Department
of Philosophy www.christopherlay.com
HOB2,
Second Floor (310)
617-4098
University
of California, Irvine clay@uci.edu
Irvine,
California 92697-4555
Education
University
of California, Irvine (2005-2010)
Degree: PhD in
Philosophy
Dissertation title:
"It's Time to Account for Consciousness."
Thesis committee: David W. Smith (chair), Martin Schwab,
Charles Siewert.
University
of California, Irvine (2003-2005)
Degree: M.A. in Philosophy, given upon completion of
coursework and a portfolio.
Portfolio essay titles:
"Brentano's Psychology and Theory of Mental Phenomena: On Thomasson's Adverbial Alternative to
Brentano's Secondary Objects of Consciousness," "Defining Locke's
Ideas: Defending the Standard
Interpretation Against the Adverbial Alternative," and "From
Higher-Order, Through Intrinsic Higher-Order Content, to First Order
Nonrepresentational: Arguing In
Favor of Nonrepresentational Accounts of Consciousness."
University
of California, Berkeley (2001-2003)
Degree: B.A.
(with Departmental Honors and School's High Distinction) in Philosophy.
Honors thesis title: "Politics in Nietzsche's Early
Thought: A Balanced
Approach."
Thesis advisor:
Hans Sluga.
West Los
Angeles Community College (1997-1999)
My
dissertation seeks to illuminate the contemporary consciousness debate with a
number of insights found in the works of Brentano and Husserl, primarily
Husserl's notion of time-consciousness.
I argue that the particular way in which we are always aware of the
passage of our own mental life as delineated at first in Brentano's notion of
incidental awareness and then more fully in Husserl's notion of
time-consciousness, are the best candidates to account for ubiquitous
self-awareness in normal, everyday consciousness–the kind of awareness
currently debated in the contemporary consciousness debate.
Presentations
"Enacting
Time-Consciousness to Account for the Indistinctness and Ambiguity of Details
Experienced in the Periphery of the Visual Field." - Poster Presentation to be delivered at Toward a
Science of Consciousness (Tucson IX) Conference, Tucson, Arizona, April 16,
2010. Abstract published, in Towards
a Science of Consciousness 2010 Consciousness Research Abstracts, published
by the Journal of Consciousness Studies.
"The Role of
Time-Consciousness in the Contemporary Consciousness Debate." - delivered
to the California Phenomenology Circle, Los Angeles, California, November 15,
2008.
"Time-Consciousness and
Normal, Everyday Consciousness." - delivered at Toward a Science of
Consciousness (Tucson VIII) Conference, Tucson, Arizona, April 8, 2008. Abstract published, in Towards
a Science of Consciousness 2008 Consciousness Research Abstracts, published
by the Journal of Consciousness Studies.
"Sleepwalking Around the
Contemporary Consciousness Debate." - Poster Presentation with Chad Kidd
delivered at Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (ASSC11)
Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada, June 23, 2007.
Papers
The Zero-Order
Temporal Account of Self-Consciousness (under review).
Enacting
Time-Consciousness to Account for the Indistinctness and Ambiguity of Details
Experienced in the Periphery of the Visual Field (in preparation).
Husserl's Analysis of Brentano's Psychologism of the Real (in
preparation).
Fellowships and Awards
UC,
Irvine, School of Humanities, Travel Grant for Conference Presentation
UC,
Irvine, Department of Philosophy, Salzburg Exchange Program Participant
UC
Regents Research Fellowship for study in Salzburg
UC
Regents Fellowship for first year of graduate study
Phi
Beta Kappa (Alpha Chapter)
Goldenkey
Dean's
Honor List, UC, Berkeley, College of Letters and Science
Cal
Bears Scholarship
Berkeley
Scholarship
Teaching Experience and
Employment
Teaching
Assistant, University of California, Irvine (2004-2007)
(With
responsibilities of leading discussion sections, grading, and holding weekly
office hours)
Philosophy 1:
Introduction to Philosophy (Winter 2005, Fall 2005)
Philosophy 4:
Introduction to Ethics (Fall 2004, Spring 2007)
Philosophy 5:
Contemporary Moral Problems (Fall 2006)
Philosophy 7:
Introduction to Existentialism (Spring 2006)
Philosophy 23:
Philosophy of Mind (Winter 2006)
Philosophy 101:
Metaphysics (Winter 2007)
Teaching
Associate, University of California, Irvine (2007-2009)
(With
responsibilities of crafting course materials and syllabi, lecturing, grading,
and holding weekly office hours)
Humanities 1a, 1b, and 1c: Humanities Core Course (Fall 2007, Winter 2008, Spring 2008,
Fall 2008)
(see
http://www.christopherlay.com/f08humcore)
University Studies 4:
Honors Transfer Seminar (Summer 2008)
(see
http://www.christopherlay.com/sum08honorstransfer)
Philosophy 7:
Introduction to Existentialism (Winter 2009)
(see
http://www.christopherlay.com/w09existentialism)
Philosophy 4:
Introduction to Ethics (Summer 2009)
(see
http://www.christopherlay.com/sum09ethics)
Lecturer, University of California, Riverside (2009)
(With responsibilities of crafting
course materials and syllabus, lecturing, grading, and holding weekly office
hours)
Philosophy
165: Philosophy of Law (Spring
2009)
(see
http://www.christopherlay.com/s09law)
Lecturer, Chapman University (2008-2010)
(With responsibilities of crafting
course materials and syllabi, lecturing, grading, and holding weekly office
hours)
Philosophy 104:
Introduction to Ethics (Spring and Fall 2009, Spring 2010)
(see
http://www.christopherlay.com/s09ethics
and
http://www.christopherlay.com/f09ethics)
Lecturer, California State
University, Northridge (2010)
(With responsibilities of crafting
course materials and syllabi, lecturing, grading, and holding weekly office
hours)
Philosophy
305: Business Ethics (Fall 2010)
Lecturer,
Pitzer College (2010-2011)
(With responsibilities of crafting
course materials and syllabi, lecturing, grading, and holding weekly office
hours)
Philosophy
43: Continental Thought (Fall
2010)
Languages
German
(reading)
Professional Societies
Association
for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (2007-2008)
California
Phenomenology Circle (2004-Present)
Other Professional Activities
English Language Proof Reader
Tommaso Piazza (2007), A
Priori Knowledge: Toward a Phenomenological Explanation, Ontos Verlag.
Hans-Peter Leeb (2006), "State-of-Affairs Semantics
for Positive Free Logic," in Journal of Philosophical Logic, Volume
35.
Graduate Coursework
(All course work has been
completed at UC, Irvine unless otherwise noted.)
Philosophy and Phenomenology of
Mind
Merleau-Ponty,
David Woodruff Smith (Fall 2003)
Husserl and Consciousness, David Woodruff Smith (Fall 2004)
Brentano, Charles Siewert at UC, Riverside (Winter 2005)
Brentano, Johannes Brandl at the University of Salzburg
(Spring 2005)
Consciousness, Johannes Brandl at the University of
Salzburg (Spring 2005)
Vision and Body, Charlie Chubb and Carrie Nolan (Fall 2005)
Perception, Michelle Montague (Spring 2006)
Brentano and Husserl, Charles Siewert (Fall 2007)
Philosophy of Memory, Sven Bernecker (Winter 2007)
Self-Awareness, David Woodruff Smith (Winter 2007)
Phenomenally Embodied Consciousness, David Woodruff Smith
(Spring 2008)
Consciousness and Indexicals, David Woodruff Smith (Fall
2008)
Metaphysics
Metaphysics,
Michelle Montague (Winter 2004)
Locke and
Berkeley, Nicholas Jolley (Spring 2004)
Metaphysics of Mind, Michelle Montague (Spring 2004)
Ontology and Intentionality, David Woodruff Smith (Spring
2004)
Metaphysics of Perception, Michelle Montague (Winter 2006)
Mind and Action, David Woodruff Smith (Winter 2006)
Husserl's Ideas, David Woodruff Smith (Fall 2006, Winter
2007, and Spring 2007)
Moral and Political Philosophy
Political Philosophy, John Searle and Hans Sluga at UC
Berkeley (Spring 2002)
Moral Luck, Bonnie Kent (Fall 2003)
Practical Reasoning, Aaron James (Winter 2004)
Hobbes,
Nicholas Jolley (Winter 2004)
Nietzsche, Martin Schwab (Fall 2005)
Post- and
Neo-Modern Ethics, Martin Schwab (Fall 2006)
Political
Theology, Achille Mbembe (Fall 2006)
Existentialism, Continental Philosophy,
and Critical Theory
Critical
Theory Workshop, Fred Moten (Fall 2003, Winter 2004, and Spring 2004)
Existentialism,
Martin Schwab (Winter 2004)
Levinas,
Gayatri Spivak (Spring 2004)
Philosophy
of Deleuze, Martin Schwab (Fall 2004)
Nietzsche,
Martin Schwab (Winter 2005)
Feminism
and Psychoanalysis, Gayatri Spivak (Spring 2006)
Derrida,
Gayatri Spivak (Spring 2007)
Gelley,
What is a Concept (Spring 2010)
Logic
Set
Theory, Penelope Maddy (Fall 2003)
Activities (at UCI)
Analytic-Continental Philosophy
Reading Group
Frege-Husserl Reading Group
Simone de Beauvoir Reading Group
Professional Experience,
Extra-Academic
Fifth
Council District, City of Los Angeles
Deputy
for Planning and Economic Development (2001)
Represented
both Council and constituent perspectives at Planning Commission
Hearings,
Zoning Appeals Hearings, and to various boards. Member of Los
Angeles
Neighborhood Initiative.
Field
Deputy (1999-2000)
Conducted
community meetings, addressing constituent concerns, and arranged
City
developments.
Council
Aide (1997- 1998)
Responded
to constituent concerns and managed office affairs.
References
David Woodruff Smith
Department
of Philosophy, University of California, Irvine, CA
Martin Schwab
Department
of Philosophy, University of California, Irvine, CA
Charles Siewert
Department
of Philosophy, University of California, Riverside, CA
Johannes Brandl
Department
of Philosophy, University of Salzburg, Austria
Uriah Kriegel
Department
of Philosophy, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Ronald McIntyre
Department
of Philosophy, California State University, Northridge, CA