IDIL ÇAKMUR

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About 
link to CV

contact: 
idilcak[at]sas.upenn[dot]edu
I’m a Philosophy Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania, originally from Istanbul, Turkey. Before Penn, I studied Philosophy and Economics at Brown and briefly lived in New York as a “Chief Utopia Officer”--my favorite title yet.

Other than philosophy, I like to read fiction, watch films, and change haircuts often, apparently.



Research
Areas of interest: 
ethics, aesthetics, philosophy of mind, feminist philosophy


I’m curious about how we build a shared social world if we accept that we all live in “partly private, partly fabricated world”s, as Iris Murdoch would describe it. Especially nowadays, it’s hard to do justice to the difficulties in understanding one another and in embarking on joint projects, like a political community, if we underestimate the genuine and significant differences in how we each see the world. I approach these questions in my work by thinking about the interplay between our concepts and our perspectives.

work on Murdoch

Improving a Perspective: Murdoch’s Truth-Seeking Imagination (draft) draws on Murdoch’s account of the imagination and resources from Elisabeth Camp’s work to spell out the ways Murdoch thinks we come to improve our perspectives.

Losing a Perspective (draft) uses Murdoch’s concerns about egoism to develop a new account of empathy, where before we can learn of others’ perspectives, we have to lose our own. 

work on concepts

The Place for Conceptual Work in Moral Life (draft) sketches out the space for “conceptual work”, where an individual works to get a better grasp of their concepts, and its potential significance in our lives.

work on aesthetics

Ethics of Body Aesthetics (draft) develops a new critique of our conventional body beauty practices as being deficient not only morally, but as aesthetic practices. 

Joking as a Guide to Politics (draft) explores the structural similarities of environments conducive to joking and to political discussion to draw lessons from the former for the latter. 

Public Philosophy
I was a Marc Sanders 2024 Media Fellow in Longform Writing and a resident in the Matthew Strother Center for Examined Life in 2025. I’m currently a Philosopher in Residence at a local high school in Philadelphia.

In the past, I’ve received a grant from Effective Ideas for blog writing and a political theory fellowship from the Hudson Institute. 

In my public facing work, I’m interested in exploring the things that concern individuals in their daily thinking of themselves, especially emotions, aspirations, and interpersonal relationships. I’m currently working on,

A Guide to Impolite Conversation: an essay about breaking norms in conversation to build connection, in Psyche.

The Good Unintended: reconsidering the good of breakups by turning to Plato and Iris Murdoch.