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D A V I D V E S S E Y
Campus Address Home
Address
Department of Philosophy
1469 Byron St. SE
Grand Valley State University Grand
Rapids, MI
MAK B-3-201
(616) 724-4168
Allendale, MI 49401 davevessey@yahoo.com
vesseyd@gvsu.edu
Positions Held
2008- Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Grand Valley State University
2004-08 Lecturer, Collegiate Division of the Humanities, University of Chicago
2005-07 Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Northeastern Illinois University
2004-05 Visiting Scholar, Department of Philosophy, University of Chicago
1996-2002 Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religion Beloit College
Fall 1993 Visiting Instructor, Philosophy Department, St. Olaf College
Education
1996 Ph.D., Philosophy, University of Notre Dame
1993 M.A., Philosophy, University of Notre Dame
1989 B.A., Magna Cum Laude, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN
Majors: Mathematics and Philosophy (both with departmental distinction)
Phi Beta Kappa
Areas of Specialization
19th and 20th Century Continental Philosophy
Areas of Competence
History of Philosophy, American Philosophy, Aesthetics, Philosophy of Religion, Ethics, Logic
Teaching Awards
2003 Beloit Rotary Club/Beloit Chamber of Commerce Teaching Award
2002 Beloit College, Underkofler Teacher of the Year Award for Excellence in Teaching
Publications
"Ricoeur and Gadamer on Recognition" forthcoming in Gadamer and Ricoeur: Critical Horizons for Contemporary Hermeneutics, edited by Jay Mootz and George Taylor (Continuum, 2010)
"William James," Pragmatism," and Edmund Husserl" enteries in the forthcoming An Historical Dictionary of the Philosophy of Religion, edited by Charles Taliaferro and Elsa Marty (Continuum, 2010)
"Davidson, Gadamer, Incommensurability, and the Third Dogma of Empiricism" forthcoming in Dialogues with Donald Davidson, edited by Jeff Malpas (Boston: MIT Press, 2009).
"Gadamer and the Fusion of Horizons" International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 17/4 (2009), 531-42.
"The Method of Question and Answer as a Principle of Charity in Gadamer’s Hermeneutics (w/interview)" forthcoming in Philosophical Investigations (Iran) (Tabriz, Iran: University of Tabriz, 2009)
"Relating Levinas and Gadamer through Heidegger" Levinas Studies, 4 (2008).
"Hermeneutics," in American Philosophy: An Encyclopedia (New York: Routledge, 2008).
Translation (with Chris Blaukamp) of Hans-Georg Gadamer's "Friendship and Solidarity," Research in Phenomenology,39/1 (2009), 3-12.
"Deriving Gadamer's Account of Intersubjectivity from His Account of Dialogue," forthcoming in Sprache ist Gespräch—Gadamer's Understanding of Language as Conversation (edited by Andre Wiercinski).
"Dewey, Gadamer, and the Status of Poetry Among the Arts," forthcoming in a volume John Dewey and Continental Philosophy (edited by Paul Fairfield).
"The Meaning of a Deathless Life," Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy (Chicago: Open Court, 2008)
"Who Was Gadamer's Husserl?" The New Yearbook for Phenomenology and Phenomenological Philosophy VII (2007), 1-23.
"The Role of Language in Object Transcendence:A Gadamerian Response to Dreyfus and McDowell," Philosophy Today (Supplement, 2007).
"Gadamer's Hermeneutic Contribution to a Theory of Time-Consciousness," Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology, 7/2 (2007),
"Language as Encoding Thought vs. Language as Medium of Thought: On the Question of J. G. Fichte's Influence on Wilhelm von Humboldt," Idealistic Studies 36:3 (2007).
"Engaging Across Traditions: Royce and Gadamer on Interpretation," Issues in Interpretation Theory, ed. Pol Vandevelde (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 2006).
Introduction and translation (w/Chris Blaukamp) of Hans-Georg Gadamer's "The Incapacity of Conversation" Continental Philosophy Review, 39:4 (2006).
"Philosophical Hermeneutics," The Blackwell Companion to Pragmatism (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2006), 209-214.
"Gadamer's Theory of Friendship as an Alternative to Intersubjectivity," Philosophy Today 49. no. 5 (2005): 61-67
"Reducing Religion to Theology: On Gracia on the Interpretation of Revealed Texts," American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 78, no. 3 (Summer 2004).
"The Polysemy of Otherness: On Ricoeur's Oneself as Another" in Arobase 4:1-2 (Fall 2000), issue dedicated to the theme of Alterity and Ipseity, http://www.arobase.to/. Reprinted in in Ipseity and Alterity: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Intersubjectivity, ed. Shaun Gallagher (Rouen: Presses Universitaires de Rouen, 2002).
"Philosophy in Germany at the Time of the Expressionists," exhibition catalog The Will to Create: Expressionism in Germany (Beloit College, 2001).
"Hey-diddily-ho, Neighboreenos: Ned Flanders and Neighborly Love" in The Simpsons and Philosophy, ed. William Irwin (Chicago: Open Court Press, 2001).
Translation (with Peter Adamson) of H.-G. Gadamer's "Subjectivity and Intersubjectivity, Subject and Person," Continental Philosophy Review 33 (2000): 275-87.
"Gadamer and the Body Across Dialogical Contexts," Philosophy Today 44, no. 5(2000): 70-77.
"The Body as Anstoss in Sartre's Account of Constitution" in The Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy, http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Cont/ContVess.htm.
"Foucault and Phenomenology" (with Stephen H. Watson) in The Encyclopedia of Phenomenology, ed. Lester Embree (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996).
"The Euler Phi- Function Generalized for Solutions to the n-Queens Problem," Undergraduate Journal of Mathematics 22, no. 2 (Sept. 1990).
Book Reviews
Review Article of Nicholas Davey’s Unquiet Understanding: Gadamer’s Philosophical Hermeneutics, in Research in Phenomenology, 38/2 (2008), 293-302.
Review Article of Paul Fairfield's Theorizing Praxis: Studies in Hermeneutical Pragmatism in Contemporary Pragmatism (December 2006)
Review of Gabriel Marcel's Le Métaphysique de Royce in the Newsletter of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy (Winter 2006)
Review of Hans-Georg Gadamer's The Beginning of Knowledge in Philosophy in Review 23 (August 2003).
Review of Mitchell Aboulafia's G. H. Mead and Continental Philosophy in The Journal of Speculative Philosophy 16, no. 4 (2002).
Work under Review
"Gadamer's Contribution to Philosophy of Religion," invited to Philosophy Compass.
"Gadamer and Davidson" invited toPhilosophy Compass.
Work in Progress
Dialogue and Friendship: Intersubjectivity and Philosophical Hermeneutics (monograph invited for consideration by Cambridge University Press).
Book Review, Gary Gutting (ed.) Continental Philosophy of Science for Philosophy of Science
Book Review, John Arthos's The Inner Word in Gadamer's Hermeneutics for Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
"Pedagogical Implications of Gadamer's 'Logic of Question and Answer" invited to be included in Education, Dialogue, Hermeneutics , edited by Paul Fairfield (Continuum, 2010)
"Reading Pippin Reading Hegel" to be presented at a conference in honor of Robert Pippin, Kalamazoo College, Winter 2010.
Conference Papers
"Moderate and Immoderate Candor: Foucault's Parrhesia without Sophrosyne," 2009 meeting of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, Arlington, VA.
"The Medieval Roots for Gadamer’s Claim for Hermeneutic Universality", 2009 meeting of the Canadian Society for Continental Philosophy, London, ON.
"On John Arthos' The Inner Word in Gadamer's Hermeneutics," 2009 meeting of the North American Society for Philosophical Hermeneutics, Witchita, KS.
"Hermeneutics, Dialouge, Recognition" Boston College Workshop on Gadamer, Boston, MA.
"Gadamer, Augustine, and the Universality of Hermeneutics: Against the Standard Interpretation" 2008 Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, Pittsburgh.
"The Role of the Concept 'Person' in Gadamer's Hermeneutics" 2008 North American Society for Philosophical Hermeneutics, Chicago.
"On a Recent Husserlian Criticism of Gadamer's Account of the Subject," main program, 2008 Central Division APA, Chicago, IL
"Gadamer and Davidson on Incommensurability," Invited paper, main session, 2007 Eastern Division APA.
"Can there be Evangelical Missionary Dialogue?" Center for Ethics and Culture, University of Notre Dame, December 2007.
"On Bernet’s Criticism of Gadamer’s Subject at Play," 2007 Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, Chicago.
"The Uniqueness of Poetry," 2007 Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy, Columbia, South Carolina.
"Language and the Transcendence of Objects: A Gadamerian Reply to Dreyfus and McDowell," 2006 Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, Philadelphia.
"Who Was Gadamer's Husserl?" 2006 North American Society of Philosophical Hermeneutics, Boston.
"Disconnecting Intersubjectivity and Ethics," Main program, 2006 Central Division of the American Philosophical Association, Chicago
"Alterity and Faith in Gadamer's Hermeneutics," 2005 Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, Salt Lake City.
"Gadamer on Heidegger on Authentic Relations to Others," Main Program, 2005 Central APA, Chicago.
"Gadamer's Theory of Horizons," 2005 Pacific APA, San Francisco.
"Dewey and Gadamer on Poetry," Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy session at the 2005 Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, Salt Lake City.
"Gadamer in Dialogue with American Philosophy," 2005 Summer Institute in American Philosophy, University of Oregon
"Shiva the Destroyer v. Scotland Yard: Unique Problems in Interpreting Religious Art," Center for Ethics and Culture, University of Notre Dame, November 2004.
"Gadamer's Theory of Friendship as Intersubjectivity," 2004 Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, Memphis.
"Gadamer's Theory of Time," 21st World Congress of Philosophy, August 2003, Istanbul.
"Others, Thous, Friends: On Gadamer's Theory of Intersubjectivity," North American Society for Social Philosophy at the 2003 Pacific APA, San Francisco.
"Gadamer and the Body Across Dialogical Contexts," 2002 Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, State College, PA.
"Time and the Other Otherwise than Levinas," Marquette University, November 2001.
"On Jorge Gracia's How Can We Know What God Means?" Author Meets Critics Session at the American Catholic Philosophical Association, November 2001, Albany, NY.
"On the Incompleteness of George Herbert Mead's Theory of the Social Self as an Account of Intersubjectivity: Re-reading Henrich after Habermas," 1998 Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, Denver.
"The Body as Anstoss in Sartre's Account of Constitution," 20th World Congress of Philosophy, August 1998, Boston.
"Language as Encoding Thought vs. Language as Medium of Thought: On the Question of J. G. Fichte's Influence on Wilhelm von Humboldt," 1998 Wisconsin Philosophical Association, Mequon, WI.
"G. H. Mead and Dieter Henrich on Self-Consciousness," Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy, March 1998, Milwaukee, WI.
"Gadamer's Expressive Dialogism," 1997 Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, Lexington, KY.
"Intersubjectivity and Time-Consciousness: Some Historical Philosophical Connections," 1995 Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, Chicago.
"Parsing Hermeneutics," 1992 Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, Boston.
Conference Organized
2008 Meeting of the North American Society for Philosophical Hermeneutics, Chicago, September 2008.
Revisioning the Aesthetic: Philosophy of Art after the Twentieth
Century, Beloit College, Feb. 19, 1999.
Talks Given
Winter 2009, "Teaching Plato’s Crito from Crito’s Perspective," Grand Valley State University, MI
Fall 2008 “Moderate and Immoderate Candor: Foucault’s Parrhesia without Sophrosyne” Grand Valley State University, MI
Fall 2007 “Gadamer, Davidson and the Third Dogma of Empiricism,” Kent State, OH
Spring 2007 “Gadamer and Davidson on Charity,” St. Xavier University, IL
Spring 2006 "Charitable vs. Critical Interpretations," Linfield College, OR
Winter 2006 "Authenticity--Others--Death," Colby College, ME
Winter 2005 "Modern Others and Ancient Friends," Bennington College, VT
Winter 2005 "On Some Feminist Interpretations of Gadamer," Luther College, IA
Spring 2004 "Critical Reading," College of Wooster, Wooster, OH
Spring 2004 "Openness in, and as, Dialogue," Earlham College, Richmond, IN
Fall 2001 "Interpreting Sacred Texts," Beloit College Philosophy Colloquium
Spring 2001 "Philosophia Bios Kubernetes," Presidential Address, Phi Beta Kappa, Beloit College
Fall 2000 "Descartes' 'Errors'," Faculty Forum, Beloit College, Fall 2000
Fall 2000 "Plato, Poetry, and Politics," Faculty Homecoming Lecture, Beloit College, Fall 2000
Fall 2000 "Reading Book X of the Republic," Beloit College Philosophy Colloquium
Fall 2000 "Descartes Like You Have Never Seen Him Before," Beloit College Philosophy Colloquium
Spring 1999 "The Simpsons and the Problem of Paternalism," Beloit College Philosophy Colloquium
Fall 1998 "H. G. Gadamer and the Principle of Charity," Beloit Faculty Brown Bag Lunch Series
Fall 1998 "Ascribing Rationality," Beloit College Philosophy Colloquium
Spring 1997 "Language and Intersubjectivity in Gadamer's Philosophical Hermeneutics," Beloit College Philosophy Colloquium
Fall 1997 "Davidson's 'On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme'," Beloit College Colloquium
Spring 1996 "Phenomenology: Rigor without Proof?" St. Olaf College
Fall 1993 "Transcendental Meditations on Epistemic Obligations: Hegel, Merleau-Ponty, and Habermas," St. Olaf College
Conference Participation
Chair, “Gadamer and Brandom,” NASPH meeting the 2008 meeting of SPEP, Pittsburgh, 2008.
Chair, "Naturalism," 2008 meeting of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy, East Lansing, MI.
Chair, "Articulation as the Condition for Meaning in Husserl," 2007 Central Division APA, Chicago.
Chair, "William James's Philosophy of Religion," William James Society, 2006 Central APA, Chicago.
Chair, "Rorty's Hope for Philosophy," 2006 Pacific APA, Portland, OR.
Commentator, "From Trauma to Existence: Kierkegaard's Suffering as Source and Focus of His Philosophy," Sixth International Kierkegaard Conference, June 2005, St. Olaf College.
Chair, "Peirce's Epistemology and Metaphysics," SAAP Session at the 2005 Central APA, Chicago.
Chair, "Gadamer and Thoughtfulness," 2002 Pacific APA, Seattle.
Chair, "Time and the Work of Art: Reconsiderations of Heidegger's Reading of the Will to Power," 2002 Pacific APA, Seattle.
Chair, "The Use and Abuse of Style: Heidegger Confronts Aristotle on Poetry and Philosophy," 2002 Pacific APA, Seattle.
Chair, "Imagination in Pragmatist Ethics," 2001 Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy, Las Vegas.
Chair, "Pragmatism and Tragedy: A Second Look," 2001 Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy, Las Vegas.
Moderator, "Communication and Rational Justification: A Phenomenological Stance," 2000 Meeting of the Wisconsin Philosophical Association, Stevens Point, WI.
Chair, "Michel Foucault and Latin American Critical Theory," 1999 Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, Eugene, OR.
Commentator, "The Role of Intentions in the Production of Artifacts," 1999 Central APA, New Orleans.
Chair, "Husserl's Attitude Problem: Some Remarks on Intersubjectivity," 1999 Central APA, New Orleans.
Commentator, "On Power and Agency in Judith Butler's Work," 1998 Pacific APA, Los Angeles.
Chair, "The Bodily Inauguration of the Nomos: The Convention of Justice in Hume's Ethics," 1997 Central APA, Pittsburgh.
Chair, "The Ethics of Death," 1996 Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, Washington, D.C.
Commentator, "Phenomenology and the Idea of Science," Minnesota Philosophical Society, October 1993, St. Cloud, MN.
Fellowships and Scholarships
2003-04 Sabbatical Supporting Research Grant, Beloit College
Fall 1998 Junior Faculty Research Grant, Beloit College
1994-95 Fulbright Research Fellowship, Husserl Archives, University of Leuven, Belgium
1994-95 Belgian-American Educational Foundation Research Fellowship (Honorary)
Spring 1994 Dissertation Research Fellowship, University of Notre Dame
1990-96 Graduate Assistantship, University of Notre Dame
Courses Taught
(syllabi and evaluations available upon
request)
100 Level
Formal Logic
Critical Thinking
Introduction to Philosophy
Ethics
Interdisciplinary Seminar: Creating a Self
Interdisciplinary Seminar: Individuation and Enculturation in Education
Philosophical Perspectives on the Humanities, I (Ancient Greece)
Philosophical Perspectives on the Humanities, II (Early Modern Europe)
200 Level
Ancient Philosophy
Medieval Philosophy
Medieval Great Philosophers: Augustine
Modern Philosophy
19th Century Philosophy
20th Century Philosophy
Philosophy of Science
Aesthetics/Philosophy of Art
Phenomenology and Hermeneutics
Existentialism
Postmodern Philosophical Issues
300 Level
American Philosophy
Recent Great Philosophers: 1959
Seminar: Foucault
Seminar: Heidegger/Gadamer
Seminar: Recent Kantian Ethics
Graduate
Gadamer Graduate Seminar (University of Oregon)
Independent Projects (listed alphabetically)
Aesthetics; Simone de Beauvoir;
Contemporary Analytic Metaphysics; Epistemology and Postmodernism;
Feminist Readings of Nietzsche; Habermas and Gadamer, Hume's Ethics; Judith
Butler's Conception of Agency;
Kierkegaard; Kierkegaard and Phenomenology; Logic and Legal Analysis; Nietzsche
and Darwin; Phenomenology; Philosophy of Biology;
Philosophy of Education; Philosophy of History; Philosophy of Inter-Personal
Relations;
Philosophy of Poetry; Philosophy of Psychology; Queer Theory; Arthur Schopenhauer.
Other
William James: Living with Uncertainty,
Society for Learning Unlimited (Beloit Elderhostel)
Emerson's American Ideal, Newberry Library, Chicago
Principles of Mathematical Thought, Mathematics Department, St. Olaf College
English Instructor, Karl Marx University, Budapest, Hungary.
Guest Lectures
Spring 2002 Guest Lecturer for "Abstract
Expressionism," Beloit College
"Kant's and Hegel's Philosophy of Art"
Fall 2001
Guest Lecturer for Women's Studies Senior Seminar, Beloit College
"Phenomenology and the Body"
Spring 2001 Guest Lecturer for "Wittgenstein
and 20th Century Continental," St. Olaf College
"Introduction to Phenomenology: Husserl and Heidegger"
Spring 2000 Guest Lecturer for "The
Body in Contemporary Art," Beloit College
"The Body in Descartes and Postmodern Philosophy"
Fall 1999 Guest Lecturer
for "Introduction to Philosophy," Beloit College
"The Historical Background to Descartes' Meditations"
Spring 1998 Guest Lecturer for "Twentieth
Century Art," Beloit College
"Schopenhauer and Nietzsche on Tragedy and Art"
Fall 1997
Guest Lecturer for "Quantum Chemistry," Beloit College
"The History of the Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics"
Spring 1997 Guest Lecturer for "Modern
Political Theory," Beloit College
"Kant's
and Hegel's Political Theory"
Fall 1996
Guest Lecturer for "French Literature," Beloit College
"French Existentialism"
Spring 1994 Guest Lecturer for "Senior
Seminar: Continental Philosophy," St. Olaf College
"Phenomenology and Intersubjectivity"
Committee Experience at Beloit College
2001-02 President, Phi Beta Kappa (Elected)
2001-02 Physics Search Committee (Appointed)
2001-02 History Search Committee (Appointed)
2000-01 Religious Studies Search Committee (Departmental)
2000-01 Honor Code Committee (Appointed)
2000-02 Professional and Program Development Committee (Elected)
1999-2000 Associate Director of Student Support Services Search Committee (Appointed)
1999-2000 Head Librarian Search Committee (Appointed)
1998-99 Photographer Search Committee, Art Department (Appointed)
1998-2000 Year of the Arts Steering Committee (Appointed)
1998-2003 Assessment Committee (Appointed)
1997-98 Academic Performance Committee (Elected)
Institutes Attended
July 2007 Faculty participant, Collegium Phaenomenologicum, Umbria, Italy
2002-05, 2009 Summer Institute in American Philosophy, University of Oregon
1998-2002 Summer Institute in American Philosophy, University of Vermont
Executive Board, North American Society for Philosophical Hermeneutics
American Philosophical Association
Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy
Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy
American Association for Philosophy Teachers
Graduate Seminars
Philosophy of Mind (Ramsey)
Feminist Theory (Sterba)
Heidegger (Watson)
Philosophy of Science (McKim)
Time and Narrative (Watson)
Habermas (McCarthy)
Husserl's Nachlass Seminar (Bernet) Intermediate Logic (Detlefsen)
Metaphysics (Plantinga)
20th Century Ethics (Solomon)
Liberalism and its Critics (Weithman) Epistemology
(DePaul)
Levinas Seminar (Bernet)
Kant's Philosophy of Religion (Quinn)
Hegel (Ameriks)
Recent Continental (Watson)
Foucault (Gutting)
Aesthetics (Watson)
Thomistic Ethics (McInerny)
Intersubjectivity (Watson)
Plato (Sayre)
-- Passed Written Examination on the History of Philosophy from Pre-Socratics to Hegel
-- Passed With Highest Honors Extensive Oral Examination on Continental Philosophy
Dissertation Abstract
The Fruitfulness of Dialogue: An Account of Intersubjectivity Appropriate For Hermeneutics
(Director: Stephen H. Watson)A central tenet of hermeneutics is the claim that dialogue is necessary for the full understanding of ourselves. It follows, then, that dialogue must be fruitful for understanding in a way in which no solitary, "monological" activity can be. This dissertation provides a much needed defense of this claim by articulating and defending the essential parts of an account of intersubjectivity--that is, an account of the role that other subjects play in the constitution of our selves. Through exposing the necessity of our intersubjective relations for the very possibility of language use, awareness of time, and embodied awareness of the world, I demonstrate the existence of a pre-reflective relation between embodied subjects. The relation is expressed in dialogue in such a way that our expressions of ourselves are at the same time constitutive of ourselves. I focus on J. G. Fichte and Wilhelm von Humboldt on the issue of language, on Edmund Husserl and Martin Buber (and Emmanuel Levinas) on the issue of time-consciousness, and on Jean-Paul Sartre and Maurice Merleau-Ponty on the issue of embodied subjectivity. This thematic/historical method of the dissertation also serves to clarify some of the historical origins of the hermeneutic tradition.
References
Prof. Stephen H. Watson
Prof. Phil Shields
Prof. Ann Davies
Dept. of Philosophy
Chair, Dept. of Philosophy Vice
President of Academic Affairs
University of Notre Dame
Beloit College Beloit
College
Notre Dame, IN 46556 Beloit,
WI 53511 Beloit,
WI 53511
Prof. Shaun Gallagher
Prof. Jim Risser
Prof. Scott Pratt
Chair, Dept. of Philosophy Dept.
of Philosophy
Dept. of Philosophy
University of Central Florida Seattle
University University
of Oregon
Colburn Hall 411
Seattle, WA , 98122 Eugene,
OR 97403
Orlando, FL 32816-1352
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