Kristen Irwin, PhD

春风视频

All of my research is, in some way, about what we can (and do) believe about the Divine, and the implications of those beliefs for our self-understanding and existence in the world.  European philosophers of the 17th century struggle in complicated ways with these questions, so I鈥檝e trained my focus on them, but I鈥檓 interested in these questions wherever they show up!  This means that I pursue topics like the limits of knowledge, what counts as good evidence for different classes of beliefs, the difference between divine and human moral norms and judgments, and how we understand the role of the Divine in various types of suffering (but especially mental disorders).

Degrees

PhD, University of California, San Diego

Professional Employment

2023-present: Associate Professor of Philosophy, 春风视频Chicago

2014-2023: Assistant Professor of Philosophy, 春风视频Chicago

2009-2014: Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Biola University

2006-2009: Instructor, University of California San Diego

Program Areas

Modern Philosophy (philosophy major and graduate program distribution requirements), Epistemology and Metaphysics (graduate program distribution requirements)

Research Interests

Skepticism (and epistemology more generally); problem(s) of evil & metaethics; philosophy of mental disorders

Professional & Community Affiliations

American Philosophical Association; Society of Christian Philosophers; Evangelical Philosophical Society; Leibniz Society of North America; The John Locke Society; Philosophers in Jesuit Education

Courses Taught

PHIL 130 (Philosophy and Persons); HONR 102 (Renaissance to Modernity); PHIL 309 (Modern Philosophy); PHIL 416 (Topics in Modern Philosophy)

Awards

Provost鈥檚 Award for Excellence in Teaching Freshmen

Selected Publications

Representative publications:

鈥淟ocke and Contemporary Philosophy of Religion鈥� in The Lockean Mind, eds. Shelley Weinberg & Jessica Gordon-Roth (Routledge 2022), 582-591.

鈥�Reading Bayle, Again: A Survey of the Interpretive Landscape and A Defense of the Academic-Moral Knowledge Reading鈥� in Sceptical Doubt and Disbelief in Modern European Thought: A New Pan-American Dialogue, eds. Plinio J. Smith & Vicente Raga (Springer 2021), 143-160.

鈥淓nabling Ivan Karamazov: Responding to Mark Murphy鈥檚 God鈥檚 Own Ethics: Norms of Divine Agency and the Argument from Evil鈥�, Religious Studies 53:4 (November 2017), 557-563.

鈥淭he Implications of Bayle鈥檚 Qualified Academic Skepticism for Moral Knowledge,鈥� in Academic Scepticism in Early Modern Philosophy (eds. Pl铆nio J. Smith & S茅bastien Charles; Springer 2016), 275-292.

鈥�Pierre Bayle鈥� in The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ISSN 2161-0002,