{"id":4,"date":"2022-11-02T18:09:55","date_gmt":"2022-11-03T01:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/james-van-cleve\/?page_id=4"},"modified":"2025-09-18T10:25:25","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T17:25:25","slug":"home","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/james-van-cleve\/","title":{"rendered":"Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Research<\/h1>\n

I spend about half my time on current problems in metaphysics and the philosophy of perception and the other half on the early modern philosophers.\u00a0 My\u00a0book\u00a0Problems from Reid<\/em>, something of a sequel to\u00a0Problems\u00a0from Kant,<\/em><\/a>\u00a0was published in 2015.\u00a0 The historical figure I\u2019m paying most attention to these days is Hume; having written books on philosophers who replied to Hume (Reid and Kant), I\u2019m going back to the\u00a0provocateur<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Among my recent and current projects are the following:<\/p>\n

A paper entitled “Substance and Shadow,” exploring four levels of increasing ontological robustness:\u00a0 nonentities, logical constructions, dependent entities, and substances.\u00a0 This paper appeared in the June 2023 issue of The Review of Metaphysics<\/i>.<\/p>\n

A paper entitled \u201cThere Are No Necessary Connections Between Distinct Existences,\u201d which is one formulation of a dictum often attributed to Hume.\u00a0 I explore its meaning, its basis, and its uses in Hume; the range of its uses in contemporary philosophy and whether they are properly Humean; and some of the reasons for and against thinking the dictum true. This paper appeared in the 2025 issue of Oxford Studies in Metaphysics<\/i>.<\/p>\n

A paper on the philosophical uses and abuses of the location ‘qua’, forthcoming in Philosophy Compass<\/em>.<\/p>\n

A paper on whether we can perceive so-called \u201chigh-level\u201d properties and relations, including causation.<\/p>\n

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Teaching<\/h1>\n

Among the courses I teach at USC are Historical Introduction to Philosophy, Time and Time Travel, History of Modern Philosophy, British Empiricism, and Metaphysics. I have given or co-taught graduate seminars in the philosophy of Thomas Reid, the philosophy of David Hume, the philosophy of A.N. Prior, the philosophy of time, the philosophy of perception, probability and epistemology, mereology, and intentionality.<\/p>\n

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Curriculum Vitae\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0|\u00a0 \u00a0Departmental Webpage<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 Recent Papers<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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\n Contact\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n <\/div>\n \n \n
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Department Office<\/h3>\n \n \n
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Mudd Hall of Philosophy
\n3709 Trousdale Pkwy
\nLos Angeles, CA 90089<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n

\n vancleve@usc.edu<\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":155,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHome - James Van Cleve<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/james-van-cleve\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Home - James Van Cleve\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/james-van-cleve\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James Van Cleve\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-18T17:25:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/james-van-cleve\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/272\/2023\/10\/USC_DCLAS_Building_Details_Mudd_Hall_of_Philosophy_20221020_06-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/james-van-cleve\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/james-van-cleve\/\",\"name\":\"Home - 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