April 20, 2023
Faculty Scholar: Edmund Dain, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy
By Michael Hagan ’15, ’19G
EDUCATION: Ph.D., philosophy; master’s degree, analytic and continental philosophy after Kant; bachelor’s degree, English literature and philosophy; all from Cardiff University
BEGAN TEACHING AT PC: September 2011
EXPERTISE: The philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, ethics and meta-ethics, epistemology, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and psychology; longstanding interest in ancient Greek thought and literature
NEWSWORTHY: Dain received the 2021-2022 Joseph R. Accinno Teaching Award, Providence College’s highest honor for teaching excellence. Additionally, he edited an anthology, Wittgenstein’s Moral Thought (Routledge, 2018), which includes 10 essays contributed by scholars from the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, Finland, and Denmark. The essays explore the significance of Wittgenstein’s moral thought, including his startling claim that there can be no ethical propositions.
CURRENT PROJECTS: Wittgenstein’s methodology, “mindreading” (how we discern what others are thinking or feeling), the nature of logical impossibility
QUOTABLE: “In a sense, all of us already are philosophers. We just can’t help taking a stand on philosophical questions. We’re always going to run into ethical issues. We’re always going to need to think about what kind of society we want to live in and who we should vote for and other things like this. Philosophy is part of our everyday lives.”
ORIGINALLY FROM: Fyfield, England
HOBBIES: Swimming, rowing, hiking, always open to a game of cricket
