Nathan Placencia
MA in Philosophy, UCR
nplacencia@gmail.com

My research focuses on trying to understand what we have become accustomed to referring to as “social identities,” for example, racial and ethnic identities. My interest in social identities is both metaphysical and ethical. I want to know what they are and how they shape our practical lives. Thus, I work on two different theoretical foci. The first has to do with social structures. Here I attempt to explicate how social positions within a group are created by a group. This line of inquiry leads to questions regarding the metaphysics of social reality and the nature of social norms. The second has to do with psychology. Here I attempt to determine the psychology behind the claim that some social positions become part of who we are. This leads me into discussions regarding the nature of human agency, the self, self-knowledge, and what some philosophers of action and moral psychologists refer to as “identification.”