West Virginia University

Faculty

Ernâni Magalhães

Visiting Assistant Professor

  • Contact Information

  • Specializations

    • Metaphysics
      Applied Ethics
      Epistemology

  • Research Interests

    • My research is mainly in metaphysics, with some work in applied ethics. My metaphysical research concerns issues related to time and issues related to material constitution.

      • " Armstrong on the Spatio-Temporality of Universals " (Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 2006) explores David Armstrong's account of what is involved in the alleged spatio-temporal character of universals. I argue that the most plausible account of this conception is to hold that universals―properties, like red and rectangular―are spatio-temporal derivatively, insofar as they are constituents of primitively spatio-temporal states of affairs.

      • " Time for Bergmann's Bare Particulars " (Ontology and Analysis, 2007) defends a view similar to Gustav Bergmann's account of the bearers of properties―on which the thing that has a property is not a "bundle" of properties, but instead a "bare" particular. I develop the account by answering important questions about the temporal character of bare particulars. I maintain that bare particulars may be taken to endure rather than perdure.

      • "McTaggart on Change and Time," (forthcoming in Philosophia) surveys the reception of McTaggart's argument against time and explores a neglected element in McTaggart's argument against time, namely, his account of change. It is this account that entails the difficulty about A-properties such as being past, present and future.

      • " Ordinary Objects Are Not in Time " (unpublished) argues that the primitive bearers of such temporal relations as before and after are events rather than objects like apples or asteroids. It is then argued that, since apples and asteroids stand to events as constituents to complexes, ordinary objects should be taken to be derivatively instead of primitively temporal. A detailed and comprehensive account of how derivatively temporal entities have temporal properties such as existing in time and changing is developed.

      • " Time without Change and without Persistence " (unpublished) argues that there can be a time interval without change on the grounds that it is possible for there to be a time interval without persistence.

      • " In Defense of Flattened Statues " (unpublished) attacks an important premise in a popular style of argument. A lump is taken and made into a statue at T2, it seems that at T2 there is something that is a statue and something that is a lump. But the lump cannot be identical with the statue since the lump but not the statue can survive being flattened. Often, the last claim about the statue is defended by appealing to the essentiality of artifactual kinds; if X is a an artifactual kind F, then necessarily, X is F. I object to artifactual essentialism on both intuitive and theoretical grounds_.

      My interest in time led to my organizing a conference here at WVU in April of 2008: Time on Trial: One Hundred Years of McTaggart's Argument against Time. The conference proceedings, whose contributors include Nathan Oaklander, Quentin Smith, and Michael Tooley, will be published in a forthcoming issue of Philosophia, which I will edit.


      My research in applied ethics concern the issue of whether it is permissible to tell children there is a Santa Claus.


      • “ Ho Ho Hoax The Case Against Santa Claus ” (unpublished) maintains that it is impermissible to deceive children concerning Santa Claus. Since it is prima facie wrong to lie, lying to children about Santa is only permissible if the harm of the lie is outweighed by the benefits associated with it. I argue that parents in particular ought not to lie to children in this way since doing so, far from promoting the goals of proper parenting, rather undermines them.

  • Other Interests

    • I love animals, and have done volunteer work at Animal Friends, a no-kill shelter in Grafton, WV. I am or was an obsessive Harry Potter fan. You could say I am a Beatles fanatic, but that doesn't quite do justice to my interest and love of the Beatles--ask me a Beatles trivia question, and I am likely to know it. I love baseball, and am currently going through Ken Burns' 10 volume DVD series on the history of baseball. Also, I am interested in contemporary politics.

  • Courses Offered

    • Phil 130: Current Moral Problems

      Phil 293D: SPTP:Ethics Bowl - The Ethics Bowl is a yearly national competition that brings together teams of undergraduate students to debate situations with moral implications. In past years, we’ve discussed the role of pharmaceutical companies in the drug approval process, the ethics of grading, the permissibility of divulging classified information, and other issues.




      Phil 301: Metaphysics


      Phil 302: Theory of Knowledge