Joel Carini
Ph.D. Candidate in Philosophy
Saint Louis University
Philosophy of Language and Mind | Ethics and Moral Psychology
Contact: [email protected]
Research
My research is in philosophy of language and philosophy of mind, with a focus on the nature and individuation of mental content. My dissertation, Content Beyond Our Ken: The Case Against Content Rationalism, argues against a foundational assumption shared by Frege and Russell — the fountainheads of otherwise competing traditions in analytic philosophy — that rational subjects have secure epistemic access to the contents of their own thoughts. Drawing on Kripke and Kaplan, I argue that propositional content is determined by the identity of the referent, and that since the factors fixing those contents lie beyond the range of our cognitive access, we are fallible in our knowledge of what we are thinking. My ongoing research continues to examine the foundational assumptions about content and cognition that shape both the Fregean and Russellian traditions.
Works in Progress
“Frege’s Logical Criterion Is Psychological”
(under preparation for submission)
“The Rationality Assumption and the Content Debate”
(in preparation)
About Me
My interest in the philosophy of language and mental content is more than merely academic. Before my philosophical training, I encountered a version of the problem I later found at the center of philosophy of language: whether words mean the same things across different conceptual schemes — or whether our words just have different meanings. Getting clear on that question, and searching for grounds for a positive answer to it, is what drove me to Frege, Russell, Kripke, Kaplan, and the content debate.
Education
Ph.D. in Philosophy
Saint Louis University (Expected 2026)
“Content Beyond Our Ken: The Case Against Content Rationalism”
Under Dr. Scott Berman
MA in Philosophy
The University of Chicago, 2018
“In Defense of the Silencing Thesis”
Under Dr. Candace Vogler
Teaching
My aim as a philosophy instructor is to help students develop a philosophical sensibility—the capacity to read a difficult argument carefully, recognize a hidden assumption, and think more rigorously about how to live. I pursue this through demanding writing assignments, discussion that takes students seriously as thinkers, and close engagement with the ideas at stake in each course. I consider a course successful when students leave not just knowing more philosophy, but better at the kind of honest, careful reasoning that matters everywhere.
Courses taught:
Ethics in Cinema and Computer Games
Ethics in Technology
DePaul University, 2018-2020
Introduction to Ethics
College of DuPage, 2018-2019
Presentations
“Frege’s Logical Criterion Is Psychological”
Paper presentation, Annual Conference of the Indiana Philosophical Association, 2025.
Winner, McCarty Prize in Logic.
“Disjunctivist Neo-Russellianism”
With Dr. Scott Berman. Joint paper presentation. Collaborations Conference, University of Illinois at Carbondale, 2023.
