work in progress

I ask why certain social labels, roles, and credentials can shape our emotional responses to people so powerfully. I develop a framework for understanding how emotions may track institutionally constituted forms of status, while also asking when such responses are genuinely fitting and when they become normatively questionable.

I revisit the contrast between direct and indirect realism in the philosophy of perception. I argue that mediation need not block direct awareness of ordinary objects, and explore a model on which perceptual experience can involve a mediating element without placing the world behind a veil.

I examine how a community's existing linguistic practice can help determine what its words refer to, even when several possible extensions initially look equally compatible with use. I offer a practice-based account of how patterns of judgment, correction, and projection can already favor one interpretation over others.