Evan Robert Keeling

Academic Background

• 2015 Assistant Professor in Philosophy, University of São Paulo
• 2011-2015 Postdoctoral Research at the University of São Paulo
• 2011 PhD in Philosophy at the University of Virginia
  Title: Aristotle on Perception, Phantasia and Skepticism
  Advisor: Daniel Devereux
• 2006 Master’s Degree in Philosophy, University of Virginia
  Title: Unity in Aristotle’s Metaphysics H.6
• 2002 Bachelor’s Degree at West Virginia Wesleyan College

Current Research

I am currently working on a project about color in Aristotle. Its aim is to understand Aristotle's theory of colors as natural objects and as perceptibles. Among the topics to be discussed are: the reality of colors; the meaning of the claim that the prismatic colors fall between white and black, with white being the form and black being the privation; colors as proportions; Aristotle's color terminology; the colors of the rainbow and how they are formed; and the role of the transparent in vision and in the production of colors.

Past Research

I am developing two research projects. In the first, I seek a general understanding of the philosophy of Protagoras, from the Theaetetus of Plato and the Metaphysics IV of Aristotle. The main focus is on the epistemological views of Protagoras, but it also involves questions of ethics and metaphysics. Since our best sources for the Protagoras philosophy are philosophers who do not accept a large part of his views, it is necessary that part of the project consists of understanding and evaluating the arguments given by Plato and Aristotle against Protagoras.
A second project aims at an understanding of the role of perception and fantasia (imagination) in the epistemology of Aristotle. For Aristotle, perception is, in general, true, but at the same time, certain perceptions are false – apparently because of the presence of fantasia in them. The project seeks a general understanding of the conditions under which perception is true or false and a response to the question of the role of perception in obtaining knowledge.

Evan Robert Keeling