Derek Estes is a joint PhD scholar in Saint Louis College’s Department of Philosophy and Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics. He focuses totally on bioethics and philosophy of faith. His dissertation is concerning the nature of human dignity.
What excites you about philosophy?
Name me old-school, however it’s the risk that via philosophy I would achieve knowledge. Our career is one which valorizes incisive argumentation, logical puzzle-solving, and important analysis, and little doubt these are all necessary to be a great thinker. However it’s simple to neglect that these talents are all instruments—that they don’t seem to be ends in themselves however are solely devices meant to assist us in our seek for knowledge. Now, don’t get me improper; I’m an analytic thinker who loves a great philosophical puzzle or devastating critique as a lot as the subsequent individual. Like each different thinker I do know, I’ve definitely had the expertise of being thrilled by the sensation of writing a tightly-argued paper or by the sensation of waking up in the midst of the night time with an concept that I (often incorrectly) thought may remedy a vexing query in philosophy. However at the least talking personally, it’s throughout the occasions after I get too sucked in to CV-building, publication-obsession, or myopic argumentation that I start to really feel burnout. Once I really feel most alive are the occasions when the abilities I’ve developed via learning philosophy enable me perception—nonetheless small or incremental it’s—into what it means to reside life nicely. I discover it’s at all times good for me to do not forget that, at its finest, philosophy is each a technique and a behavior of thoughts that permits us to reside higher, extra flourishing lives. When it isn’t that, it’s now not philosophy, however sophistry.
What are you most pleased with in your skilled life?
For the time being, it’s my educating. I like studying and writing philosophy, however my main motivation for wanting a PhD in philosophy has at all times been that I wish to educate it. There’s one thing electrifying about seeing a scholar develop into keen about philosophy or seeing their eyes mild up once they immediately perceive a subject in a means that had beforehand eluded them. That is a part of what made SLU interesting to me; there’s an equal emphasis right here on being a superb trainer as there’s on being a superb researcher. This previous yr I’ve been educating my very own programs for the primary time (Intro to Ethics) and the suggestions thus far has been very optimistic. That has been extraordinarily rewarding to me.
What are you engaged on proper now?
Proper now I’m engaged on my dissertation, which is broadly within the space of bioethics. Briefly, my dissertation is a protection and account of the notion of human dignity. A variety of bioethicists (plus, not too long ago, Alastair MacIntyre) have argued that the notion of human dignity is an inherently ambiguous idea and doubtlessly even a vacuous one. Critics level to issues just like the discourse about dying with dignity and conclude that if an idea can be utilized by events on each side of a debate to justify mutually unique conclusions, there have to be one thing improper with the idea itself. I disagree although; I believe dignity is neither inherently ambiguous nor vacuous, regardless of the best way it’s utilized in disagreements about physician-assisted dying. My dissertation is subsequently an account of what I believe dignity actually is, what it means to violate or advertise, who has it, and what it’s that inheres an individual with it. Proper now, the challenge continues to be in its preliminary levels, however I’ve nice mentors like Jason Eberl, Jeff Bishop, and Eleonore Stump who’ve all helped information me in the best path. I’m excited to see the place all of it leads!
What do you love to do exterior work?
Properly, I’ve a spouse and a 3-year-old son whom I like spending time with. My spouse and I are each lecturers, so we take pleasure in speaking store collectively and discussing our newest analysis pursuits. We additionally prefer to go on walks in native parks, journey to new locations, and to attempt new eating places and meals. With my son I take pleasure in enjoying on the playground on the park, studying books collectively, and speaking concerning the issues that excite him, which these days means a lot of discuss trains. As a household we love highway journeys, tenting, and visiting household. Personally, my primary passion today is chess. It was the pandemic passion I picked up (all of us had one, didn’t we?), and I’ve been fairly severe about it for somewhat over a yr now. I might say I’m respectable at it at this level, however I’d prefer to get adequate to the place I could make a good displaying in native tournaments or be a chess coach within the occasion that my son decides he needs to play in the future. I’m additionally a former collegiate soccer participant, so I nonetheless attempt to play in pick-up video games every so often after I’m ready.
What’s your favourite quote?
“I slept and dreamt that life was pleasure. I awoke and noticed that life was service. I acted and behold, service was pleasure.” – Rabindranath Tagore
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