James (Jim) Sias

Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Dickinson College
Ph.D., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

I specialize in ethics (especially metaethics) and philosophical psychlogy (especially moral psychology), but I also have interests in the philosophy of psychiatry, epistemology, and the history of moral philosophy. 

My first book, The Meaning of Evil, was published in 2016.

• For a full description of the book, click here.
• Why write a book about evil? See here and here. 

Current projects:

• I'm in the early stages of research for a book on issues at the intersection of ethics and the philosophy of psychiatry (e.g., whether, and to what degree, patients with particular psychiatric conditions are morally responsible; what different conceptions of mental illness assume or imply about human wellbeing; etc.).
• Working on papers on a variety of topics, including: (1) the perception of others' mental states in psychosis, (2) the concept of dysfunction in psychiatric nosology, and (3) personality disorder.

Outside of philosophy, I like reading science fiction, drawing and painting, and hanging out with my wife (Molly) and our three kids.

And for the record, my last name rhymes with bias.

Photo credit: Carl Socolow