Qian Cao
Qian Cao is the Postdoctoral Research Scholar with the Initiative in Ancient and Contemporary Philosophy. Her main research interests lie in ancient philosophy—especially Plato’s moral psychology and epistemology—and in psychoanalysis. Her current research explores the psychological challenges of inquiry from a perspective that draws on both Plato and Freud. Beginning with Plato’s intense engagement with ancient relativism, particularly Protagoras’ Measure Doctrine, her dissertation centers around the distinction between appearance and reality that runs through Plato’s work. She argues that moving from appearance to reality is hard not only because reality is difficult to grasp, but also because we have a tendency to thwart our best effort at seeing the world for what it is.
At Columbia and through projects led by NYU faculty, Qian had the opportunity to teach a range of classes, including Contemporary Civilization (CC), Ethics, History of Philosophy I, Classical Chinese Philosophy, and Introduction to Philosophy.
Qian holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Columbia University and a B.A. in Philosophy from NYU.
Taylor Pincin
Taylor Pincin works primarily on explanation, unity, and priority in Aristotle’s metaphysical framework(s). In her dissertation, she developed a novel approach to priority in being (ousia) according to which priority in being is a generic explanatory priority that may manifest differently depending on context, where the relevant contexts are the distinct Aristotelian sciences. In the Science of Being, Taylor argued, priority in being is first and foremost concerned, not with explaining Being (to on), as one might expect, but with explaining Unity (to hen). Currently, Taylor is occupied with two main projects. The first teases apart distinct mereological systems in Aristotle, and the second develops two distinct modes of metaphysical explanation, subtle yet prevalent in Aristotle, but which can be traced back to Plato’s Phaedo.
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