Steven Levine
My current research concerns some very basic issues in theoretical philosophy, the relationship between perception, action, and linguistic communication, and the way that these capacities inform our ability to have thoughts with objective content. I examine these questions through the particular prism of the pragmatic tradition in both its classical and contemporary forms. I am currently working on a book on these topics entitled Pragmatism, Objectivity, and Experience. My argument is that the line of Neo-pragmatic thought that runs from Sellars, through Rorty, to Davidson and Brandom, cannot articulate a satisfactory conception of objectivity because of its flawed theory of experience. For a better account Contemporary Pragmatism needs to rehabilitate the Classical Pragmatists rich theory of experience. My work attempts to do this not only utilizing the insights of the Classical pragmatists, but also by drawing upon affiliated contemporary work in the Philosophy of Perception, Phenomenology, and Cognitive Science.

Selected Publications:

Articles:
• ‘Expressivism and I-beliefs in Brandom’s Making it Explicit’, International Journal of Philosophical Studies, March 2009
• ‘Habermas, Kantian Pragmatism, and Truth’, Philosophy and Social Criticism, Forthcoming 2009
• ‘Rorty, Davidson, and the New Pragmatists’, Philosophical Topics, Forthcoming Fall 2009
• ‘The Place of Picturing in Sellars’ Synoptic Vision’, Philosophical Forum, Fall 2007
• ‘Sellars’ Critical Direct Realism’, International Journal of Philosophical Studies, March 2007
• ‘The Logical Method of Metaphysics: Peirce’s Meta-critique of Kant’s Critical Philosophy’, Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, June 2004

Courses Taught:

Pragmatism, Epistemology, Philosophy of Perception, Introduction to Philosophy, Social and Moral Problems

Personal Website:

http://faculty.www.umb.edu/steven.levine

Contact Information
Office: Wheatley 05-008
Phone: 617-287-7245
Email: steven.levine@umb.edu