Tamar Szabo Gendler

During her time at CASBS, Tamar Gendler hopes to complete two public philosophy projects. The first is a Coursera course – tentatively entitled Public Plato – which pairs ancient philosophical texts with contemporary cognitive scientific work on human flourishing. More specifically, the course introduces ancient Greek and Roman tools for cultivating phronesis (practical wisdom) by connecting them to insights from other scientific and wisdom traditions. The second is a trade book, tentatively entitled Four Weeks to Wisdom: 24 Concepts to Change your Life. The book aims to introduce a set of fundamental philosophical concepts by introducing a set of fundamental philosophical terms. Each week, the reader meets six thematically connected ideas, followed by a “day of rest.” Gendler turns to these projects after a decade of service as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Yale University, where she is also the Vincent J. Scully Professor of Philosophy, and professor of psychology and cognitive science. Her academic research brings together the techniques of traditional Anglo-American philosophy with empirical work from psychology and other social sciences; her interests include the relation between imagination and belief, the contrast between rational and non-rational persuasion, and the role of habits in shaping behavior and judgment. She also has interests in education policy and practice and worked for several years after she graduated from Yale as an education policy analyst at the RAND Corporation.