Eli Benjamin is a PhD scholar at Temple College. He’s inquisitive about sensible reasoning, company, private autonomy, sexual consent, and Kant’s sensible philosophy. Engaged in service work, he works with the North American Kant Society and the Society for the Philosophy of Intercourse and Love, and has not too long ago been appointed as a member of the APA’s Graduate Pupil Council.
What excites you about philosophy?
I’ve at all times hated uncertainty. It has a manner of constructing me anxious. Whereas philosophy tends to make issues worse, making you are feeling like “the bottom is shifting out from beneath you” (like Jennifer Frey says in a tweet that I wish to carry up originally of each semester once I introduce my college students to philosophy). It really offers me a way of “I received this.” It’s like having the precise instruments to hack my manner via the confusion and discover some readability. That’s additionally why I do ethics—there have been cases in my life the place I discovered myself hurting folks and never understanding why, and I wished to determine my manner into having morality clearer.
What are you engaged on proper now?
I’m engaged on a couple of various things in the meanwhile, however my essential mission is a paper titled “Caring for (Legitimate) Sexual Consent.” On this paper, I argue that consent has a Belief Situation that must be met for it to be legitimate. In different phrases, for consent to be legitimate you need to justifiably belief the individual you’re consenting to. I then argue that within the sexual area, as a result of non-contractual nature of intercourse, we are able to solely justifiably belief our companions by having an assurance of their take care of us. This care encompasses paying attention and delicate to our will, in ways in which embrace, however transcend verbal expressions of consent.
I’m significantly enthusiastic about this mission, as I imagine it provides a safer liberal perspective on sexual relationships, informal and dedicated alike, and it lays the ethical grounds for future insurance policies that will require all events participation in making consent legitimate. I discover this to be essential in stopping numerous sexual wrongs that always happen, typically with none malicious intentions.
What’s your poison?
I’ve at all times been a whiskey man, with a crush on peaty Scotches. Nevertheless, I need to confess that being within the US beneath a grad scholar stipend has led me to strive rye whiskeys currently, and so they’re not unhealthy in any respect.
What’s your favourite e book of all time? (Or prime 3). Why? To whom would you advocate them?
I’m not certain if these are my favourite books, however there are three novels that I typically discover myself going again to. They share a standard theme of exploring the shifting terrain between cause and irrationality, values and passions. These are: José Saramago’s Cain, Arthur Schnitzler’s Traumnovelle, and Joseph Roth’s The Legend of the Holy Drinker. Whereas these quick novels could not appear associated at first look, they every current a essential character grappling with the duality of human nature in cause and sensibility, in distinct and intriguing methods.
Saramago’s Cain portrays what I think about to be a Nietzschean prophet, who champions cause over faith and challenges God himself. Schnitzler’s Fridolin represents the deliberate give up to ardour and irrationality; and Roth’s Andreas occupies a center floor, striving to rationally figuring out his actions in accordance with ethical rules and continuously failing himself time and again. I imagine all three views are extraordinarily insightful to anybody involved with morals and human conduct extra broadly, as they permit us to know the complexities of those human positions and the challenges every of them current.
In case you may have a one-hour dialog with any thinker or historic determine from any time, who would you decide and what subject would you select?
Properly, it’s fairly an fascinating query, contemplating the time constraint of only one hour. A real philosophical dialog would require extra time, so I’ll select somebody I’d simply get pleasure from speaking with: Bertrand Russell. I first received to significantly learn him at a fairly late stage once I needed to educate his paper “On Denoting.” Nevertheless, my curiosity in him was additional piqued once I stumbled upon his biography, and I used to be instantly captivated by his turbulent life story and eccentric character. Philosophically talking, I determine together with his early fascination with German Iiealism, to which he later rebelled in opposition to (one thing I don’t discover unimaginable to occur to me certainly one of lately). Above all, I actually admire his spirit to broaden the area of his mental exercise into the political and even the intimate, as seen in Marriage and Morals and in his life story.
What recommendation do you would like somebody had given you?
It might be to make private relationships a precedence. This recommendation can go in a few methods. First, philosophy shouldn’t overshadow the significance of spending time with the folks we care about. I really imagine that {our relationships} and the experiences we now have in the actual world should not solely vital for our well-being and sanity, however they offer us the actual drive to do philosophy and lift probably the most fascinating questions price exploring in our analysis. A few of the most beneficial and pleasurable philosophical questions I’ve contemplated had been sparked by injustices confronted by shut associates, inside conflicts of needs a romantic companion intimated to me, and even by merely observing the best way we reply to on a regular basis ethical dilemmas we encounter. It’s by being attentive to actual issues, actual folks, and the questions that have an effect on on a regular basis of us that we uncover what’s actually invaluable about philosophy.
The second a part of this recommendation is about surrounding your self professionally with folks you want as folks (and that hopefully such as you again), and never simply as philosophers. That is absolutely vital through the early levels of 1’s educational journey, like now, for me, in grad faculty: Your advisor, committee members, and colleagues shouldn’t solely be inquisitive about your philosophical endeavors but in addition actually care about you and your well-being. I don’t know, this is perhaps as a result of I moved internationally a number of occasions (together with now for my PhD) so I’ve this urge to discover a neighborhood, however I feel grad faculty, and the roles we’ll get after (that is me being overly optimistic, I do know) should not short-term flings. It’s a protracted highway we undergo with folks on this career. They see us in our ups and downs, and it’s factor, I imagine, to have the ability to be susceptible in entrance of them—share our difficulties and allow them to see us fail.
This part of the APA Weblog is designed to get to know our fellow philosophers a little bit higher. We’re together with profiles of APA members that highlight what captures their curiosity not solely contained in the workplace, but in addition outdoors of it. We’d love so that you can be part of it, so please contact us by way of the interview nomination form here to appoint your self or a buddy.
Alexis LaBar has a Grasp’s diploma in philosophy from West Chester College of Pennsylvania. Earlier than attending West Chester, she graduated from Moravian College with a Bachelor’s in philosophy, a minor in world religions, and an ethics certificates. She is the recipient of the 2022 Claghorn Award, awarded by West Chester College, and the 2021 Douglas Anderson Prize in Philosophy, awarded by Moravian College. She is the Editor of the Instructing Beat and Work/Life Steadiness Beat.
