, Kirkpatrick’s remark. Just as there is no fact of the matter as to whether a fertilized egg is or is not an animal, or whether a mostly completed boat is a boat, I argue that the best interpretation of Kirkpatrick’s remark has her drawing our attention to the indeterminacy Bolton’s status.
By Joshua Rust

Quote: “Negotiation is not a policy. It's a technique. It's something you use when it's to your advantage, and something that you don't use when it's not to your advantage.” -John Bolton

Quote: “I don't do carrots.” - John Bolton

As the End of Year Celebration, the Philosophy Faculty and Majors were enjoying so good times in conversation at the Café DaVinci in downtown Deland.

“I am that gadfly which God has attached to the state, and all day long and in all places am always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you.” -Socrates

Who are our adjucts?

Louis Colombo earned his Phd in philosophy from the New School for Social Research in New York City, where he wrote his dissertation on Hegel’s conception of the infinite. Perhaps not surprisingly, as a semi-reformed Hegelian, he is still in love with the history of philosophy, and finds it hard to settle down in any particular area. Recurring areas of interest include the Cynics and the Stoics, as well the first wave of Critical Theory.
Louis has been fortunate to teach as an adjunct instructor for several semesters at Stetson, where he has enjoyed an active and engaged student population and a supportive environment. While he has been teaching Logic, he is excited to be teaching Introduction to Philosophy (and Logic) this coming fall. Although he has yet to figure out how to narrow down the history of philosophy to one semester, he hopes that his students will leave the class at the end of the term thinking not only about what philosophy is about, but equally about what it means to be a philosopher.

David DiQuattro earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Notre Dame. He moved to Central Florida with his family last year after teaching philosophy at Grove City College (his undergraduate alma mater) for seven years, also serving as chair of the philosophy department.
David’s main research interests are in ethics and St. Augustine. He’s interested in exploring the relevance of St. Augustine for thinking about the virtues, the good life, and human agency. He’s interested in philosophical analyses of modernity in the works of figures such as Alasdair MacIntyre, Charles Taylor, and Iris Murdoch as well as earlier figures such as Nietzsche.
David has taught on a wide variety of philosophical topics and periods, and enjoys the opportunity to make connections between different areas and time periods of philosophy. So he has enjoyed the chance to teach introductory courses at Stetson. He enjoys student contributions in Introduction to Philosophy to discussions of such fundamental questions as the existence of God, the nature and limits of knowledge, and the nature of the virtues. David has also taught Introduction to Logic at Stetson, and enjoyed that quite a bit, as logic was a very formative part of his own undergraduate education.

Steven Smallpage will complete his PhD in political science at Michigan State University this August. He received an MA in Political Theory and Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto and a BA in political science at American University. He joins the political science department here at Stetson as an assistant professor this Fall. As a political scientist, his main research areas are empirical political psychology, American political culture and development, and the history of normative political philosophy.
As an adjunct instructor in the philosophy department at Stetson University, Steven taught several sections of Introduction to Philosophy where students read (almost line-by-line) recent translations of Aristotle's Politics, John Locke's Two Treatises of Government, and Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. The noticeably political flavor of the class encouraged student discussions. Steven enjoyed teaching for the department enormously.
As a political philosopher, Steven's work focuses on the political culture and psychology of liberal constitutionalism. His work draws heavily on historical figures like John Locke and Edmund Burke, and contemporary philosophers like Chantal Mouffe and Ernesto Laclau. Steven's recent work has focused on the philosophical nature of conspiracy thinking, anxiety, and fear in political liberalism

Philosophy Club and Visitors

Philosophy club has had a year full of great speakers and engaging discussion. Conversations were created between a variety of studies, including religious studies and psychology, as well with a variety of people, such as professors and students.
The first meeting of the year had our location graciously provided by the department chair Dr. Ronald Hall at his home near campus. We had guest speaker Charlenge Edge discussing her experience leaving The Way International, a known cult. She read a portion of her book and addressed questions about what it was like leaving a cult, for both her and her family. The conversation was fascinating as we addressed concern about the nature of group identity, and the type of emotional state needed to decide to leave an identity defining social group.
For our next meeting we had a student, Jason Cruz, presenting his paper, “A Utilitarian Defense of Non-Monogamy,” followed by a planned rebuttal by co-president Joe Beery. The club then had a conversation about how Utilitarianism was being applied to relationship, including how a scale can be applied to happiness in a relationship. (see picture below)
Our first professor to speak to the club for the year was Dr. Hugh Marlowe, with his presentation titled “East…West…Huh…?” He created a dialogue showing a connection and similarities that he has found in his studies between eastern and western philosophical thought. The goal was to demonstrate that despite the fact that the two areas of thought are separated that he has been studying for a while to illustration the connection between the two styles.
Dr. Rothstein was another professor who we had the enjoyment of getting to host at our March meeting. He presented his speech on The Cognitive Science of Decision Making. The piece had an interdisciplinary edge, between Philosophy and Psychology, and discussed the details of the significance of physiological phenomenon effect on decisions. Connecting these occurrences to the known philosophical dialogues they effect, such as the trolley problem. This was a great meeting with discussion that had significant back and forth between the students and Dr. Rothstein.
Our last visiting professor was Dr. Peter Rollins, who we were glad to have return to the philosophy club again this year, to discuss Christ the Atheist: Recovering the Subversive Legacy of Political Subtraction. This meeting had a good number of professors from outside of the philosophy department allowing for a challenging interdepartmental dialogue.
We concluded the year with a poster session by the new class Research in Philosophy, where students presented the ideas within the paper that they had written over the semester in the class. The students worked hard on their topics and, as someone who was in this class, I had fun getting to share and hear about everyone’s research over the semester.
This was an entertaining year for Philosophy club. We got to engage with a variety of speakers in enlightening and thought provoking discussion. The club is excited to see what conversations we will get to have next year.
By Amanda Hernandez, Philosophy Club Co-President 2015-2016

Philosophy Club's November 2015 meeting featuring student Jason Cruz's paper “A Utilitarian Defense of Nonmonogamy.” Photo shows Co-President Joe Beery presenting his planned rebuttal for the discussion.
Center Co-President Amanda Hernandez left Co-President Joe Beery, left of Joe is Jason Cruz."

Faculty News

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Ronald Hall: I will be returning from my sabbatical leave this fall. During my leave, I revised the text of my book used online by the Department, Logic: A Brief Introduction. I also revised the Workbook for this text. As well, I have just completed co-editing a volume of essays on philosophical anthropology, entitled Recovering the Personal that will be published later this year.
Susan Peppers-Bates: I am spending the first half of the summer teaching Gender Studies 100 online and will spend the second half reading french commentary and revising my article on Nicolas Malebranche and the 17th century fight over "pure love" for the Oxford Companion to Malebranche (after my editor kindly gave me 72 revision suggestions, mostly small, a few substantial). I also will be reading and prepping for an updated version of my course The Philosophy of Race & Racism, with new articles and a book incorporating the Black Lives Matter movement.
Joshua Rust: As far as teaching is concerned, the highlight of my year was teaching the first instance of Research in Philosophy. Research in Philosophy is a new, required preparation course for Senior Research. The intention is to enable students to go into their Senior Projects with a 10-12 page prospectus. Special thanks for Enric, Jason, Hannah, Olivia, Amanda, and Josh for helping me field test this class. I also published an article with Eric Schwitzgebel, “The Behavior of Ethicists,” in A Companion to Experimental Philosophy. Finally, I’m excited to take on the challenge of being the Chair of the Philosophy Department, and I thank Ron Hall for good work he’s done as Chair.
Melinda Hall: My book, The Bioethics of Enhancement, is forthcoming with Lexington Books by the end of the year. In it, I critique the promotion of human enhancement in bioethics literature using a disability-rights lens and a biopolitical analysis drawn from the work of Michel Foucault. In March, my paper "Horrible Heroes: Liberating Alternative Visions of Disability in Horror," came out in Disability Studies Quarterly; the journal is open access and web-based, so it's easily available online for anyone who wants to read it. In March, I presented the outcome of my 2015 Stetson summer grant on risk and Ebola panic at Western Michigan University Ethics Center for their themed conference, "Bioethics: Preparing for the Unknown." In connection with other research, I have two papers currently under review at journals. The first, "The Fallacy of Catastrophe," evaluates moral responses to perceived risk. The second, "Obscured Social Construction as Epistemic Harm," layers in an important reason to understand what around us is socially constructed (as opposed to naturally occurring) - to believe something is natural when it is actually socially constructed harms us as knowers by restricting what we can ask "why" questions about. As always, I very much enjoyed collaborating with students and colleagues in our dynamic department here at Stetson.

HALL AWARD The Department proudly presented the 2016 Ronald L. and Margaret S. Hall Philosophy Award to Hannah Dean. Hannah has been an outstanding student and delivered an excellent Senior Research

SENIOR THESES & FUTURE PLANS

Hannah Dean: “Toward an Inclusive Ethic of Difference” Plans: Vermont Law with focus in Environmental law.
Tatiana Lyne: Senior Thesis: “The Availability of Philosophy” Plans: Gap year
Melanie Fredericks: ”Integrating a Feminist Theory of Disability” Plans: I'm planning to enter the United States Marine Corps in July 2015. I will be going to law school through the Marine Corps and be an active JAG officer.
Angelo Parkinson : “A Humanitarian Approach to Free Spirits” Plans: Gap year , then next fall 2017 start classes in public administration for future interests in community development. Cole Simpson: ““The Culture Industry: An Illusion of Authenticity” Plans: Seeking an internship with a law office that specializes in environmental law in Denver.

The Stetson Gadfly Page # Issue XIV, Summer 2016