Postdoctoral Fellow | Society of Fellows, Dartmouth College
tiina [dot] rosenqvist [at] gmail [dot] com
About Me
I'm a postdoctoral Fellow in the Dartmouth Society of Fellows and completed my PhD in Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania in May 2023. My current focus is empirically guided philosophy of perception, though I'm interested in a wide variety of issues having to do with how humans and other animals perceive, think about, and interact with their environments. I like to think about color and pain, about the connections between intellectual traditions, and about how we should approach metaphysical and epistemological questions relating to cognition and perception. I'm Finnish and lived in India and Hong Kong before moving to the US. As a grad student I was actively involved in Minorities and Philosophy (MAP) and I'm committed to keep working to make my discipline--and academia as a whole--more welcoming and inclusive.
Research
I specialize in philosophy of psychology and cognitive science, with an emphasis on perception. I investigate the "goals" of perceptual systems and use those investigations to inform my epistemology and metaphysics. I argue that the function of color vision is to help organisms manifest perceptual competences, and that color experiences are correct when they result from competence-enhancing processing (see here and here). In a similar vein, I argue that the function of pain is to enhance the manifestation of behavioral competences, and that our pain experiences are right when they are useful (see here). On a more general level, I reject the widely held view that perception is in the business of representing the objective world "as it is" (see here and here).
Teaching & Service
In my teaching I combine flexibility with a highly structured course design in an effort to reduce the achievement gap and to improve learning outcomes across the board. I set my expectations high, but offer lots of skill-building workshops to provide my students with the tools they need to succeed. I use an assignment and assessment structure designed to provide plenty of opportunities for improvement, and my policies about due dates and attendance are flexible. I'm passionate about diversifying philosophy, about disability inclusion and accessibility, and about Wellness. You can read more about my teaching experience, teaching philosophy, and service projects by clicking the buttons below.
Tibetan Language
From 2014 to 2017 I studied Tibetan language and Buddhist philosophy at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala, Northern India. In 2019, LTWA published a book of Tibetan Folk Tales that I co-translated with my teacher and friend, Nyima Dekyi la ("la" is a Tibetan suffix used after a name or a title to indicate respect). To learn more about Tibetan language, the book, and my reasons for studying Tibetan, click the button below.
Images
Art and artists have a lot of offer to philosophical discussions of (visual) perception. In my free time, I like to sometimes create images that draw attention to how the world appears to us and that illustrate fascinating perceptual phenomena. Many of these phenomena would ordinarily be labeled visual "illusions."
Get in Touch
tiina [dot] rosenqvist [at] gmail [dot] com
tiina [dot] C [dot] Rosenqvist [at] Dartmouth [dot] edu
Thornton Hall Room 316
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH, USA