MC: I'm speaking now with David Pereplyotchik, Associate Professor of Philosophy at 国产伦理, who has just recently returned from his FPIL (aka sabbatical), and I'd like to talk to David about his experience. I'll begin just by asking David about his research interests more generally.
DP: I have very broad research interests. I came to Kent studying the philosophy of mind and philosophy of language鈥攂asically, which aspects of our minds are involved in the understanding and production of language. Ultimately, I wanted to know what it means to understand stuff. I think I have a decent grip on that now. Later on, my work moved more toward the study consciousness and neuroscience, where I explore the brain mechanisms underlying conscious experience and non-conscious mental functioning. Most recently, I've been doing work in political philosophy, and more value-centered areas of the field. For example, I just published a paper where I give a moral critique of eco-sabotage, and I have a critique of Michael Huemer鈥檚 anarchist proposals in the pipeline as well. So that's what I've been up to for the past 15 years or so.
MC: What about your time during your FPIL? What were you working on?
DP: I finished up the critique-of-anarchism paper, and that should be out next year. And then I co-authored a paper on the topic I was just mentioning鈥攃onsciousness and neuroscience. I favor a particular theory of consciousness鈥攖he so-called 鈥淗igher-Order Thought鈥 theory, due to David Rosenthal鈥攁nd one of the advantages of that theory is that it connects up really nicely with the results coming out of neurocognitive research. There was recently a neuroscientific critique that theory, so Jacob Berger鈥攁 colleague at Lycoming College鈥攁nd I co-wrote a rebuttal to that.
MC: That sounds interesting. I want to segue into something more personal here. Could you tell me a little bit about the subjective side of your experience during FPIL? Did you travel anywhere? Did you work from home?
DP: This is the first time I've ever had a sabbatical, so I didn't know what to expect. I also had a major injury, unfortunately, right before the FPIL started. So that kind of threw a wrench in the works. I had had a lot of travel planned, and some of it I was able to accomplish. I went to Atlanta to visit a friend of mine. I went to New York a few times. I went to see a friend in Pennsylvania. And my partner and I traveled to a Caribbean island called Curacao, which was also an amazing experience.
I鈥檓 also very involved in music. I'm in two bands and, between the two of them, we played like 10 shows over the summer. So that was a big part of my FPIL, too鈥攔ehearsing for those shows and then all the things involved in executing them successfully.
MC: Good to hear you were able to travel despite the injury setback! How do you think your travels connect with your research? Were there any direct or indirect connections?
DP: I'm always thinking about the political situation and the environmental situation of wherever I am. That connects up with my research into climate change politics and environmental concerns that I have on a personal level as well. And I鈥檓 also constantly thinking about all the commonalities amongst the languages around the world. So, on all three of those fronts, you do get to step outside of your usual box when you travel, especially if it's a place like Curacao. It's definitely thought-provoking in a way that you wouldn't get if you just stuck around in one place.
MC: I hear you've been rock climbing a lot recently. And can you tell me a little bit about that?
DP: I hadn't wanted to have too much overlap with your interview, because I know that you also have been into rock climbing recently, so I thought I would let you talk about that more. But yes, it's true. I have really taken to the sport. I had never been a sports guy; I've never been a physical/athletic person. I guess I did do a little bit of rock climbing when I was younger, but it was not at all a serious thing. Then, suddenly, in 2025 I decided to take it up again, and now it has become a very serious thing for me. Unfortunately, it was also the cause of the aforementioned injury. But as I say, I've moved on, moved forward, and I continue to love rock climbing.
MC: Good to know that the injury didn't set you back too much, and great to hear about your research and your interests. Thanks for the chat.
