Click here to download a .pdf version of my curriculum vitæ.
Contact
Department of Philosophy
Email: npshah@amherst.edu
209 Cooper House
Phone: (413) 374-1229
Amherst College
Web: http://www.nishi.com
Amherst, MA 01002-5000
Areas of Specialization
Ethics, Epistemology
Education
1992–2001
PhD, University of Michigan
1987–1991
BS, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Employment
2009–2011
Chair, Amherst College Philosophy Department
2008–
Associate Professor, Amherst College
2007–2008
Visiting Assistant Professor, NYU
2001–2008
Assistant Professor, Amherst College
1995–2001
Graduate Student Instructor, University of Michigan
Honors
2007
Miner D. Crary Research Fellowship (Amherst College)
2006
Winner of The Philosophical Quarterly 2005 Essay Prize.
2005
Mellon Summer 8 Research Stipend
2004–2005
Trustee Faculty Fellowship (Amherst College)
1992–1995
Rackham Merit Fellowship (University of Michigan)
Publications
Articles
- “The Normativity of Belief and Self-Fulfilling Normative Beliefs,” Belief and Agency, ed. David Hunter, supplement to the Canadian Journal of Philosophy (forthcoming)
- “Mental Agency and Metaethics,” co-authored with Matthew Evans, Oxford Studies in Metaethics, Volume 7, ed. Russ Shafer-Landau (forthcoming)
- “Metaethics and Its Discontents,” co-authored with Nadeem Hussain, Constructivism: For and Against, ed. Carla Bagnoli, Cambiridge University Press (forthcoming)
- “Can Reasons for Belief be Debunked?” Reasons for Belief, eds. Andrew Reisner and Asbjorn Steglich-Petersen, Cambridge University Press, (2011)
- “The Limits of Normative Detachment,” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 110:3, 347-71 (2010)
- “How Action Governs Intention,” Philosophers’ Imprint, 8:5, 1–19 (2008)
- “A New Argument for Evidentialism,” The Philosophical Quarterly, 56: 225, 481–498 (2006)
- “The Metaethics of Belief: An Expressivist Reading of ‘The Will to Believe,’” co-authored with Jeffrey Kasser, Special Issue of , 20:1, 1–17 (2006)
- “Misunderstanding Metaethics: Korsgaard’s Rejection of Realism,” co-authored with Nadeem Hussain. Oxford Studies in Metaethics, vol. 1, ed. Russ Shafer-Landau, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 265–94 (2006)
- “Doxastic Deliberation,” co-authored with J. David Velleman, The Philosophical Review, 114:4, 497–534 (2005)
- “How Truth Governs Belief,” The Philosophical Review, 112:4, 447–82 (2003)
- “Clearing Space for Doxastic Voluntarism,” The Monist, 85:3, 436–45 (2002)
Book Reviews
Welfare and Rational Care, Stephen Darwall, The Philosophical Review, 113:4, 577–82 (2004)
Invited Presentations
“The Normativity of Belief and Self-Fulfilling Normative Beliefs”
Belief and Agency, Ryerson University (October, 2010)
University of Connecticut (October, 2011)
“Mental Agency and Metaethics”
Exercising Agency over Attitudes, Eastern Division APA (December 2009)
Oxford University (June 2010)
Engaging McDowell, University of Sydney conference (July 2010)
Australian National University (July 2010)
Annual Metaethics Workshop, University of Wisconsin-Madison (September, 2010)
The Rationality of Beliefs and Desires, UNC Chapel Hill conference (February 2011)
Boston University Ethics Reading Group (March 2011)
University of Southampton (January 2012)
University of Rome, (April, 2012)
“Can Reasons for Belief be Debunked?”
Epistemic Normativity, Indiana University Workshop (December 2008)
The Aim of Belief, University of Oslo Conference (June 2009)
Normativity of Belief and Epistemic Agency, UNAM Workshop (October 2009)
Union College (October 2009)
Theoretical and Practical Reasons, University of Leeds Conference (June 2010)
Reasons and Belief-Desire Psychology, University of Sydney Workshop (July 2010)
“The Limits of Normative Detachment”
University of Pittsburgh (2008)
Evaluating Agents, OSU-Maribor-Rijeka Conference (2008)
University of California, Berkeley (November 2008)
Northwestern Ethics Conference (May 2010)
Aristotelian Society, London (June 2010)
University of Toronto, (October 2010)
“The Magic of Testimony”
Graduate Seminar in Ethics, Yale University (2007)
“How Action Governs Intention”
The Normativity of Reasons, University of Fribourg Conference (2006)
Regulating Attitudes with Reasons, OSU-Maribor-Rijeka Conference (2006)
Tufts University (2006)
MIT (2007)
“A New Argument for Evidentialism”
Dartmouth College (2006)
“Misunderstanding Metaethics: Korsgaard’s Rejection of Realism”
Annual Metaethics Workshop, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2004)
“The Metaethics of Belief: An Expressivist Reading of ‘The Will to Believe’”
Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy (2002)
Teaching
Summer Humanities Program ⋅ Introduction to Philosophy ⋅ Philosophy of Law ⋅ Ethical Theory ⋅ Philosophy of Action ⋅ Freedom and Responsibility⋅ What is Morality About? ⋅ Morality and the Demands of Friendship ⋅ Practical Reasons and Morality ⋅ The Ethics of Belief ⋅ Threats to Morality ⋅ Senior Honors Thesis Advisor ⋅ Evolution and Morality ⋅ The Social Construction of Knowledge ⋅ Metaethics (Graduate Seminar at UMass-Amherst) ⋅ Topics in Ethics: Practical Reasons (Graduate Seminar at NYU)
Committees
2008–10
Student Disciplinary Committee
2005–07
First-Year Orientation Committee
2003–04
Committee on Health and Safety
2002–03
Classroom Renovation Committee
2002–03
First-Year Seminar Committee
Refereeing
Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Dialectica, Ethics, Mind, Noûs, Philosophical Quarterly, Oxford University Press, Philosophical Review, Philosophical Studies, Philosophers’ Imprint, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly
References
J. David Velleman
Department of Philosophy
5 Washington Place
New York, NY 10003
jdvelleman@nyu.edu
Michael Bratman
Philosophy Department
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-2155
bratman@stanford.edu
R. Jay Wallace
Department of Philosophy
University of California, Berkeley
314 Moses Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720-2390
rjw@berkeley.edu
Niko Kolodny
Department of Philosophy
314 Moses Hall
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-2390
kolodny@berkeley.edu
Kieran Setiya
Department of Philosophy
1001 Cathedral of Learning
University of Pittsburgh
kis23@pitt.edu