RAVI THAKRAL

My research is mainly in the philosophy of language and in ethics. I also have many vested interests in topics across epistemology, logic, and early modern philosophy.

Below you will see information about my background and experience in teaching, including information about this semester.

Much of my recent work is on generics, deontic modals, supererogation, moral principles, empathy, and moral epistemology. You can read more about this, as well as some recent news, below.

I am an Associate Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of St Andrews and a member of the Centre for Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs.

I did my PhD and MLitt in Philosophy at St Andrews where I was a member of the Arché Philosophical Research Centre for Logic, Language, Metaphysics, and Epistemology. I did my BA in Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin.

Feel free to get in touch. I'd love to hear from you.

Research

Published

Generics and weak necessity (Inquiry, 2018)

Abstract: A prevailing thought is that generics have a covert modal operator at logical form. I claim that if this is right, the covert generic modality is a weak necessity modal. In this paper, I provide evidence for this claim and I sketch a theory. In particular, I will show that there are some important distributional parallels between generics and sentences with overt weak necessity modals: both sorts of sentences share behavior in nonmonotonic reasoning environments and also lack genuine epistemic readings. Acknowledging these parallels and the connection here is in the service of both our understanding of genericity and of weak necessity. Finally, I propose an understanding of generics as involving a covert weak necessity modal and argue that this is a promising path to pursue in relation to different issues related to the interpretation of generics.

JOurnal LInk

PhilPapers

Current Projects

Moral Principles

Provides support for the thesis that moral principles are best understood as generic generalizations.
Argues that this supports a particularist model of moral reasoning.

Under Review

Supererogation

This paper investigates supererogation and its relationship to the core normative modal notions.
It draws implications for questions of action guidance associated with 'ought' due to the generality or particularity of claims about what we ought to do.

Email for Draft

Normative Generics

This paper examines the context-sensitivity of normative generics and builds from previous work in 'Generics and weak necessity'.

Email for draft

Epistemology of Normativity

I develop a counterfactual theory of the epistemology of normative modality and argue that our justification in general normative propositions lie in judgments of conditionals of normalcy.
In doing so, this paper links together the topic of the role of imagination in ethics with recent work in modal epistemology.

IN PROGRESS

Empathy and Moral Knowledge

Recent work in philosophy and psychology has contested the value of empathy in moral philosophy by arguing that empathy is a biased and unreliable source of knowledge.
This paper articulates one positive epistemological role of empathy, namely that it enables us to alter, modify, and add to what we regard as areas of moral concern.

IN PROGRESS

Teaching

Information for Fall 2020

I'll be involved with teaching for the following modules in Fall 2020:

Reading Philosophy 1: Texts in Language, Logic, Mind, Epistemology, Metaphysics and Science (PY3100)
Reasons for Action and Belief (PY4646, with Justin Snedegar)

Consultation Hours: Fridays 2-4PM BST & by appointment, on Microsoft Teams

Awards

Students' Association Teaching Award (2019)

In 2019, I received a university-wide teaching award given to only one graduate teaching assistant across all departments. See here for a press release.

PhD Teaching Prize (2017)

In 2017, I won a department-wide competition to develop and teach my own honours seminar. The award is based upon the submission of the original design of a course for advanced undergraduate students and was judged by a committee of faculty members. I was subsequently given the opportunity to be lecturer on a course I designed on empathy which covered a range of issues in social and political philosophy, ethics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of action.

Best Tutor in Philosophy (2014)

In 2014, I received the award of Best Tutor in Philosophy while teaching a first-year introduction to epistemology and logic. This is a student-run award and I was selected on the basis of receiving the best overall feedback and highest score of 7.95/8 on independent student evaluation forms.

Summary

Lecturer for a course I designed on 'Philosophy of Empathy' which was on the relationship between empathy and issues across social and political philosophy, ethics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of action.

Tutor (i.e. teaching assistant) for many philosophy courses at St Andrews covering core material from early modern philosophy, philosophy of science, ethics, social and political philosophy, logic, metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of mind.

Designed lecture series on philosophical skills such as argumentation, essay writing, and formal methods in philosophy (including logic, set theory, and probability theory).

With Kevin Scharp, Caroline Touborg, & Ryan Nefdt in St Andrews, June 2019. Photo by Jonathan Jenkins Ichikawa.

Department of Philosophy, University of St Andrews, Edgecliffe, The Scores, St Andrews, KY16 9AL

ravithakral@icloud.com

Recent News, Events, & Updates

Recent Talk

Arché Anniversary Conference

PhD Defense

University-Wide Teaching Award

Comments at the Pacific APA