Present Academic Position
Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Dowling College, from 1998 - present.
Previous Academic Positions
Visiting Assistant Professor at Department of Philosophy, University of Kentucky 1994 - 1998
Visiting Assistant Professor at Department of Philosophy, Georgetown University 1992 - 1994
Areas of Specialization
Moral Psychology and Practical Reasoning, Ethical Theory, Philosophy of Medicine and Psychiatry
Graduate Education
Princeton University September 1986 - 1992
Ph.D. in Philosophy: Dissertation, "The Limits of Irrationality," (advisor Mark Johnston)
granted January 1996
King’s College London October 1985 - June 1986
M.Sc. with Distinction in History and Philosophy of Science,
Thesis, "The Role of Observation in Science"
Undergraduate Education
Wadham College, Oxford University October 1981 - June 1985
B.A., First Class Honours in Physics and Philosophy
Scholarships and Fellowships
Fellowship to Princeton University 1986 - 1992, with full tuition
British Academy Fellowship 1985 - 1986
College Scholarship to Wadham College, Oxford, 1981 - 1985
Publications
Entry for "Philosophy of Psychiatry"
forthcoming in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. [Online]
"The Neuron Doctrine in Psychiatry," Peer Commentary on "A Neuron Doctrine in the Philosophy of Neuroscience" by Ian Gold and Daniel Stoljar,
Behavioral and Brain Sciences 1999, 22 (1 page).
"Involuntariness as a Criterion of Disorder,"
forthcoming in an edited book of papers based on those given at "Values in Psychiatric Nosology: A Conference for Philosophers and Mental Health Professionals," sponsored by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Critical discussion of Divided Minds and Successive Selves, by Jennifer Radden,
The Journal of Mind and Behavior, Winter 1998, Volume 19, Number 1, pp. 91-102.
"Medicating Children: The Case of Ritalin,"
Bioethics, Vol. 11, No. 3&4, 1997, pp. 228-240.
"Degrees of Personhood,"
The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy , Vol. 22, No. 2, 1997, pp. 173-197.
"Direct intentional self-deception is also real," (Peer Commentary on "Real Self-Deception" by Alfred Mele),
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Vol. 20, No. 1, 1997, pp. 123-4.
"Addiction needs philosophical explanation, not mere redescription," (Peer Commentary on "Resolving the contradictions of addiction" by G. M. Heyman), Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Vol. 19, No. 4, 1996, pp. 592-3.
Book Reviews and Non-Peer-Reviewed Writing
Review of Girls, Some Boys and Other Cookies, by Ute Behrend, Metapsychology, September, 2001.
Review of The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression, by Andrew Solomon, Metapsychology, August 2000.
Review of In Pursuit of Happiness: Better Living from Plato to Prozac, by Mark Kingwell, Metapsychology, August, 2001.
Review of Britain on the Couch: Treating a Low Serotonin Society, by Oliver James, Metapsychology, August, 2001.
Review of Prozac Backlash: Overcoming the Dangers of Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, and Other Antidepressants With Safe, Effective Alternatives, by Joseph Glenmullen, Metapsychology, July 2001.
Review of New Work 1996-2000, by Jock Sturges, Metapsychology, June 2001.
Review of Listening to Cement, by Robert Stivers, Metapsychology, May 2001.
Review of Memoires 1995, by Seiichi Furuya, Metapsychology, May 2001.
Review of Peek: Photographs from the Kinsey Institute, by Carol Squiers et al, Metapsychology, March 2001.
Review of Nerve: The New Nude, edited by Genevieve Field, Metapsychology, February, 2001.
Review of Mockingbird Years: A Life In and Out of Therapy, by Emily Fox Gordon, Metapsychology, January, 2001.
Review of Where is the Mango Princess?, by Cathy Crimmins, January 2001.
"A New Word Awaits," Conference Briefing on Nature and Technology, The 12th International Conference of the Society for Philosophy and Technology, in The Philosophers’ Magazine, 16, Autumn 2001, pp. 31-33.
Review of When Self-Consciousness Breaks: Alien Voices and Inserted Thoughts, by G. Lynn Stephens and George Graham, forthcoming in Philosophical Review.
"Biology and Antireductionism in Psychiatry," review of The Mind and Its Discontents: An Essay in Discursive Psychiatry, by Grant Gillett, The Hastings Center Report, Vol. 31, #3, 2001, p. 47.
"Ethics on the Brain," The Philosophers’ Magazine, 13, Winter 2001, pp. 50-51.
"Mad About Florence," Conference Briefing on Madness, Science and Society, The 4th International Conference on Philosophy and Psychiatry, Florence, Renaissance 2000, The Philosophers’ Magazine, 13, Winter 2001, pp. 30-1.
Review of Psychotherapy and Society by David Pilgrim, forthcoming in Psychoanalytic Studies.
"Book Reviews and the Internet," APA Newsletter on Philosophy and Computing, Fall 2000, Vol. 00, #1, pp. 4-6.
Regular column in What’s Happening in Philosophy, Philosophy of Psychiatry section, Philosophy News Service. Online, 1999-2000.
"Prozac, alienation, and the self," August 2000.
"Rationality, psychopathology, and emotions," July 2000.
"US surgeon general commits Descartes error," March 2000.
"Virtual interview with the editors of Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology," December, 1999.
"Philosophers on drugs," September 1999.
"Conferences feature philosophy of psychiatry," August 1999.
Regular column on "Philosophy and Psychiatry in the Media" in the Bulletin of the Association for the Advancement of Philosophy of Psychiatry. 1999-2001.
"Prozac and Public Opinion," June 2001.
"The Future of Philosophy of Psychiatry on the Internet," June 2000
"On Introspecting One's Serotonin Levels," July 1999
"Mind-Reading and Folk Psychiatry," January 1999
Review of Beyond Reason: Art and Psychosis, by Laurent Busine et al, Metapsychology, December, 2000.
Review of Ritalin Nation: Rapid-Fire Culture and the Transformation of Human Consciousness, by Richard DeGrandpre, Metapsychology, December, 2000.
Review of A Philosophical Disease: Bioethics, Culture and Identity, by Carl Elliott, Metapychology, November, 2000.
Review of What Nietzsche Really Said, by Robert C. Solomon and Kathleen Marie Higgins, Metapsychology, October, 2000.
Review of Running on Ritalin: A Physician Reflects on Children, Society, and Performance in a Pill, by Lawrence H. Diller, Metapsychology, October, 2000.
Review of Bertrand Russell: The Spirit Of Solitude 1872-1921, by Ray Monk, Metapsychology, September, 2000.
Review of The Wing of Madness: The Life and Work of R. D. Laing, by Daniel Burston, Metapsychology, October, 2000.
Review of Skin Game: A Memoir, by Caroline Kettlewell, Metapsychology, September 2000.
Review of Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir, by Lauren Slater, Metapsychology, September 2000.
Review of Analytic Freud: Philosophy and Psychoanalysis, edited by Michael P. Levine, The Philosophers' Magazine, 12, 2000, p. 54.
Review of Analytic Freud: Philosophy and Psychoanalysis, edited by Michael P. Levine, Metapsychology, August 2000.
Review of Getting Hooked: Rationality and Addiction, edited by Jon Elster and Ole-Jorgen Skog, Metapsychology, August 2000.
Review of Philosophy Practice: An Alternative to Counseling and Psychotherapy, by Shlomit C. Schuster, Metapsychology, June 2000.
Review of Second Opinions: Stories of Intuition and Choice in a Changing World of Medicine, by Jerome Groopman, Metapsychology, June 2000.
Review of Prozac Diary, by Lauren Slater, Metapsychology, April 2000.
"Evil: Mad or Bad?," Conference Briefing on The Problem of Evil, AAPP Annual Conference, Washington DC, 1999, in The Philosophers’ Magazine, 9, Winter 2000, pp. 30-1.
Review of Getting Hooked: Rationality and Addiction, edited by Jon Elster and Ole-Jorgen Skog, The Philosophers' Magazine, Summer 2000, p. 60.
Review of Momma and the Meaning of Life: Tales of Psychotherapy, by Irvin D. Yalom, Metapsychology, November 1999.
Review of Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide, by Kay Redfield Jamison, Metapsychology, October 1999.
Review of Plato, Not Prozac! Applying Philosophy to Everyday Problems, by Lou Marinoff, Metapsychology, August 1999.
Review of Living With One’s Past: Personal Fates and Moral Pain, by Norman S. Care, Metapsychology, June 1999.
"Beyond the Baconian Project," Review of To Relieve the Human Condition: Bioethics, Technology, and the Body, by Gerald P. McKenny, Medical Humanities Review, 12(2), Fall 1998, pp. 97-100.
Review of Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us, by Robert D. Hare, Metapsychology, April 1999.
Reviews of Speaking of Sadness by David Karp, Dysthymia and the Spectrum of Chronic Depressions, edited by Hagop S. Akiskal and Giovanni B. Cassano, and The Cruelty of Depression by Jacques Hassoun, in Perspectives: A Mental Health Magazine, Vol. 3, Issue 4, October - December, 1998
Reviews of Seeing the Crab, by Christina Middlebrook, The Undertaking, by Thomas Lynch, The Measure of Our Days, by Jerome Groopman, Imagining Robert, by Jay Neugeboren, Let Me Make It Good, by Jane Wanklin, and An Anthropologist on Mars, by Oliver Sacks, in Perspectives: A Mental Health Magazine, Vol. 3, Issue 3, July - September, 1998.
"The Emergence of Philosophy of Psychiatry,"
Philosopher’s Magazine, Vol. 1, Issue 3, 1998 (2 pages)
Review of Women, Madness & Medicine, by Denise Russell, and Through the Looking Glass: Women and Borderline Personality Disorder, to appear in Perspectives: A Mental Health Magazine, Vol 2. Issue 5, November - December, 1997.
Review of The Evolution of the Emotion-Processing Mind, by Robert Langs, PSYCHE: an interdisciplinary journal of research on consciousness 4(11), September 1998. (http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au/).
Reviews of Essays on Philosophical Counseling, edited by Ran Lahav and Maria da Venza Tillmanns, and Hope and Dread in Psychoanalysis, by Stephen A. Mitchell, in Perspectives: A Mental Health Magazine, Vol. 2. Issue 4, September - October, 1997.
Reviews of A History of Psychiatry by Edward Shorter, and Hystories, by Elaine Showalter, in Perspectives: A Mental Health Magazine, Vol. 2. Issue 3, July - August, 1997.
Reviews of Divided Minds and Successive Selves,, by Jennifer Radden, and The Rules of Insanity, by Carl Elliott, in Perspectives: A Mental Health Magazine, Vol. 2, Issue 2, May - June, 1997.
Review of Rewriting the Soul, by Ian Hacking,
The Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 47, 1997, pp. 531-3.
"Prozac and Political Activism," in Perspectives: A Mental Health Magazine, Vol. 1, Issue 4, September - October, 1996.
Conference Papers and Invited Lectures
"Philosophical Issues in Childhood Mental Disorders,"
forthcoming talk to Boston Local Chapter of AAPP, April 2002.
"Ethical Issues in Child Psychiatry,"
forthcoming invited talk to Department of Child Psychiatry, Mayo Clinic, Minnesota, March 2002.
"Should We Be Worried About the Growth in Use of Psychologically Enhancing Medication?,"
Nature and Technology, 12th Biennial International Conference of the
Society for Philosophy and Technology, University of Aberdeen, July 2001.
"What Is It Like to be a Heteronomist?,"
Philosophy and the Emotions, The Royal Institute of Philosophy Conference 2001, University of Manchester, July 2001.
"Psychiatric Ethics,"
Psychiatry Grand Rounds, Manhattan Psychiatric Center, Ward's Island, NY, April 2001.
"Prozac and the Self,"
Psychiatry Grand Rounds, Hillside Hospital, New York, March 2001.
"The Values of Eclectic Psychiatry ,"
invited lecture given at a conference on Value-Free Science: Ideal or Illusion?, Center for Ethics and Values in the Sciences, University of Alabama, Birmingham, February 2000.
"Freedom and Mental Disorder,"
invited lecture to Department of Philosophy, Hofstra University, November 2000.
"Enhancement Medication and The Future of Society,"
invited lecture at Lyon College, Arkansas, October 2000.
Panel Discussion on "Young People and Psychiatric Ethics" and lecture on "Ritalin, Prozac, and Troubled Youth: Values in Science and Psychiatry,"
given at University of Arkansas Little Rock Applied Ethics Seminar, October 2000.
"Philosophical Issues in Cosmetic Psychopharmacology,"
invited presentation for Enhancement Technologies Group, McGill University, September 2000.
"The Puzzle of Non-Autonomous Intentional Action,"
given at Madness, Science and Society, The 4th International Conference on Philosophy and Psychiatry, Florence, Italy, August 2000.
"Principles of Charity in the Interpretation of Psychopathology," given at AAPP Annual Meeting, Rationality and Mental Health, Chicago, May 2000.
"Psychopharmacology and Personal Identity,"
given at a conference on Bioethics: The Next Twenty-Five Years at the Center for Applied and Professional Ethics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, April 2000.
"Evolutionary Psychology, Antisocial Behavior, and Mental Disorder,"
given at NYC AAPP conference on Evolutionary Theory and Psychopathology, New York City, November, 1999.
"Psychopharmacology and Personal Identity,"
invited presentation given at a conference on the Science and Ethics of Human Enhancement, C.W. Post Campus, Long Island University, as part of Turning 2000: A Millennial Weekend at C.W. Post, October 1999.
"Measuring Prozac versus Plato,"
given at the Fifth International Conference on Philosophy and Practice, Wadham College, Oxford University, July, 1999.
"Indeterminacy of Irresistible Desires and Their Role in Psychopathology,"
given at the meeting of the European Society for Philosophy and Psychiatry, Warwick University, July, 1999.
"Indeterminacy of Irresistible Desires: A Problem for Folk Psychology?, "
given at the annual meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry, on The Problem of Evil, Washington, DC, May 1999.
"Conceptualizing Borderline Personality Disorder,"
invited paper given at the Joint Centre for Bioethics, University of Toronto, June 1998.
"Considering a Feminist Critique of Prozac?: Take Valium and Wait,"
given at the AAPP meeting on Gender Perspectives in and on Psychiatric Theory and Practice, Toronto, May, 1998
"Mental Disorder: Involuntary Behavior or Malfunction?,"
invited paper given at the meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry, at the Central Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, Chicago, May, 1998
"The Value in Classifying Action as Involuntary,"
given at Values in Psychiatric Nosology: A Conference for Philosophers and Mental Health Professionals, sponsored by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, December 1997.
"Ethical Issues for Physicians and Psychiatrists in Psychopharmacology,"
invited paper given at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, for the Joint Centre for Bioethics, University of Toronto, September, 1997
"The Large-Scale Use of Psychotropic Drugs,"
invited presentation given at the Hastings Center, New York, April, 1997
"When Should Unhappiness Be Treated As A Mental Illness?,"
Grand Rounds in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Kentucky, March, 1997
"Defining and Defending Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder,"
invited paper given at Department of Philosophy, Loyola University Chicago, February, 1997
"Medicating Children: The Case of Ritalin,"
paper given at International World Congress III of Bioethics, in San Francisco, November 1996
"The Disunity of Science: Adolf Meyer's Psychiatry,"
paper given at the First History of Philosophy of Science Conference, Roanoke, VA, April 1996
"Comments on ‘The Concept of Personal Identity’ by Steven Rieber,"
given at the Pacific APA Meeting in Seattle, April 1996
"Problems with Dispositional Accounts of Unconscious Intentionality,"
invited paper given at Department of Philosophy, San Diego State University, San Diego, March, 1996
"Against Principles of Charity in Interpretation,"
invited paper given at University of Cincinnati Department of Philosophy, Invited Speaker Talk, December 1995
"Coming to Terms With the Normativity of Diagnosis in Psychiatry,"
presentation given in the Works in Progress series at Case Western Reserve Center for Biomedical Ethics, May 1995
"Ethical Issues in Prescribing Psychotropic Drugs,"
presentation given in Conversations in Bioethics series at Case Western Reserve Medical School, May 1995
"Naturalism about Personhood: the Implications for Medical Ethics,"
invited paper given at University of Kentucky Philosophy Department Lecture Series, November 1994
"Rescuing the Truth in Post-Modern Conceptions of Identity,"
paper given at conference "The End(s) of Post-Modernism" at Northeast Missouri State University, September 1994
"The Brave New World Of Prozac,"
invited paper given to University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Philosophy Society, May 1994
"Addiction, Self-Defeating Behavior, and Mental Illness,"
invited paper given at Department of Philosophy, City College, CUNY, New York, March 1994
Awards
Fellowship from National Endowment for the Humanities to attend an Institute on Mind, Self and Psychopathology, led by Jennifer Whiting and Louis Sass, held at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, June - August, 1998.
Professional Activity
Secretary of the New York City local chapter of Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry, 2000 - present. Organizing about 6 meetings per year in New York City.
Contributing Editor to The Philosophers’ Magazine, from 2000 - present.
Reviewer for
Oxford University Press
MIT Press
Ohlinger Publication Services
Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology (Johns Hopkins University Press)
Internet Activity
Created the Philosophy of Psychiatry Reading e-mail list, from 2000 - present.
Created and maintain the Philosophy of Psychiatry Announcements e-mail list, from 1999 - present.
Editor of Metapsychology Online Review, (URL: http://mentalhelp.net/books) from 1998 - present..
Started a mailing list, PHIL-ACTION-L, on action theory and the explanation of human behavior, 1996-1998.
Editor and Regular Book Reviewer for bimonthly Web Magazine Perspectives: A Mental Health Magazine, (URL: http://mentalhelp.net/perspectives/) from 1995-1998.
College Service, Dowling College
Department Chair, 1999 - present.
Honors Program Coordinator, Spring-Summer, 2001.
Core Coordinator, from 2000-1.
Academic Standards Committee, 1999-2000
Data Collection Committee, Division of Arts and Humanities, 1998-1999
Teaching
Dowling College
Western Philosophy I; Western Philosophy II; Ethics; Death and Dying; Ethics in the New Genetic Era; Twentieth Century Philosophy; Philosophy of Psychiatry and Psychology.
University of Kentucky
Ethical Theory; Death, Dying, and the Quality of Life; Philosophy of Psychiatry; Personal Identity; Philosophy of Law; Health Care Ethics; Irrationality and Moral Psychology; Philosophy of Mind; Morality and Society; Intro. to Knowledge and Reality
Georgetown University
Personal Identity; Mental Health and Morality; Irrationality and the Unity of Mind; Introduction to Philosophy
Princeton University (teaching assistant)
Medical Ethics; Intro. to Moral Philosophy; Introductory Logic; Aesthetics; Philosophy and the Modern Mind
Hospital/Clinical Experience
6 months aiding with teaching of MD 810: ‘Physicians, Patients, and Society’ class for medical students at University of Kentucky College of Medicine, January - June 1996.
2 months attending morning rounds at Georgetown University Hospital Mental Health In-Patient Ward, March - April 1994
Professional Affiliations
American Philosophical Association
Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry
Society for Philosophy and Psychology
American Society for Bioethics and Humanities
Contact Information
Office
Philosophy and Religious Studies
Dowling College
Idle Hour Blvd.
Oakdale NY 11769
(631) 244-3349
Internet
E-mail: perringc@dowling.edu
URL: http://www.dowling.edu/faculty/cperring