PhDs Available for Appointment

Curriculum Vitae

Bfrazers@depaul.edu

Benjamin received his BA from the University of Colorado at Denver, where he studied Ancient philosophy and Spinoza. He earned his MA and Ph.D. from DePaul for his dissertation “A Discourse of the Non-Discursive in Plato and Pseudo-Dionysius. His primary interests are in Ancient philosophy, particularly Plato’s erotic dialogues, and mysticism. He also focuses on Continental philosophy, phenomenology, and the philosophy of religion.

Ben's research is in the field of Platonic philosophy. In his dissertation, he set out to study two figures in the tradition of Western thought who seem, at least at moments or under a certain interpretation, to be interested in a project of thinking precisely that which is beyond logic and the ordering power of language—Plato and Dionysius the Areopagite. He then shows how these earlier projects resonate with the projects of Heidegger, Bataille, and Derrida. Moving from the 4th century B.C.E. to (likely) the 7th  and then 20th centuries C.E., his dissertation is a very well-defined discussion of the same basic dynamic, how to bring the extra-discursive into discourse. Plato has recourse often to myth and erōs while Dionysius resorts to self-contradictory speech (the via negativa), while the 20th century thinkers with which he deals all exhibit similar tactics—Heidegger pushes philosophy toward poetry and tautological philosophical speech, Bataille into the literary, and Derrida into the modes of deconstructive analysis. Dealing ably with all of these figures and their logics of illogic, Ben is ultimately concerned with how we come together into something like a community or into a group obligated to one another in ethical ways when we find ourselves faced with that which frustrates our ability to articulate or understand it.    

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Curriculum Vitae

jsinger8@depaul.edu 

I received my BA with Honors from Dalhousie University in European Studies, where I studied Ancient Philosophy and Contemporary Continental Philosophy. I completed my MA at the University of Guelph, and wrote my major research paper on Aristotle's Politics (part of which is published in a forthcoming edited volume by Bloomsbury Press, The Animal with Logos: Aristotle on Human Nature). Throughout my studies, my primary interest has been German Idealism, particularly the work of Hegel. I am also well-versed in Ancient Philosophy, Phenomenology, and Biomedical Ethics, and hold certification in Business Ethics.

My dissertation, Hegel's Critique of Skepticism: Concept, Judgment, and Syllogism, presents Hegel’s account of subjectivity in the Logic as both a justification of, and response to, Pyrrhonian skepticism. The Pyrrhonian skeptics show that reason cannot be justified without recourse to an infinite regression of premises, a brute foundation, or a circular argument. I argue that by following certain insights of Kant and Jacobi, Hegel adopts a broader conception of reason than the ancient skeptics. For Hegel, reason must be a dynamic process that expresses its structure and activity over the course of determining itself. As a result, through his treatment of the concept, judgment, and syllogism, Hegel presents a critique of Pyrronian skepticism, which demonstrates that certain knowledge is immune to doubt, while proving the necessity of skepticism within certain limits.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE:

Biomedical Ethics (Summer 2022 [Online], Fall 2020 [Online], Spring 2019, Fall 2016)

Business Ethics (Fall 2022 [Online], Spring 2019, Winter 2017, Fall 2016)

Crime and Punishment (Fall 2021 [F2F])

Intro to Philosophy (Summer 2021 [Online], Winter 2018, Fall 2015)

Love, Hatred, and Resentment (Winter 2018) Philosophy of God (Spring 2020 [Online], Winter 2018)

Curriculum Vitae

jsinger4@depaul.edu 

Jonathan (J.D.) earned his BA (Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and with departmental honors) in Philosophy from Muhlenberg College, and earned his PhD (with distinction) here at DePaul University in 2020. J.D. is interested in issues that span phenomenology, ethics, social and political theory, epistemology, and philosophy of mind. His research focuses on the philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, on questions pertaining to the relationship between human and non-human life, and, more generally, on questions pertaining to the nature of community and the relationship between ontology and ethics/politics. In his dissertation, Sharing the 'Flesh of the World': Alterity, Animality, and Radical Community in Merleau-Ponty's Philosophy, he argues that Merleau-Ponty's philosophy (especially as it is developed in his later writings) offers resources for dismantling the anthropocentric categories and presuppositions that have shaped much of Western philosophy, as well as resources for conceptualizing a non-anthropocentric understanding of moral and political community - one that does not reinscribe the very anthropocentricity it opposes, which is a problem that, he argues, afflicts traditional critiques of anthropocentrism in ethical and political theory. He is currently working on adapting his dissertation into two books (the first of which is nearly complete and currently under consideration at SUNY Press), as well as several papers on phenomenology and ethical theory that engage with contemporary feminist ethics and epistemology, philosophy of race, and disability studies.

At DePaul, J.D. received the Michael Mezey Excellence in Teaching Award.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE:

DePaul University:

Philosophy and Its Issues (8 sections)

Ethical Theories (7 sections)

Business Ethics (10 sections)

Critical Thinking (12 sections)

Loyola University–Chicago

Philosophy and Persons (2 sections)

Ethics (1 section)