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Vaidya, Anand
"this was our paradox: no course of action could be
determined because every course of action could be made to accord with the
rule."
I was born in Evanston, Illinois on January 4, 1976. I spent the early part of my childhood, ages 1 to 5, growing up in Texas; and the latter part of it, ages 5 to 16, living in Saudi Arabia. While in the middle east I spent a lot of time traveling. Most of my travels were to India, Europe, and parts of the United States. In 1991, shortly after the first Gulf War ended, I moved back to the U.S., this time to Southern California. In 1994 I began studying philosophy at California State University, Humboldt. In the beginning I was very interested in Indian philosophy and Phenomenology, and what connection there might be between the two. Although I never lost my interest in these two areas, after taking a course in logic I got interested in Analytic philosophy. In 1996 I moved to University of California, Los Angeles. My studies there focued on Logic & Philosophy of Language, Metaphysics of Modality, Kant, and Wittgenstein. After a short return to India, I moved to the University of California, Santa Barbara for graduate studies. There I developed an interest in Epistemology, and Philosophy of Mind. I wrote my qualifying paper on Modal Rationalism and Two-Dimensional Modal Logic. In 2005 I recieved a Ph.D for my dissertation, The Epistemology of Metaphysical Modality. In this work I defend two theses. First, that metaphysical modality is a basic kind of modality not reducible to logical or physical modality. It has a relativistic character that is sensitive to kind-categories, rather than an absolute character that is insensitive to kind-catergories. Second, that the fundamental source of epistemic justification for beliefs involving metaphysical modality is through intuition, rather than conceivability, perception, or imagination. In general I spend a lot of time thinking about logic, and the nature of
critical reasoning from a philosophical point of view. However, I am also
actively engaged in investigating these topics from within cognitive science,
economics, and social science. Whithin philosophy of mind I am most intersted in
the nature of emotions, reason, intuition, and propositional attitudes. I am
also interested in the metaphysics of mind and the nature of consciousness.
Currently, I am working on a book length manuscript on the relations between
emotion, intuition, and reason. Research: Teaching:
Other Interests:
Publications: Presentations: Courses:
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