K. Violet McKeon

Ph. D. University of California, Irvine, 2015. Philosophy. Emphasis: Global Environmental Justice.  Dissertation: Justice in the Global Commons: A Framework of Moral Duties for Common-Pool Resources.

M.A. University of California, Irvine, 2012. Philosophy. Emphasis: ethics, political philosophy, game theory.

B.A. University of California, San Diego, 2009. Philosophy.  Emphasis: philosophy of physics, history and philosophy of science.  Minor in environmental studies.  Minor in literature: writing.

Areas of Specialty: Social and Political Philosophy. Ethics and Value Theory.  Game-theory and social dynamics.  Global justice, esp. environmental justice.

Areas of Competence: History of social contract. Meta-ethics. Naturalistic ethics. Environmental philosophy. Early Modern philosophy 17-18^th century. History and philosophy of science, sp. physics. Logic.

“On Common Ground: What we owe to each other in the global commons”

In my dissertation, I consider moral and political obligations between people who share a common vital resource that is outside the bounds of traditional state governance. I offer a contractualist framework of moral duties that arise when people share a common plight. I investigate the relationships between justice and sovereignty, justice and shared resources, and how these differ from a cosmopolitan ideal. I consider the applications of both natural property rights and utilitarianism to common- or shared- resources, as well as the collective obligations that arise because of them, showing ultimately that neither are preferable to the framework of duties I propose in virtue of the associative relations brought about by a common plight. I also explore the ethics of complicity, and the extent to which our obligations depend on what others are doing or not doing. And finally, I offer an updated treatment of how best to consider obligations to future generations vis-à-vis resource management.

Chapman University – Adjunct Professor

• Phil 300 Symbolic Logic. Sentential/propositional logic. Predicate Logic. Informal fallacies. Fall, 2014.
• Phil 306 Introduction to Games and Decision Theory. Decisions under ignorance, risk. Decision trees/tables. Utility. Probability. Game Theory. Rawls, Harsanyi. Ostrom, Hardin. Spring, 2014.
• Phil 104 Introduction to Ethics. Aristotle, Kant, Mill, Rawls. Contemporary applications. Spring, 2014.

University of California, Irvine – Graduate Instructor

• Phil 12 History of Early Modern Philosophy. Scientific revolution from Copernicus to Kant. Women of early modern philosophy. Summer, 2014.
• WR 39B Critical Reading and Rhetoric. Writing composition, Genre conventions, Audience awareness, Rhetorical situation. Spring, 2014.
• WR 39B Critical Reading and Rhetoric. Winter, 2014.
• WR 39B Critical Reading and Rhetoric. Fall, 2013.

University of California, Irvine – Teaching Assistant

• Phil 1 Introduction to Philosophy. Philosophy of language, Epistemology, Metaphysics, Ethics. Spring, 2013.
• Phil 103 Introduction to Moral Philosophy. Society and moral outliers; Plato, Rousseau, Kant, Rawls, Scanlon, James. Fall, 2012.
• Phil 4 Introduction to Ethics. Societal obligations; Plato, Mill, Kant. Spring, 2012.
• Phil 4 Introduction to Ethics. Moral luck; Aristotle, Epictetus, Strawson, Rawls. Winter, 2012.
• Phil 1 Introduction to Philosophy. Epistemology, Identity, Freedom, Ethics; Nozick, Russell, Frankfurt, Mill, Kant. Fall, 2011.
• Phil 1 Introduction to Philosophy. Locke, Nietzche, Descartes. Spring, 2011.
• Phil 4 Introduction to Ethics.  Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Winter, 2011.
• Phil 1 Introduction to Philosophy. Cosmological argument, Freedom, Ethics, Identity; Hume, Ayer, Mill, Parfit. Fall, 2010.

Rhetoric & Composition, UCI. 10-week teaching pedagogy seminar

UCI TA Professional Development Program (TAPDP)

Certified Yoga Teacher, UCSD Recreation. 2-year teacher training program

Moral Duties in Virtue of our Common Plight; presented at Global Studies Conference – Surviving the Future: Owning the World or Sharing the Commons, Marymount College

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: Why Prohibition is an Ethical Concern; presented at Psychedemia, University of Pennsylvania

Commentator for Douglas Portmore’s “Reconsidering Singer’s Drowning Child Example”; Ethics in the Public Sphere: Our Duties to Distant Needy Persons, UC San Diego

Dynamic Payoff Matrices & CPR Management; presented to the Social Dynamics Interdisciplinary Seminar, School of Social Sciences, UCI

In Common Fairness; presented to the Social Dynamics Interdisciplinary Seminar, School of Social Sciences, UCI

Governing the Commons II – The Atmosphere; presented to the Social Dynamics Interdisciplinary Seminar, School of Social Sciences, UCI

Modality; presented to the Modal Logic seminar in the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, UCI

Governing the Commons; presented to the Social Dynamics Interdisciplinary Seminar, School of Social Sciences, UCI

Models of Time, Freedom, and Determinism; presented at the UCSD Summer Research Symposium – Science & Engineering

Questions into the Dimensionality of Space: Philosophical Foundations of Theoretical Physics; presented at the UCSD Faculty Mentor Research Symposium – Science & Engineering

Steering committee,  “Perspectives on Gender” Conference, UCI; Interdisciplinary conference

Founding Member and Co-Chair: Hypatia Society, UCI; Promoting the retention of women in philosophy.

Member: MAP

Member: American Philosophical Association

University of New South Wales Post-doctoral Research Fellowship

UC President’s Dissertation Year Fellowship

Abraham I. Melden Fellowship, UCI Philosophy

UCI Graduate Division Regents’ Fellowship

Richard L. & Fern W. Erion and Laidlaw-Erion Scholarship

UCSD Summer Research Fellowship

Ronald E. McNair Scholar

Kiwanis: Madeline Petrie Award

Wilma & Clyde Steib Memorial California Community Foundation Award

Harry Markowitz Memorial Award

Value Theory and Political Philosophy

• PHIL 230 Philosophy of Rights – F’09
• PHIL 250 Ethics of Self – S’10
• LPS 230 Naturalizing Morality – F’10
• PHIL 298 Philosophy of Ecology – F’10
• PHIL 221 Value of Knowledge – S’11
• PHIL 298 Global Economic Fairness – S’11
• PHIL 298 Philosophy of International Law – F’11
• PHIL 298 Global Justice – W’12, S’12
• PHIL 201 Disagreement – F’12
• PHIL 298 Human Rights – W’13
• PHIL 298 Political Theory & International Relations – S’13
• PHIL 267 Political Philosophy – S’12 (UCSD Inter-campus Exchange)

Logic and Philosophy of Science

• LPS 205A Set Theory – F’10
• LPS 205B Metalogic – W’11
• LPS 246 Modal Logic – S’10
• PHIL 285 Statistical Mechanics – S’08 (UCSD)
• LPS 241 Geometry and Spacetime – F’09 (audit)
• LPS 240 Philosophy of Science – W’10
• LPS 244 Evolutionary Game Theory – W’10
• LPS 240 Inheritance in Biology – S’10
• LPS 246 Social Dynamics – F’09, W’10, W’11, F’11, W’12, W’13, F’13 (audit), W’14 (audit)

History of Philosophy

• PHIL 201 Augustine – F’09
• PHIL 213 Hume – W’10
• PHIL 210 Aristotle’s Ethics – S’11
• PHIL 298 Social Contract: Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau – F’11
• PHIL 216 Nietzsche – S’13