About
Oliver Traldi is a philosopher in the Honors College who specializes in epistemology and political philosophy. He has written on the relationship between practical interests, morality, rationality, and his book Political Beliefs: A Philosophical Introduction is the first survey of the new field of political epistemology, spanning epistemology, metaethics, political philosophy, political psychology, and cultural commentary and covering topics like the nature of politics, disagreement, expertise, bias, polarization, propaganda, ideology, conspiracy theories, liberalism, moral epistemology, the ethics of belief, and the philosophy of history. He is currently working on projects related to the epistemology and politics of redefinition and conceptual engineering, expert failure and the social elements of expertise, the relationship between skill and rationality, and theories of political change and “culture war” in the 2010s. Outside of academia, he is a popular essayist and book reviewer.
Education
- B.A., Bard College
- M.A., Tufts University
- Ph.D., University of Notre Dame
Research interests and areas of expertise
- Epistemology (including traditional, normative, social, political, applied)
- Metaethics
- Rationality
- Moral epistemology
- Ethics of belief
- Political philosophy
- Political beliefs
- Politics and morality
- The philosophy of polarization
- Disagreement
- Expertise
- Conspiracy theories
- Liberalism
- Philosophy of history
- Philosophy of language