Learning to Look: Lessons from Iris Murdoch

Roll 174a. Fr. Finn's Rel. Teach. Conven. (Religious Teaching Convention)/McGill's/John White's. Image 5 of 32. (21 December, 1954; 25 December, 1954; 26 December, 1954) [PHO 1.174a.5]The Boleslaus Lukaszewski (Father Luke) Photographs contain more than 28,000 images of Saint Louis University people, activities, and events between 1951 and 1970. The photographs were taken by Boleslaus Lukaszewski (Father Luke), a Jesuit priest and member of the University's Philosophy Department faculty

State v. Boston, 132 Nev. Adv. Op. 20 (March. 31, 2016)

After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon, one count of conspiracy to commit murder, and related crimes. Defendant was sentenced to death of each murder. The district court denied Defendant’s motion to suppress statements he made in two interviews with police after his initial appearance before a magistrate. The Supreme Court reversed, holding (1) the district court did not err in denying Defendant’s motion to suppress, as his Sixth Amendment right to counsel attached at his initial appearance before the magistrate, but Defendant waived his right to have counsel present at the subsequent interviews; but (2) the district court clearly erred when it rejected Defendant’s objection under Batson v. Kentucky to the State’s use of a peremptory challenge to remove an African American from the venire during jury selection. Reversed and remanded

Tate v. State, Bd. of Med. Exam’rs, 131 Nev. Adv. Op. 67 (Sep. 10, 2015)

The Court considers an appeal from a district court order denying an injunction challenging the constitutionality of a statute prohibiting stay of Board of Medical Examiners decision. The Court revered and remanded the district court’s order because the statute prohibiting district courts from entering a stay of a decision of the Board of Medical Examiners pending judicial review violates the separation of powers doctrine as a matter of first impression

The Value of Open-Mindedness and Intellectual Humility for Interdisciplinary Research

Academic research is increasingly centering on interdisciplinary work. Strong interdisciplinary research (SIR), involving researchers from very different fields, such as scientists and humanists, is often encouraged, if not required, by funding agencies.  I argue that two intellectual virtues, open-mindedness and intellectual humility, are crucial for overcoming obstacles to SIR and achieving success. In part I, I provide a primer on intellectual virtue and the two virtues in question. In part II, I distinguish SIR from weak interdisciplinary research (WIR), which involves research teams from neighboring fields, such as physics and chemistry, and from disciplinary research (DR), which involves researchers from the same discipline. I also outline what counts as success in SIR, and explain why it’s more challenging to attain than in WIR and DR. In part III, I explain how both intellectual virtues are essential for achieving success in SIR and for overcoming obstacles that can arise in its pursuit

State v. Boston, 131 Nev. Adv. Op. 98 (Dec. 31, 2015)

The Court considers an appeal from a district court order granting a post-conviction petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Specifically, the Court considered whether the holding in Graham applies when an aggregate sentence imposed against a juvenile defender convicted of more than one nonhomicide offense is the equivalent of a life-without-parole sentence. The Court held that it does

“May You Live in Interesting Times”: Moral Philosophy and Empirical Psychology [Review of \u3cem\u3eThe Moral Psychology Handbook\u3c/em\u3e]

The Moral Psychology Handbook is a contribution to a relatively new genre of philosophical writing, the “handbook.” In the first section, I comment on an expectation about handbooks, namely that handbooks contain works representative of a field, and raise concerns about The Moral Psychology Handbook in this regard. In the rest of the article I comment in detail on two Handbook articles, “Moral Motivation” by Timothy Schroeder, Adina Roskies, and Shaun Nichols, and “Character” by Maria W. Merritt, John M. Doris, and Gilbert Harman. Both articles illustrate the perils as well as the promise of reliance on empirical studies for philosophers who work in moral psychology