The Thinker
Nadelhoffer’s true area of expertise: intellectual thought. Because there is no such academic department, he serves as professor of philosophy, but he’s also considered an affiliate faculty member in psychology and neuroscience because his research and courses span all three, with spoonfuls of quantum physics, biology, criminology, chemistry, theology and geometry stirred in. It makes for a delicious intellectual gumbo.
“Most philosophers don’t view the sort of research I do as philosophy,” he says. “Philosophers don’t collect data or run studies.”
Today, his work has achieved a place in the academic canon – and a name: experimental philosophy. His undergraduate course, Psychopathology and the Law, is a rollicking serpentine through the dense forest of mental illness, criminality, intent and punishment. The class explores the meaning of insanity and what makes people morally responsible for criminal acts.
Another Nadelhoffer offering is Contemporary Moral Issues, where students navigate a broad swath of topics – the death penalty, euthanasia, abortion, foreign aid and more – through a philosophical lens.
The course begins with a video showing a physically healthy 81-year-old Belgian woman in a retirement community committing assisted suicide after her daughter dies and she loses her reason to live. “We start with that topic because students have no preexisting intuition about it,” he notes, “and students struggle with her decision.”
Even as an undergrad, Nadelhoffer gravitated toward philosophers like William James, Nietzsche, Hume and Wittgenstein who were interested in the psychology of philosophy – that is, the psychological dispositions and traits that drive our philosophical intuitions.
His doctoral dissertation at Florida State University studied how criminal law regulates criminal responsibility, focusing on outcomes, in contrast to philosophy, which is more interested in intent. Why, for example, is attempted murder a lesser crime than murder when the intent is the same? Are we rewarding incompetence?
Tattooed and earringed, Nadelhoffer is no mere intellectual. A former wrestler, he has a black belt in Brazilian jiujitsu, which he claims is the titan of martial arts because it maximizes the geometry of violence. Mentally and physically absorbing, it’s the perfect antidote for professional thinkers, he says.
But the brain of a professional thinker can’t shut down for long. During the pandemic, Nadelhoffer amused himself by cogitating on the musical interconnections that built various rock ’n’ roll subgenres, starting with their roots in early blues.
Tracing each sound backward, he produced a chronology of albums shaping the punk genre. That led to similar forays into doom, thrash and grunge, with reggae next on the list.
What kind of person embarks on such a nerd-out venture? “A crazy person,” he admits. “It’s a mountain of work to satisfy my own curiosity.”