Jesse Hill
Biographic Data
| ID | 3874669 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jesse Hill |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jesse |
| FAMILY NAME | Hill |
| SIGNATURE | HILL J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Tulane University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6095-2984 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 2 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 18 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
An Account of Luck, Fortune, and Fate
Luck is one of our most important concepts. In this article, I first argue that extant accounts of luck are deeply flawed. I then argue for a hybrid account of luck that is based around the difference between skill‐based and non‐skill‐based events. This distinction helps us understand the relationships between luck, (mis)fortune, non‐agential chance, and fate. My account can also make sense of several difficult cases—for example, fair versus rigg…
Ennius Beyond Epic
Varro’s Menippean Ennius
Against received opinion, this chapter argues that Ennius does not primarily figure as a stalwart of ancient Roman values within Varro’s Menippean Satires : the Ennius of these understudied late-republican texts is rather a boldly experimental and multiform poet, a model for Varro’s own modernist project. Particular attention is paid to Varro’s Bimarcus , in which a “new” fragment of Ennius’ Saturae is tentatively discovered.
Ennius pinxit, or What a Difference a Letter Makes (Epigr. 1 V.)
This article argues that Ennius wrote pinxit not panxit in the pentameter of Epigr . 1 V. Along the way, it draws attention to Ennius’ love of metaphor and shows how, when we read the right verb, the imagery of his epigram becomes both coherent and meaningful
On a whim
Whims are philosophically interesting and play a role in debates concerning free will, luck, and responsibility. However, philosophers have had little to say about what whims are. One exception is Lackey (Australas J Philos 86(2): 255–267, 2008) who argues that some whimsical events are counterexamples to the modal account of luck and that whimsical decisions can be modally robust. I argue that these claims are false. I also give an account of wh…
Does contract surrogacy undermine gender equality
Some feminists hold that surrogacy contracts should be unenforceable or illegal because they contribute to and perpetuate unjust gender inequalities. I argue that in developed countries, surrogacy contracts either wouldn't have these negative effects or that these effects could be mitigated via regulation. Furthermore, the existence of a regulated surrogacy market is preferable on consequentialist grounds
Pandemic Rule-Breakers, Moral Luck, and Blaming the Blameworthy
This paper takes under consideration a piece by Roger Crisp in which he questions what the problem of moral luck can teach us about COVID-19 lockdown rule-breakers. Taking the position that although such rule-breakers might seem to be new examples of moral luck, Crisp ends up denying the existence of moral luck and argues that moral luck is an outdated notion in so far as it relies on other questionable aspects of morality, that is, retributivist…
What’s wrong with virtue signaling
What's Luck Got to do with the Luck Pincer
Luck skepticism is the view that no one is ever morally responsible for anything because of the nature and ubiquity of luck. One acclaimed argument in favor of this view is Neil Levy's luck pincer. The luck pincer holds that all morally significant acts or events involve either present luck, constitutive luck, or both and that present and constitutive luck each negate moral responsibility. Therefore, no one is ever morally responsible for any act…
On Luck and Modality
On luck and significance
The Myth of Luck
Steven Hales’ book is a work of popular philosophy that covers a wide range of topics from the Myth of Er to the Pixar film Finding Nemo. A merit of the book is that it is easy to read. My review will focus on the main philosophical thesis of the book, that is, that ‘luck is no more than a persistent and troubling illusion. There is no such thing as luck’ (p. 1). Luck is typically defined in terms of two necessary and jointly sufficient condition…
Does folk disagreement about ambiguous lucky cases warrant an error theory? A response to Hales and Johnson
Steven Hales and Jennifer Johnson—building off their (2014) work as well as Hales (2015, 2016)—have recently conducted two studies in Philosophical Psychology (2018) that show that there is a relationship between optimism and folk assessments of luck. Hales and Johnson use these results to argue that there is no such thing as luck. Instead, they claim that the concept is highly subjective and a cognitive illusion and that what we are in need of i…
True Friendship
This paper offers a new reading of Catullus's last poem. It argues against the current consensus that Catullus therein parodies both his recipient Gellius and his predecessor Ennius as hackish "anti-Callimacheans." Catullus 116 is rather, on the literal level, an indignant complaint to a false friend and fellow neoteric poet; and, on the figurative level, a programmatic statement of its author's Ennian-Callimachean poetics. To Catullus and his ad…
A Neglected Manuscript of the Glossary of Placidus and the History of the Text
This paper identifies a neglected manuscript, Viterbo, Centro Diocesano di Documentazione (CeDiDo), Capitolare 51 ( R ), as the extant archetype of the Libri Romani version of the glossary of Placidus. It first demonstrates that R is the parent of the three witnesses to the Libri Romani text used by editors, and it considers the implications of the neglected manuscript for future editions of the text. It then corroborates the importance of R by t…
Cicero and the Early Latin Poets by Hannah Čulík-Baird
Reviewed by: Cicero and the Early Latin Poets by Hannah Čulík-Baird Jesse Hill Cicero and the Early Latin Poets. By Hannah Čulík-Baird. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2022. Pp. 306. Cicero has long been pillaged for his quotations of early Latin poetry, with editors from Stephanus to Skutsch digging precious scraps of republican verse out from the orator's prose, setting the former in big print in their editions of Ennius and relegating […
Ennius Noster
BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 335 with the concerns of the separate homicide courts, where both litigants and witnesses had to swear that their side’s case was true. Her speculative explanation is that the homicide laws, which were the oldest in Athens, were enacted primarily to replace retaliatory murders (the common response to homicide before written laws) and thus had to produce verdicts that were factually credible to the victim’s relatives. W…
Ennius' Annals
160 PHOENIX a discipline. Moore finds this transformation apparent when Aristotle in Metaphysics A offers a history of thinkers who, beginning with Thales, investigate the first principles of everything, by testing and revising others’ views on the same question. Aristotle places himself into the lineage of this pursuit of sophia, and so philosophia changes from an other-applied label to a self-described membership. Though our sense of philosophi…
Urban Compost Attracts Coyotes, Contains Toxins, and may Promote Disease in Urban-Adapted Wildlife
Urban Compost Attracts Coyotes, Contains Toxins, and may Promote Disease in Urban-Adapted Wildlife
Ennius Noster
BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 335 with the concerns of the separate homicide courts, where both litigants and witnesses had to swear that their side’s case was true. Her speculative explanation is that the homicide laws, which were the oldest in Athens, were enacted primarily to replace retaliatory murders (the common response to homicide before written laws) and thus had to produce verdicts that were factually credible to the victim’s relatives. W…
Ennius' Annals
160 PHOENIX a discipline. Moore finds this transformation apparent when Aristotle in Metaphysics A offers a history of thinkers who, beginning with Thales, investigate the first principles of everything, by testing and revising others’ views on the same question. Aristotle places himself into the lineage of this pursuit of sophia, and so philosophia changes from an other-applied label to a self-described membership. Though our sense of philosophi…
Does folk disagreement about ambiguous lucky cases warrant an error theory? A response to Hales and Johnson
Steven Hales and Jennifer Johnson—building off their (2014) work as well as Hales (2015, 2016)—have recently conducted two studies in Philosophical Psychology (2018) that show that there is a relationship between optimism and folk assessments of luck. Hales and Johnson use these results to argue that there is no such thing as luck. Instead, they claim that the concept is highly subjective and a cognitive illusion and that what we are in need of i…
True Friendship
This paper offers a new reading of Catullus's last poem. It argues against the current consensus that Catullus therein parodies both his recipient Gellius and his predecessor Ennius as hackish "anti-Callimacheans." Catullus 116 is rather, on the literal level, an indignant complaint to a false friend and fellow neoteric poet; and, on the figurative level, a programmatic statement of its author's Ennian-Callimachean poetics. To Catullus and his ad…
A Neglected Manuscript of the Glossary of Placidus and the History of the Text
This paper identifies a neglected manuscript, Viterbo, Centro Diocesano di Documentazione (CeDiDo), Capitolare 51 ( R ), as the extant archetype of the Libri Romani version of the glossary of Placidus. It first demonstrates that R is the parent of the three witnesses to the Libri Romani text used by editors, and it considers the implications of the neglected manuscript for future editions of the text. It then corroborates the importance of R by t…
Cicero and the Early Latin Poets by Hannah Čulík-Baird
Reviewed by: Cicero and the Early Latin Poets by Hannah Čulík-Baird Jesse Hill Cicero and the Early Latin Poets. By Hannah Čulík-Baird. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2022. Pp. 306. Cicero has long been pillaged for his quotations of early Latin poetry, with editors from Stephanus to Skutsch digging precious scraps of republican verse out from the orator's prose, setting the former in big print in their editions of Ennius and relegating […
What's Luck Got to do with the Luck Pincer
Luck skepticism is the view that no one is ever morally responsible for anything because of the nature and ubiquity of luck. One acclaimed argument in favor of this view is Neil Levy's luck pincer. The luck pincer holds that all morally significant acts or events involve either present luck, constitutive luck, or both and that present and constitutive luck each negate moral responsibility. Therefore, no one is ever morally responsible for any act…
On Luck and Modality
On luck and significance
The Myth of Luck
Steven Hales’ book is a work of popular philosophy that covers a wide range of topics from the Myth of Er to the Pixar film Finding Nemo. A merit of the book is that it is easy to read. My review will focus on the main philosophical thesis of the book, that is, that ‘luck is no more than a persistent and troubling illusion. There is no such thing as luck’ (p. 1). Luck is typically defined in terms of two necessary and jointly sufficient condition…
Pandemic Rule-Breakers, Moral Luck, and Blaming the Blameworthy
This paper takes under consideration a piece by Roger Crisp in which he questions what the problem of moral luck can teach us about COVID-19 lockdown rule-breakers. Taking the position that although such rule-breakers might seem to be new examples of moral luck, Crisp ends up denying the existence of moral luck and argues that moral luck is an outdated notion in so far as it relies on other questionable aspects of morality, that is, retributivist…
What’s wrong with virtue signaling
Does contract surrogacy undermine gender equality
Some feminists hold that surrogacy contracts should be unenforceable or illegal because they contribute to and perpetuate unjust gender inequalities. I argue that in developed countries, surrogacy contracts either wouldn't have these negative effects or that these effects could be mitigated via regulation. Furthermore, the existence of a regulated surrogacy market is preferable on consequentialist grounds
Ennius Beyond Epic
Varro’s Menippean Ennius
Against received opinion, this chapter argues that Ennius does not primarily figure as a stalwart of ancient Roman values within Varro’s Menippean Satires : the Ennius of these understudied late-republican texts is rather a boldly experimental and multiform poet, a model for Varro’s own modernist project. Particular attention is paid to Varro’s Bimarcus , in which a “new” fragment of Ennius’ Saturae is tentatively discovered.
Ennius pinxit, or What a Difference a Letter Makes (Epigr. 1 V.)
This article argues that Ennius wrote pinxit not panxit in the pentameter of Epigr . 1 V. Along the way, it draws attention to Ennius’ love of metaphor and shows how, when we read the right verb, the imagery of his epigram becomes both coherent and meaningful
On a whim
Whims are philosophically interesting and play a role in debates concerning free will, luck, and responsibility. However, philosophers have had little to say about what whims are. One exception is Lackey (Australas J Philos 86(2): 255–267, 2008) who argues that some whimsical events are counterexamples to the modal account of luck and that whimsical decisions can be modally robust. I argue that these claims are false. I also give an account of wh…
An Account of Luck, Fortune, and Fate
Luck is one of our most important concepts. In this article, I first argue that extant accounts of luck are deeply flawed. I then argue for a hybrid account of luck that is based around the difference between skill‐based and non‐skill‐based events. This distinction helps us understand the relationships between luck, (mis)fortune, non‐agential chance, and fate. My account can also make sense of several difficult cases—for example, fair versus rigg…
Philosophy (12 works) · Epistemology (9 works) · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics (8 works) · Free Will and Agency (8 works) · Luck (7 works) · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment (6 works) · Psychology (5 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Art (4 works) · Classical Antiquity Studies (4 works)