Curriculum Vita - DOC 7

							                                               Curriculum Vitae of
                                      HYLARIE KOCHIRAS
                                                September, 2008



Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Philosophy                                                          Tel: +1 (919) 259-9238
University of Buffalo                                                             Fax: +1 (716) 645-6139
Buffalo, NY 14260-4150, U.S.A.                                                      kochiras@gmail.com


Education
Ph.D., Philosophy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2008
        Dissertation: "Force, Matter, and Metaphysics in Newton's Natural Philosophy"
        Committee: Alan Nelson (Director), Andrew Janiak, William G. Lycan, John T. Roberts, Friedel Weinert
M.A., Philosophy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1996
        Master's Thesis: "Belief Worlds and Epistemic Possibilities"
        Committee: Keith Simmons (Director), Dorit Bar-On, William G. Lycan
M.Phil., Moral Philosophy, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, 1992
        M.Phil. Thesis: "Moral Luck: Undermining the Argument of Consistency"
        Supervisor: Garrett Cullity
B.A., magna cum laude, History, Columbia University, New York, 1991
        Junior year abroad: Somerville College, Oxford

Area of Specialization
Early Modern Philosophy, especially Early Modern Philosophy of Science

Areas of Competence
Medical Ethics, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Science

Publications
"Freud Said—Or Simon Says? Informed Consent and the Advancement of Psychoanalysis as a Science",
       Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy (2006) 9:227-241
       This paper brings considerations from philosophy of science to bear upon a problem in applied ethics.

"Belief Contexts and Epistemic Possibility", Principia, an international journal of epistemology, Vol. 10, No. 1
        (June, 2006). http://www.cfh.ufsc.br/~principi/olvol10.html

Submitted Papers and Papers in Preparation
"Gravity and Newton's Substance Counting Problem", submitted
"Locke's Philosophy of Science", commissioned by The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
"Superaddition in Newton and Locke"
"Two Concepts of Causation in Newton"

Presentations
"Metaphysical Principles and Newton's Problem about Gravity", APA, Eastern Division Meeting, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania (scheduled for December, 2008)

“Gravity and Newton’s Substance Counting Problem”, Princeton-Bucharest Seminar on the Foundations of
Early Modern Thought, Bucharest/Malîncrav, Romania (July, 2008)
"Newton's Substance Counting Problem", History of Science Society, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (scheduled for
November, 2008); Sixth European Congress of Analytic Philosophy, Krakow, Poland (read in absentia by Piotr
Lesniak, August, 2008); Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science, Vancouver, Canada (June,
2008)

"Newton's Metaphysical Problem about Gravity", Royal Institute of Philosophy Lectures, University of
Bradford, England (December, 2007)

“Freud Said—Or Simon Says? Informed Consent and the Advancement of Psychoanalysis as a Science", APA,
Eastern Division Meeting, New York (December, 2005); Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology,
Durham, North Carolina (March, 2005)

“Can Utilitarian Arguments Keep Informed Consent Requirements at Bay?", International Society of Utilitarian
Studies, Dartmouth, New Hampshire (August, 2005)

"Teaching Undergraduate Philosophy Online: Maintaining Rigorous Standards while Fostering Intellectual
Independence", American Association of Philosophy Teachers, Toledo, Ohio (August, 2004)

“Why Aquinas Should Keep the Emotions Visceral", North Carolina Philosophical Society, Durham (February,
2000)

“Belief Worlds and Epistemic Possibilities’, 20th World Philosophy Congress, Boston, Massachusetts (August
1998); Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology, New Orleans (April, 1998); APA, Pacific Division
Meeting (March, 1998)

Teaching Experience
Full Responsibility:
   Early Modern Philosophy of Science, Graduate Seminar (scheduled for spring 2009)
   Early Modern Philosophy (scheduled for spring 2009)
   Philosophy of Science (scheduled for spring 2009)
   Logic (spring, 2000; scheduled for fall, 2008)
   Introduction to Philosophy (summer, 1996; fall, 1997; and each term as distance course, 2000-2007 and
   summer 2008)
   Philosophy of Religion (summer 1999; and each term as distance course, 2000-2007)
   Bioethics (summer, 1997; and each term as distance course, 2000-2007)
Teaching Assistant:
   Ancient Philosophy (summer 2007, Duke University Study Abroad Program in Greece)
   Bioethics (fall, 1996)
   Introduction to Philosophy (fall, 1995; spring, 1996; spring, 1997; spring, 1998)
   Logic (fall, 1994)
   Philosophy of Science (fall, 1999)
   Ethics (spring, 1993, University of Illinois at Chicago)
Guest Lecturer:
   Genomics & Society, an interdisciplinary course in the School of Public Health (lecture on defining and
        resolving applied ethical problems, January, 2004)
   Senior Mathematics Seminar, lecture, "What Is Philosophy of Mathematics?", Meredith College, Raleigh,
        North Carolina (November, 2003)

Teaching Links
Guidelines for Philosophical Writing
Evaluation Criteria


                                                                         Curriculum Vitae of Hylarie Kochiras / 2
Fellowships and Awards
National Science Foundation Travel Grant (for the November 2008 History of Science Society meeting)
The 2005 Friday Center Excellence in Teaching Award
Graham Kenan Fellowship (fall, 1999)
Mary Taylor Williams Fellowship (fall, 1998)
DAAD Scholarship for Language Study (summer, 1995)
Morehead Fellowship (1993-1995)

Professional Activities
Referee, Nous

Languages
French (reading knowledge), German (reading and conversation); Latin (in progress)


Graduate Courses Taken (at UNC-Chapel Hill, unless otherwise specified)
Aesthetics                       George Dickie (University of Illinois at Chicago)
Analytic Philosophy (audit)      Dorit Bar-On
Aristotle and Aquinas            Richard Kraut (University of Illinois at Chicago)
British Empiricism               Simon Blackburn
Epistemology                     Douglas C. Long
Ethics                           Garrett Cullity (University of St. Andrews)
History of Ethics                Thomas E. Hill, Jr.
Kant                             Carl Posy (Duke University)
Logic                            Keith Simmons
Modality (independent study)     Keith Simmons
Moral Realism                    Simon Blackburn
Moral Psychology                 John Haldane (University of St. Andrews)
Philosophy of Language           Louise Antony
Philosophy of Mathematics        Carl Posy (Duke University)
Philosophy of Psychology         Richard Zaffron
Philosophy of Science (audit)    John T. Roberts
Philosophy of Space and Time     George Schlesinger and Hendrik Van Dam
Plato                            Edward Galligan
Political Philosophy             Gordon Graham (University of St. Andrews)

Dissertation Abstract
Title: "Force, Matter, and Metaphysics in Newton's Natural Philosophy"
Abstract:
    Metaphysical principles may be intuitively appealing by making the world intelligible, yet this benefit carries
a high price. Not only are metaphysical principles notoriously difficult to justify, they may also place
constraints—sometimes insuperable constraints—upon our explanatory projects. The role that such principles
should play in the development of a physical theory becomes a pressing question for Newton, for he seeks a
causal explanation of gravity that will eliminate the spectre of matter acting at distance, with sun and planets
attracting one another across empty space. Does Newton reach an answer to his question about gravity's causal
story, and if not, what stands in the way?
   After examining Newton's force of inertia (vis inertiae) and his relational concept of gravity, I consider his
hypotheses about gravity's causal story. The problem about gravity's cause is urgent in part because of its scope.
Newton classifies nearly all phenomena as "new motions" produced by some active, generative source. And as I
argue, his speculations suggest that he expects distance forces to overturn the mechanical philosophy's model of
contact action even for the case of collisions. He does not solve the problem about gravity and other distance

                                                                             Curriculum Vitae of Hylarie Kochiras / 3
forces by placing all causal efficacy in God, I argue, and so the question about the role for metaphysical
principles is genuine. Despite his empiricism, Newton is strongly drawn to certain metaphysical principles,
including the principle that matter acts locally—and thus spatially separated bodies cannot affect one another
from afar, without any intervening medium.
    At one level, then, his problem about gravity seems to be that of discovering some immaterial substance,
such as an aether, that might possess active powers to produce gravitational attraction. However, I identify in
Newton's reasoning a more fundamental problem about gravity: Newton's Substance Counting Problem. His
ontology includes immaterial substances as well as material ones, and while his penchant for such metaphysical
principles as local causation keeps the search for an immaterial medium alive, his empiricism prevents him from
postulating such a medium. He also allows, on empirical grounds, the possibility that substances of different
kinds can co-occupy regions of space. Yet if two things can be in the same place at the same time, I argue,
Newton has no empirical means of determining how many substances are present on the basis of perceived
properties, or of associating those properties with one substance rather than another. Nor will he make those
determinations by asserting the metaphysical principles he suspects to be true. Thus he has no means of
associating active powers with an immaterial medium rather than with matter, and Newton's problem of
discovering gravity's complete causal story is one that cannot be solved. The impasse places a large question
mark over the legitimacy of the constraints that metaphysics places upon science, and it undermines his ability
to individuate substances, even threatening his concept of body.


References
Research References:
Alan Nelson, Professor of Philosophy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
   Email: anelson@unc.edu

Andrew Janiak, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Duke University
  Email: janiak@duke.edu

Friedel Weinert, Professor of Philosophy, University of Bradford, England
   Email: F.Weinert@Bradford.ac.uk

John T. Roberts, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
   Email: jtrosap@email.unc.edu

William G. Lycan, Professor of Philosophy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Email: ujanel@email.unc.edu

Keith Simmons, Professor of Philosophy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
   Email: ksimmons@email.unc.edu

Rebecca L. Walker, Assistant Professor of Social Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Email: rlwalker@med.unc.edu

Teaching Reference:
Jan Boxill, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
   Email: jmboxill@email.unc.edu




                                                                            Curriculum Vitae of Hylarie Kochiras / 4