Amelie Rorty

Biography

Born in Belgium, educated at the University of Chicago and Yale, Amelie Rorty's interests in philosophy range widely. Most of her work has been in the history of moral and civic psychology : she is particularly fascinated by what might be called the dark side of the philosophy of mind: akrasia, self-deception, ambivalence, allegedly irrational emotions like jealousy, envy and fearing death. When in doubt, she tends to turn to Aristotle, Spinoza and Hume for illumination. Because she believes philosophy is essentially a participant sport, she likes to teach small discussion/workshop seminars on the usual suspect topics and authors, also occasionally offering courses in how to look at paintings, and on philosophic themes in literature. From time to time, she despairs of philosophy and turns to other fields: she's working on a degree in anthropology, hoping to do a dissertation on people who live in two moral worlds, exiles, immigrants, refugees whose work requires them to absorb a new and distinctive set of "moral" values. For now, she is working on a book, "On the Other Hand: The Ethics of Ambivalence."

Research Interest

History of ethics and moral psychology; ancient philosophy; political theory; literary and art criticism