EXPERTISE
Epistemology
Ethics Across The Disciplines
Feminist Theory
Trust
FACULTY PROFILE
“Philosophers are fond of quoting Plato that ““the unexamined life is not worth living.”” And this familiar phrase does resonate with me: the driving, deeply inspiring challenge here is to reflect upon what is worthy of a life well lived, and the truth is that all of our lives really do deserve and merit examination. But we need not embark on fearless self-examination alone or in isolation. We are resources for one another. We can know together through trusting and trustworthy dependence what we cannot easily know alone.
Above all, this immense potential for collaborative inquiry is what excites me as a new associate professor here at Governors State University. From social work to criminal justice, from healthcare to chemistry, from counseling to business administration, there are many excellent programs at GSU that philosophy can fruitfully complement. I am excited to keep building our GSU philosophy courses -- and minor in Philosophy, minor in Religious Studies, and minor in Practical & Professional Ethics - into valuable, trustworthy resources for our colleagues, our students, and our community. Prior to arriving at GSU in August 2013, I spent four years as an assistant professor of philosophy and humanities at the College of Lake County in the north Chicago suburbs.
In 2009, I earned my doctorate in philosophy from the University of Washington, where I wrote my dissertation on the role of trust in scientific knowledge. Both CLC and the UW afforded me invaluable experience teaching philosophy courses of many varieties, and also finding balance among teaching, research, service, family, and community. While I will always love Seattle for its mountains and coffee, I am a Midwesterner at heart, born in Cincinnati, studying physics and philosophy at Purdue, and now living with my partner and our daughter in Chicago."
- Ben Almassi
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RESEARCH INTERESTS:
"I find myself interested in philosophical issues at intersections of social epistemology and practical ethics. For me this includes things like epistemology of testimony and disagreement, epistemology of experimentation, the role of trust in scientific practice, ethics of expertise, standpoint theory and situated knowledge, epistemic injustice, informed consent in medical research and clinical care, the nature of health and disability, community-based participatory research, and global climate change."
PEER REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES:
(2013). "Medical Ghostwriting and Informed Consent"
Bioethics
(2012). "Climate Change, Epistemic Trust, and Expert Trustworthiness"
Ethics and the Environment , 17(2)
(2012). "Climate Change and the Ethics of Individual Emissions: A Response to Sinnott-Armstrong"
Perspectives: International Postgraduate Journal of Philosophy, 4, 4-21.
2012
(2011). "The Consequences of Individual Consumption: A Defense of Threshold Arguments for Vegetarianism and Consumer Ethics"
Journal of Applied Philosophy, 28(4), 396-411.
(2010). "Disability, Functional Diversity, and Trans/feminism"
International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics, 3(2), 126-149.
(2009). "Conflicting Expert Testimony and the Search for Gravitational Waves"
Philosophy of Science, 76(5), 570-584.
(2009). "Trust in Expert Testimony: Eddington's Eclipse Expedition & the British Response to General Relativity". Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 40(1), 57-67.
(2007).
BOOK REVIEWS:
A Defense of Ignorance: Its Value for Knowers and Roles in Feminist and Social Epistemologies, by Cynthia Townley (Lexington Books, 2011)
Hypatia 27(2)
2013
The Philosophy of Expertise, edited by E. Selinger & R. Crease (Columbia University Press, 2006)
Ethics 117(2)
2007
CHAPTERS IN EDITED ANTHOLOGIES:
"Expertise in Agriculture: Scientific and Ethical Issues"
Encyclopedia of Food & Agricultural Ethics
P. Thompson and D. Kaplan (eds.)
Springer
2014
"Public Understanding of Climate Science and the Ethics of Expertise"
Between Scientists & Citizens
J. Goodwin (ed.)
Great Plains Society for Study of Argumentation
2012
"Feminist Allyship in The Big Lebowski"
The Big Lebowski and Philosophy
P. Fosl (ed.)
Open Court Press
2012
RECENT & UPCOMING CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS:
"Epistemic Justice in Scientific Publication and Research Misconduct"
IEEE International Symposium on Ethics in Science, Engineering & Technology
Chicago
May 2014
"Feminist Allyship and Feminist Reclamations of Masculinity"
Northeast Modern Languages Association Convention
Harrisburg PA
April 2014
"Social Epistemology of E-prints in Scientific Practice"
Society for Philosophy of Science in Practice Biennial Meeting
Toronto ON
June 2013
"Peer Review in an ArXival Age"
Choosing the Future of Science: Social Organization of Scientific Inquiry
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA
April 2013
"Trusting Other Philosophers: Intellectual Virtue or Vice?"
Conference on Value Inquiry
Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green KY
April 2013
"Environmental Restoration as Moral Repair and Cultivation of Environmental Trustworthiness"
Advancing Public Philosophy Conference
Emory University
Atlanta GA
March 2013
"Experts, Evidence, and Epistemic Independence". Spontaneous Generations, 1(1), 58-66.