Catherine Kemp
Catherine
Kemp
Associate Professor
Phone number
212.237.8908
Room number
NB 8.63.14
Education

J.D., The University of Texas School of Law, (1996, Law)
Ph.D., State University of New York at Stony Brook (1995, Philosophy)
M.A., State University of New York at Stony Brook (1990, Philosophy)
B.A., Earlham College (1987, Philosophy)

Bio

Professor Kemp specializes in Philosophy of Law and Modern Philosophy, especially David Hume.  She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy at SUNY Stony Brook and her J.D. at the University of Texas School of Law.  She joined the John Jay community in 2010, having previously been appointed to the faculties of the University of Colorado at Denver, Penn State, and Brooklyn College.  At Brooklyn she received the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation Fellowship for Outstanding Teaching in 2010 and at the University of Colorado at Denver she won the Excellence in Teaching Award, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, in 2001.

JJC Affiliations
Philosophy
Courses Taught

PHI 317 Philosophy of Law

PHI 330 Philosophical Modernity

PHI 231 The Big Questions

PHI 401 Senior Seminar in the History of Philosophy

PHI 315 Philosophy of the Rule of Law

HJS 250 Justice in the Western Traditions

 

Professional Memberships

Hume Society (2005).
 

Scholarly Work

Hume and Pragmatism (in progress).

“The False Hume in Pragmatism.” The Pluralist, vol. 15, no. 2 (Summer 2020), pp. 1-24.

“Dewey’s Darwin and Darwin’s Hume.” The Pluralist, vol. 12, no. 2 (Summer 2017), pp. 1-26.

“The ‘Real Letter to Arbuthnot’? A Motive for Hume’s Probability Theory in an Early Modern Design Argument.”  British Journal for the History of Philosophy, vol. 22, no. 3 (2014), pp. 468-491.

“Contrariety in Hume.” New Essays on David Hume, Emilio Mazza and Emanuele Ronchetti, eds., FrancoAngeli (2007), pp. 55-64.

“Our Ideas in Experience: Hume’s Examples in ‘Of scepticism with regard to our senses.’British Journal for the History of Philosophy, vol. 13, no. 3 (2004), pp. 445-470.

Habermas and Pragmatism.  Co-editor.  Routledge (2002).

“Experience Matters: Indifference and Determination in Hume’s Treatise.Journal of Speculative Philosophy, vol. 16, no. 4 (2002), pp. 243-255.

“Law’s Inertia: Custom in Logic and Experience.” Studies in Law, Politics, and Society. JAI/Elsevier Science (2002), vol. 25, pp. 135-149.

“Two Meanings of the Term ‘Idea’: Acts and Contents in Hume’s Treatise.Journal of the History of Ideas, vol. 61, no. 4 (2000), pp. 675-690.

“The Innateness Charge: Conception and Belief for Reid and Hume.” Reid Studies, vol. 3, no. 2 (Spring 2000), pp. 43-54.

“Habermas among the Americans: Some Reflections on the Common Law.” Exploring Habermas on Law and Democracy, Symposium issue, Denver University Law Review, vol. 76, no. 4 (1999), pp. 961-975.

“The Uses of Abstraction: Remarks on Interdisciplinary Efforts in Law and Philosophy.” Coercion: An Interdisciplinary Examination of Coercion, Exploitation, and the Law, Symposium issue, Denver University Law Review, vol. 74, no. 4 (1997), pp. 877-888.

Reviews:

Frederic Kellogg, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Legal Theory, and Judicial Restraint.  Philosophical Inquiry, 32(3-4), p. 118-120 (2010).

Ryan Nichols, Thomas Reid’s Theory of Perception.  Hume Studies, vol. 33, no. 2 (November 2007), pp. 339-344.

Feminist Interpretations of David Hume, ed. Anne Jaap Jacobson.  Hypatia, vol. 20, no. 1 (Winter 2005), pp. 206-209.

Honors and Awards

Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation Fellowship for Outstanding Teaching.  Brooklyn College, The City University of New York, 2010.

Professional Staff Congress-City University of New York Research Award, 2008-09.

Excellence in Teaching.  The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Colorado at Denver, 2001.

Dean’s Achievement Award (Am. Jur. equivalent, UTLS, Austin, Texas), 3 courses: Legal Scholarship (Spring 1995), Sociology of Law (Fall 1994), History of American Law (Fall 1994).  University of Texas School of Law.

Philosophy Department Nominee, President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching for a Graduate Student.  S.U.N.Y. at Stony Brook, 1991.