Russell Marcus
Curriculum Vitae (click for pdf version)

Department of Philosophy, Hamilton College
198 College Hill Road
Clinton NY 13323
(315) 859-4056 (office)
(315) 381-3125 (home)
(315) 335-4711 (mobile)
email: russell@thatmarcusfamily.org
website: thatmarcusfamily.org/philosophy

• Philosophy of Mathematics

• Modern Philosophy
• Logic, Advanced Logic, Set Theory
• Philosophy of Language
• Philosophy of Science
• Philosophy of Mind
• Epistemology
• Metaphysics
• Business Ethics, Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy
• Teaching Philosophy

Education

• Ph. D., The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York, February 2007.
  Dissertation: Numbers without Science.
  Adviser: David Rosenthal.
  
  
• B.A., Swarthmore College, 1988.
  Major in philosophy. Concentrations in education and mathematics.

Academic Appointments (see below for other teaching experience):

• Assistant Professor, Hamilton College, Beginning July 2010
  
• Chauncey Truax Post-Doctoral Fellow, Hamilton College, 2007-2010
  

• “Intrinsic Explanation and Field’s Dispensabilist Strategy,” forthcoming in International Journal of Philosophical Studies
• Review of Kevin J. Harrelson, The Ontological Argument from Descartes to Hegel, The APA Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy 10.1, Fall 2010: 11-13.
• Entries on Alonzo Church, David Hilbert, Leopold Löwenheim, Model Theory, Semantic Trees, Thoraf Skolem, Syntax, and Variable; in Key Terms in Logic, Jon Williamson and Federica Russo, editors, Continuum Publishers, November 2010.
• "Indispensability Arguments in the Philosophy of Mathematics," The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, First Posted: October 18, 2010 .
• "A Cooperative-Learning Lesson Using the Objections and Replies," The APA Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy 9.2, Spring 2010: 5-9.
  
• "Observations on Cooperative-Learning Group Assignments," The APA Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy 9.2, Spring 2010: 2-5.
  
• "David Hilbert," The Reasoner 3.3, March 2009.
• "Structuralism, Indispensability, and the Access Problem," Facta Philosophica 9, 2007: 203-211.
• "Cooperative Learning on the First Day of Class," The APA Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy, Spring 1998

• "Logic and Philosophy"
  • 2010 American Association of Philosophy Teachers’ Workshop Conference, Coastal Carolina University, August 2, 2010
    
• "A Jigsaw Lesson for First-Order Logic Translations Using Identity"
  • 2010 American Association of Philosophy Teachers’ Workshop Conference, Coastal Carolina University, August 1, 2010
    
• "God or Reason? Case Studies in Jewish and Secular Ethics"
  • Waldman Lecture, Temples Emanu-El and Beth El, Utica
  • Including Bonus Workshop: Looking Forward, Backward, and Inward: Three Approaches to the Good, May 16, 2010.
• "Embracing the Cartesian Circle"
  • Hamilton College, February 16, 2010
    
• "The Explanatory Indispensability Argument"
  • APA Eastern Division Meeting, Main Program, Forthcoming December 2010
  • 3rd Cambridge Graduate Conference on the Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics, January 17, 2010
  • First Colombian Conference in Logic, Epistemology, and Philosophy of Science, November 6, 2009
    
• "On Jokes; and Some Observations about Asymmetries in Power and about Being a Jew in America"
  • Hamilton College Think Tank, September 26, 2008
• "Adjudicating the Objections and Replies: A Cooperative Lesson Using the Objections and Replies to Descartes’s Meditations"
  • The American Association of Philosophy Teachers' Workshop-Conference, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, August 2008
• "Intrinsic Explanation and Field's Dispensabilist Strategy"
  • The Tilburg-Sydney Conference on Reduction and the Special Sciences, Tilburg University, The Netherlands, April 10, 2008
  • APA Eastern Division Meeting, Main Program, December 29, 2007
• "Berkeley's Reductionism and the Explanation of Taste Differences: How Can Pigs Eat Feces?"
  • Hamilton College Think Tank, February 1, 2008
• "The Relevance of Geometry to Philosophy"
  • Seminar in Modern Geometries, Hamilton College, December 3-5, 2007
    
• "Randomness"
  • Atheists, Agnostics, and Freethinkers Meeting, Hamilton College, December 3, 2007
• "Structuralism, Indispensability, and the Access Problem"
  • The New Jersey Regional Philosophical Association, March 24, 2007
• "Why the Indispensability Argument Does Not Justify Beliefs in Mathematical Objects"
  • The College of Wooster, April 9, 2007
  • Hamilton College, April 3, 2007
  • Wabash College, March 22, 2007
  • University of British Columbia Student Philosophy Conference, April 2006
  • Rocky Mountain Student Philosophy Conference, March 2006
• "Formalities"
  • CUNY Graduate Student Colloquium Series, Spring 2005
• "Three Grades of Instrumentalism"
  • Thoughts, Words, Objects: UT Austin Graduate Philosophy Conference, April 2006
  • CUNY Graduate Conference, Spring 2005
• Comments on Eric Swanson's, "A Friendly Amendment to the Standard Analysis of Supposition"
  • CUNY Graduate Conference, Spring 2003
• "Reductionism, Benacerraf, and Numbers"
  • CUNY Graduate Conference, Spring 1999
• "Boundarylessness"
  • CUNY Graduate Student Colloquium Series, Spring 1996

Work in Progress

Papers

"The Explanatory Indispensability Argument"

"The Eleatic and the Indispensabilist"

"Embracing the Cartesian Circle"

"A Jigsaw Lesson for First-Order Logic Translations Using Identity"

"Three Grades of Instrumentalism"

"E Pluribus Putnams Unum: Hilary Putnam and the Indispensability Argument"

"Why the Indispensability Argument Does Not Generate Abstract Objects"

Books

Autonomy Platonism and the Indispensability Argument, Lexington Books; Delivery: August 2013.

An Historical Introduction to the Philosophy of Mathematics; reader and text under review at Broadview Press

What Follows: A Logic and Philosophy Text

Themes in the Objections and Replies: Objections and Replies to Descartes’s Meditations Organized Topically with New Introductory Material

• The John R. Hatch Excellence in Teaching Award, Hamilton College, May 2011
• Class of 1966 Career Development Award, Summer 2011
• Emerson Foundation Grant for Summer Research (with Simon Judd, Hamilton ‘13), Summer 2011
• Graduate Teaching Fellowship, Queens College, CUNY, Fall 1999 to Spring 2000.
• Graduate Teaching Fellowship, College of Staten Island, CUNY, Fall 1995 to Spring 1997.
• Graduate Fellowship, CUNY, Fall 1993 to Spring 1995.
• Joel Dean Grant and Dana Internship, for Research in Education, Swarthmore College, 1986-7.

Professional Activity

• Member, American Philosophical Association (APA), 1998 to present
• Member, American Association of Philosophy Teachers (AAPT), 2008 to present
  • Program Committee Co-Chair (2011-12)
  • Lenssen Prize Committee (2011)
  • Developed AAPT Repository of Teaching Materials (2010-11)
  • Chaired Session at Eastern APA, December 2009
  • Nominating Committee (2008)
• Member, Mathematics Association of America (MAA), 2008 to present
• Logic Puzzle Master, Union College Logic Puzzle Contest, 2008-09
  
• Committees in the CUNY Philosophy Ph.D. Program:
  • Student Steering Committee
  • Admissions Committee
  • Doctoral Students Council
  • Kornblith Chair Search

• Knowledge, Truth and Mathematics, Senior Seminar (Hamilton College)
• Intuitions and Philosophy, Senior Seminar (Hamilton College)
• Contemporary Philosophy (Hamilton College)
• Philosophy of Mind (Stern College)
• The Language Revolution (Hamilton College)
• Modern Philosophy (Hamilton College)
• Advanced Logic (Queens College)
• Godel's Theorems (Hamilton College - independent study)
• Non-classical Logics (Hamilton College - independent study)
• Practical Logic (Hofstra University)
• Logic (Hamilton College, Queens College, Hofstra University, Swarthmore College, as T.A.)
• Business Ethics (Queens College)
• Ethics (Queens College, Hofstra University, College of Staten Island)
• Introduction to Philosophy (Hamilton College, Queens College, Hofstra University, College of Staten Island)

Theses Supervised or Examined (Undergraduate, Hamilton College)

• Adviser
  • Kevin Kerr, "Evidence, Inference, and Clutch Hitting: A Study In Induction and Confirmation," Honors Thesis, Hamilton College, Spring 2010
  • Tudor Seserman, "Not a Something, but Not a Nothing," Honors Thesis, Hamilton College, Spring 2009
  • Chris Boveroux, "Internal or Intentional? – Dennett and the Intentional Stance," B.A. Thesis, Hamilton College, Spring 2008
• Examiner
  • Theresa Fisher, "Rawlsian Global Justice: Reconciling Cultural Differences," B.A. Honors Thesis, Hamilton College, Spring 2008
  • Jeff Kitsis, "Fair Play, Gamesmanship and Cheating: A Three-Category Theory of Sports," B.A. Thesis, Spring 2009
  • Brendan Conway, "The Heroism of the Dark Knight," B.A. Honors Thesis, Spring 2009

Teaching Experience in Philosophy

Hamilton College

Fall 2007 to Present

Courses Taught: Philosophy of Mathematics, Logic, Introduction to Philosophy, Contemporary Philosophy, Philosophy of Language, Intuitions and Philosophy, Modern Philosophy

Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University

Spring 2007

Adjunct Instructor

Course Taught: Theories of the Mind

Queens College, CUNY

Spring 1998 to Spring 2007

Graduate Teaching Fellow, Adjunct Lecturer

Courses Taught: Advanced Logic, Logic, Business Ethics, Introduction to Philosophy, Ethics

Hofstra University

Spring 1998 to Summer 1999

Adjunct Instructor

Courses Taught: Introduction to Philosophy, Ethics, Practical Logic

College of Staten Island, CUNY

Spring 1995 to Spring 1997

Graduate Teaching Fellow

Courses Taught: Introduction to Philosophy, Ethics

Other Teaching Experience

SPISE: Select Program in Science and Engineering, City College, CUNY

October 1992 to Spring 1999

Math enrichment program for city high school students

Topics taught include: Boolean Algebra, Königsberg Bridge and Graph Theory, Statistics, Numeric Integration

Queensborough Community College, Mathematics Department

Fall 1994 to Spring 1995

Courses taught include Number Systems, Elementary Algebra

Cardozo High School, Mathematics Department

September 1992 to June 1993

Courses taught include AP Computer Science, Sequential Math I, Sequential Math II, Computer Math

Costa Rica Academy, San Jose, Costa Rica

August 1989 to June 1992

Courses taught include Statistics, Introduction to Mathematics, AP Language, American Literature, Journalism, World History

Newtown High School, Mathematics Department

Spring 1989

Courses taught include Sequential Math I, Computer Math

Jamaica High School, Mathematics Department

Fall 1988

Courses taught include Sequential Math I, Fundamentals of Mathematics

Advised math magazine

• Logic, Math, and Computer Science
  • Incompleteness and Undecidability (Elliot Mendelson)
  • Computability (Elliot Mendelson)
  • Foundations of Artificial Intelligence (Rohit Parikh)
  • Set Theory (Michael Levin)
  • Modal Logic (Melvin Fitting)
  • Advanced Logic (Richard Mendelsohn)
• Metaphysics and Epistemology
  • Knowledge and Nature of Abstract Objects (Jerrold Katz)
  • Epistemology (Charles Landesman)
  • Philosophy of Mind (John Greenwood)
  • Space and Time (Arnold Koslow)
  • Metaphysics (David Rosenthal)
• Philosophy of Language
  • Semantic Paradoxes and the Logic of Truth (Hartry Field)
  • Vagueness and Indeterminacy (Stephen Schiffer)
  • Truth Theories (Haim Gaiffman, Columbia University)
  • Philosophy of Language (Stephen Schiffer)
• History:
  • Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (Arthur Collins)
  • The Discovery of Metaphysics: Plato, Parmenides, and Aristotle (Peter Simpson)
  • Descartes (David Rosenthal, audited)
• Ethics
  • Ethics (Steven Ross)
  • Utilitarianism (Douglas Lackey)
  • Social and Political Philosophy (Steven M. Cahn)

• David Rosenthal, Graduate Center, CUNY
• Michael Devitt, Graduate Center, CUNY
• Elliott Mendelson, Emeritus, Department of Mathematics, Queens College; Department of Philosophy, Graduate Center, CUNY
• Katheryn Doran, Hamilton College
• Todd Franklin, Hamilton College
• Marianne Janack, Hamilton College
• James Jordan, Queens College, CUNY
• Harvey Burstein, Queens College, CUNY

8/16/2011