ABOUT ME
I am an Associate Professor of Philosophy and the Director of the Weissman Center for Leadership and the Liberal Arts. I am also the Book Review Editor for The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism.
I received my B.A. in Philosophy and Politics from Oberlin College in 1993, and my Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities in 2001. I grew up in Connecticut and was delighted to return to New England when I accepted a position at Mount Holyoke in 2002. Previously, I have held visiting positions at St. Olaf College and Washington University in St. Louis. Before graduate school, I worked as an assistant teacher at an elementary school, as a carpenter and set painter at a number of regional theaters, and as the assistant director of a local office of Greenpeace in Madison, Wisconsin.
My wife, Jennifer (Kippy) York, is a veterinarian at Wickaboag Veterinary Clinic, and we live in Belchertown with our three-year old son, Tobias.
There is another philosophy professor with a similar name: James A. Harold. I am not him.
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ABOUT MY RESEARCH
My research lies at the intersection of meta-ethics and aesthetics. I am interested in the structure of moral and aesthetic justification, and the relationship between these two fields of value. My recent work focuses on the moral import of imaginative engagement with fictional artworks. I am particularly interested in cognitive and affective aspects of this engagement, and in the differences between the moral and aesthetic judgments we make about the value of such engagement. Thus, my work in this area brings me into contact with cognitive science, philosophy of emotion, and other related fields.
Last summer I participated in a National Endowment for the Humanities seminar on Confucian virute ethics, and I have been enjoying learning about the Chinese philosophical tradition. I am also interested in the role of principles in critcial evaluation, philosophical psychopathology, empirical ethics and aesthetics, and meta-ethical expressivism.
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LINKS
- The Harriet L. and Paul M. Weissman Center for Leadership and the Liberal Arts
- Mount Holyoke philosophy department
- Museum of Bad Art. I love this!
- The Onion. A mock-newspaper from Madison, Wisconsin. Occasionally very funny.
- Greenpeace. I used to work here, and they are a good organization.
- Mass Equality. Support everyone's right to marry.
- Project Implicit. This site is fascinating and a little frightening. You can take some on-line tests (provided you have a fast enough connection) that look for unconscious prejudical attitudes. You may not like what you learn about yourself.
- Arts and Letters Daily. This site collects together some of the best articles, book reviews, and essays from sites all over the web.
- Free on-line games. Just in case you need to waste time.
If you'd like to see some pictures of me and my family, click here.