Steven Hales

My research specialties are epistemology and metaphysics, although I have published in many different areas. I have written 4 books, edited another 7, and written dozens of research articles in journals like Mind, Nous, Philosophical Studies, and numerous others.

My current research is on luck, and have recently worked on relativism and intuition. I've won several awards for both my research and my teaching. I also have administrative experience as a department chair, and as the university's Director of Research and Sponsored Programs. In 2021 I will be a Visiting Professor at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

Authored Books

• This is Philosophy: An Introduction (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Co., 2013).
• Relativism and the Foundations of Philosophy (Cambridge: MIT Press/A Bradford Book, 2006). Paperback 2009.
• Nietzsche’s Perspectivism (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000). Coauthored with Rex Welshon.

Edited Books

• A Companion to Relativism (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Co., 2011)
• What Philosophy Can Tell You About Your Dog (Chicago: Open Court Publishing, 2008)
• What Philosophy Can Tell You About Your Cat (Chicago: Open Court Publishing, 2008).
• Beer and Philosophy (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Co., 2007).
• Delight in Thinking: An Introductory Reader (New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing Co., 2006). Co-edited with Scott C. Lowe.
• Analytic Philosophy: Classic Readings (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 2001)
• Metaphysics: Contemporary Readings (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1999)

Publications

• "Dispositional Optimism and Luck Attributions: Implications for Philosophical Theories of Luck," Philosophical Psychology forthcoming, with Jennifer Adrienne Johnson).
• "Cognitive Biases and Dispositions in Luck Attributions," The Routledge Handbook of Theories of Luck, eds. Robert J. Hartman and Ian Church (London: Routledge, forthcoming, with Jennifer Adrienne Johnson).
• "Audiophile Aesthetics," American Philosophical Quarterly (54:2, 2017) pp. 195-206.
• "Why Every Theory of Luck is Wrong," Nous (50:3, 2016) pp. 490-508.
• "A Problem for Moral Luck," Philosophical Studies (172:9, 2015) pp. 2385-2403.
• "Synchronic and Diachronic Luck," Temporal Points of View: Subjective and Objective Aspects, eds. Margarita Vazquez Campos and Antonio Manuel Liz Gutierrez (Berlin: Springer, 2015), pp. 255-263.
• "Luck Attributions and Cognitive Bias," Metaphilosophy (45:4-5, 2014, with Jennifer Adrienne Johnson) pp. 509-528.
• "Motivations for Relativism as a Solution to Disagreements," Philosophy (89:1, 2014) pp. 63-82.
• "The Faculty of Intuition," Analytic Philosophy (53:2, 2012) pp. 180-207.
• "Reply to Licon on Time Travel," Logos & Episteme: An International Journal of Epistemology (2:4, 2011) pp. 633-636.
• "No Time Travel for Presentists," Logos & Episteme: An International Journal of Epistemology (1:2, 2010) pp. 353-360.
• "Moral Relativism and Evolutionary Psychology," Synthese (166:2, 2009) pp. 431-447.
• "What to Do About Incommensurable Doxastic Perspectives," Philosophia Christi (11:1, 2009) pp. 209-214.
• "A Relativist's Rejoinder," The International Journal of Philosophical Studies (16:2, 2008) pp. 271-278.
• "Time for Change," Southern Journal of Philosophy (45:4, 2007, with Timothy Johnson) pp. 497-513.
• "Why the U.S. is Not the Best Country in the World," The Good Society (15:2, 2006) pp. 35-40.
• “A Trilemma for Philosophical Knowledge,” Basic Belief and Basic Knowledge: Papers in Epistemology, ed. René van Woudenberg, Sabine Roeser, and Ron Rood (Frankfurt: Ontos Verlag, 2005) pp. 131-144.
• "Intuition, Revelation, and Relativism," The International Journal of Philosophical Studies (12:4, 2004) pp. 271-295.
• "Endurantism, Perdurantism, and Special Relativity," The Philosophical Quarterly (53:213, 2003) pp. 524-539. (with Timothy Johnson)
• "Lynch's Metaphysical Pluralism," Philosophy and Phenomenological Research (63:3, 2001) pp. 699-709.
• "Reincarnation Redux," Philosophia (28:1-4, 2001) pp. 359-367
• "Evidence and the Afterlife," Philosophia (28:1-4, 2001) pp. 335-346
• "Recent Work on Nietzsche," American Philosophical Quarterly (37:4, 2000) pp. 313-333.
• "The Problem of Intuition," American Philosophical Quarterly (37:2, 2000) pp. 135-147.
• "Nietzsche, Perspectivism and Mental Health," Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology (6:3, 1999) pp. 173-177. (with Rex Welshon)
• "An Epistemologist Looks at the Hot Hand in Sports," Journal of the Philosophy of Sport(26, 1999) pp. 79-87
• "Reply to Shogenji on Relativism," Mind (106:424, 1997) pp. 749-750
• "Ockham's Disposable Razor," The Role of Pragmatics in Contemporary Philosophy: Contributions of the Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society, Paul Weingartner, Gerhard Schurz, and Georg Dorn, eds. (Vienna: Hoelder-Pichler-Tempsky, 1997) pp. 356-361
• "A Consistent Relativism", Mind (106:421, 1997) pp. 33-52
• "Nietzsche on Logic," Philosophy and Phenomenological Research (56:4, 1996) pp. 819-835
• "Abortion and Fathers' Rights," Biomedical Ethics Reviews: Reproduction, Technology, and Rights, J.M. Humber and R.F. Almeder, eds. (Totowa, NJ: Humana Press, 1996) pp. 5-26
• "More on Fathers' Rights," Biomedical Ethics Reviews: Reproduction, Technology, and Rights, J.M. Humber and R.F. Almeder, eds. (Totowa, NJ: Humana Press, 1996) pp. 43-49
• "The Impossibility of Unconditional Love," Public Affairs Quarterly (9:4, 1995) pp. 317-320
• "Epistemic Closure Principles," Southern Journal of Philosophy(33:2, 1995) pp. 185-201
• "Was Nietzsche a Consequentialist?," International Studies in Philosophy (27:3, 1995) pp. 25-34
• "Self-Deception and Belief Attribution," Synthese (101:2, 1994) pp. 273-289
• "Certainty and Phenomenal States," Canadian Journal of Philosophy(24:1, 1994) pp. 57-72
• "Truth, Paradox, and Nietzschean Perspectivism," History of Philosophy Quarterly (11:1, 1994) pp. 101-119 (with Rex Welshon)
• "The Recurring Problem of the Third Man," Auslegung(17:1, 1991) pp. 67-80

Popular Articles

• "Who's Assessing the Assessors' Assessors?" The Chronicle of Higher Education (March 11, 2013)
• "Putting Claus Back Into Christmas," Christmas and Philosophy, ed. Scott C. Lowe (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010) pp. 161-171
• "Cycling and Philosophical Lessons Learned the Hard Way," Cycling and Philosophy, eds. Mike Martin and Jésus Ilundáin (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010) pp. 162-172
• "A Call to the Women's Center," Think (22:8, 2009) pp. 25-28
• "A Proof of the Existence of Fairies," Think (16, 2008) pp. 45-48.
• "Mill v. Miller, or Higher and Lower Pleasures," Beer and Philosophy, ed. Steven D. Hales (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007) pp. 97-109.
• “The Traditional Problem of Free Will,” Delight in Thinking: An Introductory Reader, eds. Steven D. Hales and Scott C. Lowe (New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing, 2006) pp. 23
• "You Can Prove a Negative," Think (10, 2005) pp. 109-112. 5-248.

Selected Awards

• Ted Cohen Prize for "Audiophile Aesthetics," from the American Society for Aesthetics, 2017
• Visiting Senior Fellow, Center for Logic, Language, and Cognition, University of Turin, 2017
• Visiting Professorial Fellow, Eidyn, School of Philosophy, Psychology, and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, 2014
• Visiting Professorial Fellow, Institute of Philosophy, School for Advanced Study, University of London, 2009
• National Semi-Finalist, Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching, 2009
• Outstanding Teacher of the Year, Bloomsburg University, 2006
• Outstanding Scholarship Award, College of Liberal Arts, Bloomsburg University, 2006
• Resident Scholar at the Whitehall Museum House, Middletown, Rhode Island, 2004
• Elected to Phi Kappa Phi honor society, 2001
• Dean's Salute for Excellence, Bloomsburg University, 1998
• Richard M. Griffith Memorial Award, awarded by The Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology, 1995

Selected Professional Service

• Series editor for This is Philosophy, a multi-volume series published by Wiley-Blackwell (2011-present)
• Member of the editorial board for
• History of Philosophy Quarterly (2002-2005)
• Episteme (2002-)
• The Journal of Philosophical Economics (2007-)
• Article Referee for American Philosophical Quarterly; Australasian Journal of Philosophy; Canadian Journal of Philosophy; Curriculum Inquiry; Diametros; Episteme; Erkenntnis; Ethical Theory and Moral Practice; Foundations of Science; History of Philosophy Quarterly; Inquiry; International Journal of Philosophical Studies; The Journal of Ethics; The Journal of Nietzsche Studies; The Journal of Philosophical Research; Mind; The Monist; Nous; Philosophical Papers; Philosophical Psychology; The Philosophical Quarterly; Philosophical Studies; Philosophy and Phenomenological Research; Philosophy, Psychiatry and Psychology; Religious Studies; Studies in History and Philosophy of Science A; Synthese; Teorema; Theoria; Topoi
• Book referee for Oxford University Press, Wadsworth Publishing Co., Jones and Bartlett Publishing Co, Simon and Schuster Publishing Co., Macmillan Publishing Co.
• Grant reviewer for The Austrian Science Fund, The European Research Council, Flanders Research Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Science Foundation, National Research Foundation of Korea