We’re including profiles of APA members that spotlight what captures their interest not only inside the office, but also outside of it. This section of the APA Blog is designed to get to know our fellow philosophers a little better. What would you like your last meal to be? Oh and Fukano Whisky-100% rice and beautiful. There’s also a lot of great wine, especially in the Valle de Guadalupe in Baja about two hours south. Lately exploring all the tequila and mescal around here. Both because of food, climate (cultural and weather), and proximity to the ocean. Portugal, Lisbon, and exploring the towns in Alentejo. Where is your favorite place you have ever traveled and why? When did you last sing to yourself, or to someone else? My students learn pretty fast that if they want to distract me they should ask me about food-I’ll go on about anything from my latest vegan discoveries or cookbook obsession to Cheetos and burritos. I cook and explore a lot and I’m not half bad. Name a trait, skill or characteristic that you have that others may not know about.

There are obvious exceptions, but it should be a staple of most US departments. By and large US departments don’t really promote it or significantly support it. It’s bizarre to me that so many philosophers ignore it. What topic do you think is under explored in philosophy?Īesthetics. One of my dreams is to have the time to finish it. (3) Lastly, I’ve been writing a novel about a sapient beard for years and I work on it when I have the time and mental space to take up its imaginative demands. You have only one life, so preserve it! The book is an exercise in YOLO apologetics and a bit of a personal essay on my risky and adventurous past as a teenage pro skater. But what’s the connection? You might reasonably think the exact opposite. People often connect the thought that they only live once with the thought that they should be adventurous or take risks: carpe diem, you only live once!, “YOLO,” etc. (2) A short book on a puzzlingly influential idea. The book explores whether it’s possible to defend aestheticism, or the view that aesthetic value is (or can be) the overarching value of a good life. (1) A series of conceptually related articles that I hope to be a book one day. It develops a theory of social virtue by exploring the contemporary fascination with being “awesome” and not “sucking”. His first book was recently released by Penguin, On Being Awesome: A Unified Theory of How Not to Suck. He has a PhD from New York University and a BA from UC Berkeley. Nick Riggle is an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of San Diego, specializing in aesthetics, ethics, and moral psychology.

Nick riggle on being awesome