Search Edit Profile

Colorado College Scholarship Search Database

Helen Daly

Research
Helen is a metaphysician and philosopher of language in the Anglo-American (analytic) tradition. She works on fundamental philosophical research, applied to important issues of our day. For example, she has published work on the application of philosophical theories of vagueness to the practical problem of categorization by sex and gender. The fundamental question there is how to reason logically, using vague categories, but the problem has special urgency in its application to sex and gender. Categorization by sex and/or gender is particularly fraught and so demands particular care; Helen’s approach to the logic of vague categories provides a sensible path forward. She has also recently been engaged in the question of whether eternal damnation is consistent with other tenets of Christianity — an especially important application of metaphysics for many people. Helen’s newest research project is to develop an account of insults that explains how they function as part of human communication, broadly construed. It is a practical application of her novel approach to the study of pragmatics, grounded in Paul Grice’s conversational implicatures. Her hope is that a deeper understanding of insults will lead to better communication and thereby a more civil society.

CC Affiliations