Publications

Expression and Self-Knowledge

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Dorit Bar-On, Co-Author

Wiley, 2023

Contemporary epistemologists and philosophers of mind continue to find puzzling the nature and source of privileged self-knowledge: the ordinary and effortless ‘first-person’ knowledge we have of our own sensations, moods, emotions, beliefs, desires, and hopes.

In Expression and Self-Knowledge, Dorit Bar-On and Crispin Wright articulate their joint dissatisfaction with extant accounts of self-knowledge and engage in a sustained and substantial critical debate over the merits of an expressivist approach to the topic. The authors incorporate cutting-edge research while defending their own alternatives to existing approaches to so-called ‘first-person privilege’.

Bar-On defends her neo-expressivist account, addressing the objection that neo-expressivism fails to provide an adequate epistemology of ordinary self-knowledge, and addresses new objections levelled by Wright. Wright then presents an alternative pluralist approach, and Bar-On argues in response that pluralism faces difficulties neo-expressivism avoids. Providing invaluable insights on a hotly debated topic in epistemology and philosophy of mind, Expression and Self-Knowledge:

  • Presents an in-depth debate between two leading philosophers over the expressivist approach
  • Offers novel developments and penetrating criticisms of the authors' respective views
  • Features two different perspectives on the influential remarks on expression and self-knowledge found in Wittgenstein’s later writings
  • Includes four jointly written chapters that offer a critical overview of prominent existing accounts, which provide a useful advanced introduction to the subject.

Expression and Self-Knowledge is essential reading for epistemologists, philosophers of mind and language, psychologists with an interest in self-knowledge, and researchers and graduate students working in expression, expressivism, and self-knowledge.

Cover of "Expression and Self-Knowledge" by Dorit Bar-On and Crispin Wright.

Thomas Meagher: “Loving Commitment to Another”

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Check out UConn Philosophy Alum Thomas Meagher’s newest piece on the Blog of the APA titled “Loving Commitment to Another: A Reflection by way of Howard Thurman”. 

Romantic love, then, as a nominiously loving commitment to another—a particular other, and not just any other—can be understood as a discipline of the spirit, a mode of life creating its order so as to confront the daunting depths of existence.

You can read the full article here.

Professor Emerita Margaret Gilbert: New Published Work

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Check out Professor Emerita Margaret Gilbert’s new published work Life in Groups: How We Think, Feel, and Act Together.

Life in Groups: How We Think, Feel, and Act Together develops and applies the author’s perspective on topics she relates to joint commitment. This kind of commitment unifies those who participate in it, guides their actions going forward, and determines their relations to one another in important ways. In particular, it grounds in each of the parties a set of rights and obligations of a central kind. This volume contains thirteen essays, together with a substantial introduction, which serves both to explain joint commitment for those unfamiliar with it and to advance discussion in light of some questions it has prompted, and a reflective conclusion. The essays range over collective beliefs and intentions; rational choice and collective preference; group lies and corporate misbehavior; remorse and other emotions in a group context; rights, obligations, and freedom.