Q&A: Associate Professor Epstein discusses research, how he got into philosophy

Editor's note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Brian Epstein, associate professor in the Department of Philosophy, has applied his studies in philosophy to both academic and businessendeavors. In 2015Epstein published "The Ant Trap," a book about the nature of the social world, building off of his prior research. He sat down with The Tufts Daily to discuss his book, his work here at Tufts and the role of a new child in shaping his research.

Tufts Daily (TD): Tell us a little bit about your background before coming to Tufts.

Brian Epstein (BE): I studied philosophy as an undergraduate. I started out in physics and math, but very quickly realized that philosophy was much more my speed. After that, I was at [University of]Oxford for a master’s degree for a couple years and then decided that I had enough philosophy for a little while. I went to work for a consulting firm here in Cambridge and did strategy consulting. After a few years, I missed philosophy and went to Stanford [University] and got my Ph.D. I ended up teaching at [Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University] for five years before eventually coming here.

TD: So, lots of academia?

BE: Lots of academia interspersed with some business dealings. The business side of things has also helped inform a little bit of my research, so I found that part of my life very useful.

TD: How did you use your philosophy degree in your business ventures?

BE: I actually think that philosophy is one of the most applicable and useful degrees in a variety of fields. In business in particular, you are trying to think about big scale strategic issues and where your particular space in the whole world is. At the same time, you also have to think about the microscopic issues of day-to-day operations. Philosophy does a really good job helping train you to think in these ways. The kind of philosophy we do in this department is very analytical, very mathematical; it’s this very precise, rigorous thinking. 

TD: You wrote a book recently, "The Ant Trap." Can you tell us a little about that?

BE: The topic of the book is working out the nature of the social world. One of the things that is interesting about a lot of sciences is that a lot of the time what people are working on is figuring how to make things do things. In biology, chemistry, physics you’re interested in how to intervene or how to make a chemical reaction or what the sequence of causes and effects is in the world. Those sciences also spend time trying to figure out the structure of things. For example, the structure of an atom or of DNA is central to these natural sciences. In the social sciences, people spend a lot of time trying to figure out what will affect what. There is not a ton of work focusing on what the nature of the social world is. People kind of assume that the nature of the social world is fairly straightforward. There are people, they have different thoughts, they take actions and interact with each other and that is what it means to be part of society. It is becoming increasingly clear that we need a more detailed investigation into the nature of the social world. Part of my aim of creating this book was to build a foundation to learn more about this and how this may apply to the social sciences.

TD: You said you have a two year old. How do you think having a young child affects your job and thinking about philosophy?

BE: It slows it way down. When you think about the social world, there are many different parts. One part is the different social groups and how they interact, another part is the concept of money,  [another is] the nature of gender or race. All of these are social constructs. The heart of my work is to understand these. One part of that is thinking about cognition; so how do groups think, how do they act, when do they bear responsibility for those actions. So, for example we could say “Facebook bears responsibility for its effect on American politics.” What does it mean to say that Facebook bears responsibility? There’s a kind of overlap between those interested in the social world and those interested in cognition. Tufts has a historical strength in the field of cognitive science, largely spearheaded by Daniel Dennett. I’ve also been working on thinking about cognition, mainly social cognition. But cognition is a broad field, and one of the things most fascinating about seeing a baby growing up is thinking about the development of cognitive systems. This has complemented my teaching, particularly on that side. 

TD: What aspects of Tufts excite you most?

BE: It’s the quality of the department and the quality of the students. The Tufts philosophy department has a great history. We have had the best master’s program in philosophy for a long time, so it is a very distinguished department. It is also a very research-friendly department. One of the most exciting things we do is teach seminars on our latest research. Every year, even when I’ve taught courses repeatedly, students bring new ideas.

TD: What do you hope to accomplish at Tufts?

BE: The longer you go in your career, the more you realize many opportunities come up contingently that you never would have anticipated. I have the ideas and basic material for several different books that I am interested in writing. There are several things that are in the works but it is very hard to know if other things will come up. One of the projects I’ve been working hardest on is thinking about what an institution is and how we can design policies to intervene [in] and improve these institutions. I want to keep working on these interesting topics and try to integrate these into my teaching and keep students excited. I want to teach things that are going to be useful for students in the long-term, teach them to think critically and analytically.