Pascal Ally

- “Action, Reason and Will” (PhD Thesis): this project seeks to understand human behaviour in two of its most important dimensions: the intentional dimension and the normative dimension. Intentional behaviour is presumably the standard form of human behaviour. Minimally, we do something intentionally when we do it by our own will. As such, intentional action is the action of the person as a whole, and not of some sub-personal mechanism or some psychological subsystem operating independently inside the person. And because they are actions of the whole person, intentional actions are behaviours that are typically amenable to certain characteristic sorts of evaluations (e.g. social, legal, prudential or moral), or behaviours for which a person is answerable in distinctive ways. This implication of intentionality suggests that human behaviour is subject to certain norms. Indeed, we often wonder what we have reason (or ought) to do under our present circumstances, or whether there is a reason to be in a particular mental state (worry, fear, anger or joy) that we or others are in; and we generally assume that there are things people have no reason to do under any circumstances. But what is the source of our reasons to act (or be) one way rather than another? And what makes an instance of human behaviour an intentional action? My thesis attempts to address these questions about the intentional and normative dimensions of human behaviour, with a particular focus on how deeply (if at all) these dimensions relate to each other.
- Philosophy of action and moral philosophy: In this area, I work on the intentional and the normative dimensions of human behaviour. Regarding the intentional dimension, I
investigate the nature of intentional action, including the relation between acting intentionally, acting for reasons and acting under the guise of the good. And concerning the normative dimension, I investigate the foundations of normative reasons for action and the putative conflict between two classes of normative reasons: moral reasons (morality) and prudential reasons (self-interest).
- Philosophy and literature: In this area, I have written and published papers on the relation between linguistics and literary criticism, ethics and pleasure in literature, the ethics of divine love in Johannine literature, narrative empathy and narratorial reliability, the probable influence of classical Greek tragedy on Aristotle's poetics, and the theme of revolt in the philosophical and literary writings of Albert Camus.

Publications
1. Ally, P. (Nov. 2014), “Chinua Achebe: The Politics of Re(re)ading the Canon, and the Ethics of Writing Back”, Journal of Oriental and African Studies in Athens, 23, pp. 400-404.
2. Ally, P. (Feb. 2015), “Literature, Ethics, and Pleasure: A Historico-Critical Investigation”, International Journal of Innovation and Scientific Research, 13(2), pp. 644-653.
3. Ally, P. (Feb. 2015), “Qui est l’Homme dans les Droits de l’Homme? Une Réflexion Levinasienne”, International Journal of Innovation and Scientific Research, 13(2), pp. 654-658.
4. Ally, P. (May 2015), “Rethinking Our Students’ Writing About Literature: A Modest Proposal”, Annales de l’UEA, 4(5), pp. 135-143.
5. Ally, P. (June 2015), “Linguistics and Literary Criticism: Shall the Twain Never Meet?” International Journal of Innovation and Scientific Research, 15(2), pp. 473-481.
6. Ally, P. (June 2015), “La Peine Capitale Encore en Question: Une Perspective Existentialiste”, International Journal of Innovation and Scientific Research, 16(1), pp. 95-102.
7. Ally, P. (Sep. 2015), “Flying from the Enchanter: From Narrative Empathy to the Questioning of Narratorial Reliability in A Man of the People”, Journal of Pan-African Studies, 8(6), pp. 17-25.
8. Ally, P. (Sep. 2016), “Back to the Cradle of Tragedy and Theory: Tracing Aristotelian Principles of Dramatic Construction in Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex”, Annales de l’UEA, 5(6), pp. 277-290.
9. Ally, P. (Sep. 2016), “Deus Caritas Est: Divine Love and its Ethico-Spiritual Imperative in the First Letter of Saint John”, Annales de l’UEA, 5(6), pp. 441-451.
10. Ally, P. (2016), “Beyond Critical Reductionism: Reading The Plague alongside The Rebel”, Journal of Camus Studies, pp. 145-164.
11. Ally, P. (Dec. 2016). “Essai d’une Critique Philosophique Africaine de la Déclaration Universelle des Droits de l’Homme”, Journal of Oriental and African Studies in Athens, 25, pp. 262-270.