Kareem Khalifa
Department of Philosophy
303 Twilight Hall
Middlebury College
Middlebury, VT 05753
Email: kkhalifa@middlebury.edu
Home page: http://www.khalifa.org
Areas of Specialization
General Philosophy of Science; Epistemology; Philosophy of Social Science
Areas of Competence
Logic; Philosophy of Language; Metaphysics
Education
Emory University, 1999-2006: M.A. in Philosophy (2003); PhD in Philosophy (2006)
Northwestern University 1994-1998: B.A. double major in Philosophy and Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences, minor in Economics, 1998.
Positions
Professorships
Associate Professor, Middlebury College, July 2013-present
Assistant Professor, Middlebury College, July 2006-June 2013
Fellowships
Visiting Fellow, University of Pittsburgh, Center for Philosophy of Science, Spring 2011, Fall 2016
Visiting Scholar, University of Pittsburgh, Center for Philosophy of Science, Fall 2010
Teaching Positions
Instructor, Oxford College at Emory University, 2005-2006
Instructor, Emory University, 2004-2005
Teaching Associate, Emory University, 2002
Teaching Assistant, Emory University, 2000-2002
Awards
National Endowment for the Humanities
Summer Institute on Experimental Philosophy at the University of Arizona, 2012
Middlebury College
Undergraduate Collaborative Research Fund, 2007, 2012-2016
Ada Howe Kent Grant, 2007, 2016
Emory University
Scholarly Inquiry and Research at Emory Graduate Fellowship, 2005-2006
Dean's Teaching Fellowship, 2004-2005
Emory Minority Graduate Fellowship, 1999-2004
Emory College Online Summer Grant, 2001
Northwestern University
Honors Program in Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences
Others
Robert L. Mitchem Dissertation Fellowship, Marquette University, 2004-2005 (declined)
Publications
Book
forthcoming. Understanding, explanation, and scientific knowledge. Cambridge University Press.
Articles
2015 (with Randall Harp) “Why pursue unification? A social-epistemological puzzle,” Theoria 30 (3): 431-447
2015 (with Leticia Arroyo Abad) “What are stylized facts?” Journal of Economic Methodology 22 (2): 143-156.
2015 “EMU defended: reply to Newman (2014),” European Journal for Philosophy of Science 5 (3): 377-385.
2013 (with Michael Gadomski) “Understanding as explanatory knowledge: the case of Bjorken scaling,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 44 (3): 384-392.
2013 “Understanding, grasping, and luck,” Episteme 10 (1): 1-17.
2013 “Is understanding explanatory or objectual?” Synthese 190 (6): 1153-1171
2013 (with Jose Diez and Bert Leuridan) “General theories of explanation: buyer beware,” Synthese 190 (3): 379-396
2013 “The role of explanation in understanding,” British Journal for Philosophy of Science 64 (1): 161-187.
2012 “Inaugurating understanding or repackaging explanation?” Philosophy of Science 79 (1): 15-37.
2011 “Understanding, knowledge, and scientific antirealism” Grazer Philosophische Studien 83 (1): 93-112.
2010 “Contrastive explanations as social accounts,” Social Epistemology24 (4): 265-286.
2010 “Social constructivism and the aims of science,” Social Epistemology24 (1): 45-61.
2010 “Default privilege and bad lots: underconsideration and explanatory inference,” International Studies in the Philosophy of Science24 (1): 91-105.
2004 “Erotetic contextualism, data-generating procedures, and sociological explanations of social mobility,” Philosophy of the Social Sciences34 (1): 38-54.
Book Chapters
Forthcoming (with Jared Millson and Mark Risjord). “IBE: Fundamentalism’s failures” in K. McCain and T. Poston (eds.), Best explanations: New Essays on Inference to the Best Explanation (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Forthcoming. (with Randall Harp) “Realism and antirealism” in Rosenberg, A. and L. McIntyre (eds.), Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Social Science (London: Routledge).
2016. “Must understanding be coherent?” in Explaining Understanding: New Perspectives from Epistemology and Philosophy of Science, edited by S. Grimm, C. Baumberger, and S. Ammon (London: Routledge).
Book Reviews
2013 Review of Social Epistemology, by A. Millar, A. Haddock, and D. Pritchard (eds.). Mind 122 (486): 535-540.
2009 Review of Music, Philosophy, and Modernity, by A. Bowie. Journal of the History of Philosophy 47 (3): 481-482.
Representative Presentations
(with Yannick Doyle, Spencer Egan, and Noah Graham) "Non-factive understanding: a statement and defense." Philosophy of Science Association, Atlanta, GA. November 8, 2016.
Society of Philosophy of Science in Practice, Glassboro, NJ. June, 2016. (talk cancelled due to scheduling conflicts)
"Understanding, Idealization, and (Just Enough) Truth." Workshop on Explanation and Understanding. University of Aarhus, Denmark. May 19, 2016.
(with Randall Harp) "Do irreducibly collective mental states explain anything?" Philosophy of Social Science Roundtable. Tampa, FL. March 12, 2016
“Keeping quiet about factive understanding,” VU University. Amsterdam, Netherlands. February 10, 2016.
“Explanation or Inference: which comes first?” Inferentialism, Deflationism, and Relativism: New Connections in Philosophy of Science. Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Madrid, Spain. February 8, 2016.
(with Jared Millson) “Explanatory expressivism,” Orange Beach Epistemology Workshop. Orange Beach, AL. May 19, 2015.
“Scientific and moral understanding”
Middlebury College. Middlebury, VT. February 11, 2015.
Rhodes College. Memphis, TN. February 27, 2015.
“Understanding without truth?” Society for Analytical Philosophy, Buenos Aires, Argentina. December 18, 2015
“Must understanding be coherent?”
Towards an Epistemology of Understanding: Rethinking Justification. Berne, Switzerland. March 21, 2014.
University of Delaware. Wilmington, DE. April 10, 2014.
(with Mark Risjord) “Explanation, Inferentialism, and Expressivism,” Workshop on Inferentialism in Epistemology and Philosophy of Science. Madrid, Spain. November 11, 2013.
“Non-factive understanding,” Society for Philosophy of Science in Practice, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. June 29, 2013
“Understanding, luck, and the aims of explanatory inquiry,” Aims of Inquiry and Cognition Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland. May 26, 2012.
“Inaugurating understanding or repackaging explanation?” Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA. October 22, 2010.
“Explanation: a contextualist analysis” American Philosophical Association (Eastern Division) Boston, MA. December 29, 2004.
“Erotetics and measurement practices in sociological discussions of occupational status” Philosophy of Social Science Roundtable. University of Missouri, St. Louis. St. Louis, MO. March 23, 2003.
Courses Taught
Middlebury College
Introduction to Modern Logic, Intermediate Logic, Formal Semantics, Philosophy of Science, Science and Society, Science and the Quest for Truth, Theories of Scientific Method, History and Philosophy of Science, Concepts of Explanation, Knowledge and Reality, Theory of Knowledge, Metaphysics and Epistemology, 20th Century Continental Philosophy, Philosophy of Mathematics, Philosophy and Economics, Philosophy of Psychology, Philosophy of Music, Experiments in Sound (Freshman Seminar); Values and Objectivity (Freshman Seminar)
Oxford College at Emory University
Introduction to Logic
Emory University
Theory of Knowledge, Introduction to Logic (co-taught with Robert McCauley)
Service
Presses: Referee for MIT
Journals: Referee for Australasian Journal of Philosophy, British Journal of Philosophy of Science, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Dialectica, Erkenntnis, Journal of General Philosophy of Science, Mind, Philosophical Papers, Philosophical Studies, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science, Synthese, and Theoria
Conferences
Chair, Panel on General Philosophy of Science, Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science, Vancouver, BC, June 4, 2008.
Chair, Panel on Rational Agency and Action, Philosophy of Social Science Roundtable, Seattle, WA, March 8, 2008.
Assistant Organizer, Philosophy of Anthropology and Sociology Conference, Emory University, August 2004
Assistant Organizer, Cognitive Foundations of Religion Conference, Emory University, August 2003
Middlebury College (Campus Wide)
Task Force on Faculty Innovation, 2014- 2015
Faculty Council, 2012-2014 (Secretary 2013-2014)
Participant on Forum on Social Entrepreneurship in the Liberal Arts, June 10-12, 2012
Diversity Dissertation Fellowship Committee (Co-Chair), 2011- 2012
Task Force on Interdisciplinary Innovation, 2011-2012 academic year
Community Council, 2011-2012
Faculty Representative, 51 Main Advisory Board, 2008-2010, 2010-2011
Faculty Advisor, Distinguished Men of Color, 2010-2011
Faculty Advisor, African American Alliance, 2007-2009
Faculty Advisor, Philosophy Club, 2007-2008
Organizer, Middlebury Open Improvisation, 2006-2008
Middlebury College (Philosophy Department)
Philosophy Department Search Committee (2 searches in 06-07; 2 searches in 07-08)
Thesis Advisor
2007. Lewis Strauss (joint major, Physics).“The van der Pol oscillator and a theory of explanation.”
2007. Marina Mudd (joint major, History). “Objectivity in history.”
2008. H. Jin Cho. “Berdiaev on autonomy and modernity”
2009. John-Paul Sardi. “Normative principles in explanation.”
2015. Yannick Doyle. “Epistemic permissivism.”
2016. Robbie LaCroix. “Understanding: analytical and hermeneutic approaches.”
2016. Gioia Pappalardo. “New wave reduction, multiple realizability, and the explanatory gap.”
Emory University
Graduate Fellow, Scholarly Inquiry and Research at Emory, 2005-2006
Web Designer, Emory University Department of Philosophy, Summer 2003
Web Designer, Professor Robert McCauley, Emory University, 2001-2003
President, Friday Philosophy Forum, Emory University, 2001-2002
Web Designer, Emory Student Employment Department, Summer 2001
Secretary, Friday Philosophy Forum, Emory University, 2000-2001