Qian Cao
Qian Cao is the John and Daria Barry Postdoctoral Fellow with the Initiative in Ancient and Contemporary Philosophy. Her main research interests lie in ancient philosophy—especially Plato’s ethical psychology and epistemology—and in psychoanalysis. Her current work examines the special status of immediate sense perception in the context of Plato’s engagement with the Measure Doctrine in the Theaetetus, alongside a broader interest in Plato’s and Aristotle’s responses to ancient relativism. She is also writing a paper on narcissism based on her clinical work with children. Her dissertation explores the psychological challenges of inquiry from a perspective that draws on both Plato and Freud.
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 PhD in Philosophy from Columbia University and a BA 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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