Faculty

B.A., Stanford University; M.A., Ph.D., Harvard University. Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Yale University (1981–88); Director of the Scripps College Humanities Institute and Associate Professor of Humanities, Scripps College (1988–90); Director (1991–94, 2002–05) and Director of the Graduate Program (1994–2007), Center for Curatorial Studies and Art in Contemporary Culture, Bard College. Author, Photography and Philosophy (1990) and articles on photography, Wittgenstein, aesthetics, museum exhibition, and the history of formalism in The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics (2014, 1998), Seeing Wittgenstein Anew: New Essays on Aspect-Seeing (2010), Exhibited (1994), Pursuits of Reason: Essays in Honor of Stanley Cavell (1993) and the journals Philosophical Topics, Common Knowledge, Midwest Studies in Philosophy, and The Journal of Aesthetic Education. (1991– ) Vice President and Dean of Graduate Studies; Associate Professor of Philosophy and Art History.

Professor Batkin teaches courses on aesthetics; politics, the arts, and democratic culture; and contemporary philosophy.

B.A., summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, M.A., Johns Hopkins University; Ph.D., Yale University. Specialization in continental philosophy (Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, existentialism, phenomenology), Freud, and applied ethics (bioethics, environmental ethics, medical ethics). Author of Hegel’s Grand Synthesis: A Study of Being, Thought and History; Hegel’s Theory of Madness; and The Ethics of Authorship: Communication, Seduction, and Death in Hegel and Kierkegaard. Articles and reviews in journals including Clio, Environmental Ethics, History and Theory, History of Philosophy Quarterly, Human Ecology Review, Idealistic Studies, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, International Philosophical Quarterly, International Studies in Philosophy, Journal of European Studies, Journal of Speculative Philosophy, Ludus Vitalis, Man and World, Metaphilosophy, Modern Language Notes, Noûs, Philosophy and Literature, Philosophy, Psychiatry and Psychology, Religious Studies, The Review of Metaphysics, Social Theory and Practice, and The Southern Journal of Philosophy. Contributor to The Dictionary of Existentialism and Phenomenology and Psychoanalysis. Editorial board, Topoi Library. Academic advisory board member, McGraw-Hill Philosophy Web Resources. Advisory council, The Hastings Center Program in Ethics, Science, and the Environment. (1984–) Professor of Philosophy.

     Professor Berthold teaches courses in continental philosophy, applied ethics, Freud, feminist philosophy, the philosophy of religion, critical reasoning, and a multicultural introduction to philosophy.

 Recent work:

• The Ethics of Authorship: Communication, Seduction, and Death in Hegel and Kierkegaard, Fordham University Press, 2011.
•  “Either/Or? Kierkegaard and Camus,” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 73.2 (2013): 137-150.
•  “The Author as Stranger: Nietzsche and Camus,” Idealistic Studies 42.1-2 (2013): 227-246.
•  “Suicide, Silence, and Authorship in Camus,” Journal of European Studies 43.2 (2013): 141-53.
•  “A Penchant for Disguise: The Death (and Rebirth) of the Author in Kierkegaard and Nietzsche,” Clio 39.3 (Summer 2010): 333-57.
•  “Lágrimas del amor / lágrimas de la muerte” (Love tears / death tears), short story, SNReview (Spring 2010): 13-28.

 In progress:

•   “Nietzsche and Freud on the Unconscious.”
•  “The Challenge of Disabilities Activists to Genetic Screening.”
•   “Reading N. Scott Momaday’s Silences.”
•  “Philosophy Behind Bars.”

Jay R. Elliott received his B. A. magna cum laude from NYU in 2000, with honors in Philosophy and Fine Arts. He went on to do graduate work at the University of Chicago, where he received his Ph. D. in Philosophy in 2010. During 2010-12, he was a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities at Yale University. He has also taught philosophy at Iona College and at the New School for Social Research, where he was a Visiting Professor in 2011-12. Professor Elliott’s principal research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of ethical theory, social and political philosophy, and the philosophy of action. He is particularly interested in theories of social injustice and theories of human flourishing. In approaching these topics, his work engages with a variety of philosophical traditions, including ancient and medieval philosophy, contemporary Anglo-American ethics, and critical theory.

 Professor Elliott has presented his work at many venues in the U.S. and abroad, including CUNY Graduate Center, Temple University, Dartmouth College, the University of Lisbon, the University of Potsdam, the Sorbonne, and Nihon University Tokyo. Among his recent publications are: “The Meaning of Life and the ‘Pottersville Test’”, in Film and Philosophy 17 (2013); and “Platonic Ethical Skepticism”, forthcoming in the International Journal for the Study of Skepticism. He is currently at work on a book entitled Character, which provides the first comprehensive critical survey of the recent character-situation debate in philosophy. He is also co-editor (with James Conant) of the forthcoming Norton Anthology of Western Philosophy, Volume 5: The Analytic Tradition.

Professor Elliott teaches courses in ethics, social and political philosophy, ancient philosophy, medieval philosophy, and the philosophy of art.

Ruth Zisman holds a B.A. (Philosophy and Literature) from Vassar College, an M.A. (Humanities and Social Thought) from New York University, and a Ph.D. (German Studies) from New York University. Her areas of specialization include: the German Philosophical Tradition (Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Heidegger), Political Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, and Philosophy and Literature. She has taught at NYU and various workshops and institutes throughout Europe and the United States, held fellowships in Berlin and Weimar Germany, and presented at academic conferences at Cornell, Yale, and the University of Zurich. Professor Zisman is also the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and the Co-Director of the Bard Debate Union. 

Professor Zisman teaches courses in Continental Philosophy, Political Philosophy, and Human Rights.