Instructors | Department of Philosophy

Instructors

Session 1 Camp Leader: Professor Steven Brown

Steven is an Associate Teaching Professor in the Ohio State University philosophy department. His interests are primarily in ethics and religion, with a particular focus on matters that directly impact wellbeing. He teaches classes on Death and the Meaning of Life, Asian Philosophies, Philosophy of Religion, and Human Development Ethics. In addition to teaching these classes, Steve has a long-standing interest in effective charitable work focused on the people in greatest need.

Pronouns: he/him/his.

Session 2 Camp Leader: Professor Tristram McPherson

Tristram is a Professor in the Ohio State University philosophy department. The heart of their research concerns how to understand and assess the ethical commitments that structure our lives. Much of this works concerns whether and how ethics could be objective, and how to assess our ethical concepts. They also spend significant time thinking about substantive questions in ethics, including the ethics of our relationships to non-human animals, and the ethical significance of climate change. Tristram is passionate about philosophy and looks forward to exploring some of the deepest questions in the field with the campers.

Pronouns: they/them/theirs.

Instructor: Robert Laurent

Robert is a graduate student in the Ohio State University department of philosophy. He was introduced to philosophy when he was accidentally enrolled in a course on Nietzsche as an undergraduate student. After that, he took more courses in history of philosophy and eventually decided to take up philosophy as a second major. To him, philosophy is an aspect of history; it is about learning how people in the past thought and how their thought influences our own. Before he applied to Ohio State, among many odd jobs he worked as a cashier at a local grocery store, an A/C technician, and an Uber driver (though not all at once). Robert enjoys listening to history podcasts, reading manga, and playing old video games.

Pronouns: he/him/his.

Instructor: Joe Phelan

Joe is a graduate student in the Ohio State University philosophy department. In undergraduate, he first thought he wanted to go to law school, and that majoring in political science would fit well with this ambition. But when he took a class on the classics of political thought, he found he was drawn more to the philosophy part than the political part of political philosophy. Then, when he decided to become a philosophy major, it was initially for instrumental reasons—to help him do well on the LSAT and improve his writing and reasoning skills. Taking philosophy classes certainly improved these skills, but over time, Joe fell in love with philosophy for its own sake. Now, his research interests include early-modern philosophy (Descartes to Kant) and, increasingly, issues in moral psychology (what role do reasons and emotions play for a moral agent?). Outside of philosophy, Joe enjoys playing the trombone, exploring the outdoors, petting his cat, and going to the gym.

Pronouns: he/him/his.

Instructor: Mingyan Yang

Mingyan is a second-year PhD student in the Department of Philosophy at The Ohio State University. She was drawn to philosophy when she began wondering how she came to have vivid sensory experiences and how the human mind is capable of generating genuinely novel thoughts and concepts. For her, philosophy is a way of examining her condition as a sentient being within the stream of experience. Mingyan is deeply curious about how others feel and perceive the world, and how our experiences might resonate with one another. Before coming to OSU, she studied philosophy in China and Canada. Outside of academic work, she enjoys activities that enrich her perceptual life, including art, films, coffee, and sports.

Pronouns: she/her/hers.

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