Patricia Marino
Associate Professor
(Associate Chair of Graduate Studies)

PhD, University of California, Irvine
MS, Tulane University
MA, New York State University,
 University at Buffalo
BA, Wesleyan University

Office: HH 332
Extension: 32779
Email: pmarino@uwaterloo.ca
Webpage: patriciamarino.org

Areas of Interest
Ethics, Philosophy of Sex, Epistemology, Philosophy of Mathematics

Academic Biography
I was working on a PhD in set theory when I got interested in philosophy, and in particular in the problem of mathematical truth.  I wrote my dissertation on the debate between correspondence theories and deflationism, and wrote some papers on that topic.  Through thinking about truth, realism, and anti-realism, I became interested in metaethics -- in particular on dilemmas, consistency, coherence and norms of moral reasoning.  In addition to metaethics, I also work in the philosophy of sex, focusing on questions of sexual objectification and autonomy, and I have an interest in the question of what makes humanistic methods distinctive.  See more about me at [http://patriciamarino.org/about/]

Selected Publications
(A complete list of publications and links to them is available at patriciamarino.org/research)

"Ambivalence, Valuational Inconsistency, and the Divided Self," Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 83 (2011), 41-71.
"Moral Rationalism and the Normative Status of Desiderative Coherence," Journal of Moral Philosophy 7 (2010), 227-252.
"On Essentially Conflicting Desires," The Philosophical Quarterly 59 (2009), 274-291.
"The Ethics of Sexual Objectification: Autonomy and Consent," Inquiry 51 (2008), 345-364.
"Expressivism, Logic, Consistency, and Moral Dilemmas," Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 9 (2006), 517-533.
"What Should a Correspondence Theory Be and Do?" Philosophical Studies, 127 (2006), 415-457.
"Moral Dilemmas, Collective Responsibility, and Moral Progress," Philosophical Studies, 104 (2001), 203-225.

Selected Grants, Fellowships & Awards
Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), Standard Research Grant, $60,669, 2011-2014. Project: Moral Reasoning in a Pluralistic World.
University of Waterloo, Outstanding Performance Award, for outstanding contribution in teaching and scholarship, 2009.
Stanford Humanities Fellow, 2002-2004.
University of California, Irvine, Humanities Pre-Doctoral Fellowship 1997-2002.

Current Research
My main current research project is a book tentatively titled Moral Reasoning in a Pluralistic World. Central to many views of moral reasoning is the idea of moral coherence. But the way we value seems more “pluralistic” than coherent — we care about various things, in various ways, to varying degrees. This pluralism gives rise to moral diversity: while people care about similar kinds of things all over the world — harm prevention, fairness, loyalty, etc. — they care about these things to varying degrees and direct their cares at various objects.

This book asks how we should understand moral coherence and thus moral reasoning in a context of such pluralism.  I argue against “rich” interpretations of coherence, which require us to seek out as few, simple, unconflicting principles as possible.  I develop and defend a “pluralist” coherence, based on judging like cases alike, taking dilemmas to be real and significant, and expanding our circle of concern.

I am also working on the ethics of sexual objectification and the question of what makes humanistic methods distinctive.

See more about my research and recent publications at patriciamarino.org/research

Recent Graduate Supervision and Teaching

Graduate Theses and Research Papers:

• The Human Point of View: Sufficiency as a Political and Social Ideal
• The Animal Self: A New Direction in Animal Ethics
• Moral Fictionalism and Moral Reasons
• Sentimentalism, Affective Response, and the Justification of Normative Moral Judgments

Courses, Seminars, and Areas:

• Ethics and Reason
• Objectivity
• Theories of Truth
• Metaethics
• Animal Ethics