Research Interests

My interests center on the history and philosophy of logic as well as the ramifications of, and prospects for, what might be dubbed a 'logic first' approach to metaphysics, epistemology, the natural sciences, morality, aesthetics, and politics.  Kant's philosophy is an exemplar of such an approach.  I have an ongoing project working on understanding how Kant conceived of logic and how he thinks a priori knowledge grounds the objectivity of experience. More recently I've begun examining Bertrand Russell’s conception of space in his early book, An Essay on the Foundations of Geometry. 

Courses Taught, Academic Years 2019-24

• PHIL 490: Senior Seminar, Kants Moral Philosophy
• PHIL 509: Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason 
  
• PHIL 503: History of Analytic Philosophy
• PHIL 501: British Empiricism
• PHIL 390: Jr. Seminar, The Philosophers of Lightness and Weight - Calvino, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Weil, and Dostoevsky
  
• PHIL 372 (writing): History of Modern Philosophy
• PHIL 102: Introduction to Philosophy 

Selected Publications

• "Not quite yet a hazy limbo of mystery: Intuition in Russell's An Essay on the  Foundations of Geometry." Mind. Forthcoming.
• “The Formality of Kant's Logic and Consciousness of Logical Laws.” In The Palgrave Handbook for German Idealism and Analytic Philosophy. Ed. by Jonas Held and James Conant. Forthcoming.
• “The Doctrine of Internal Relations: Russell’s 1897 Rejection.” In Early Analytic Philosophy: Essays on its Origins and Transformation. Ed. by Giliad Nir and James Conant. Forthcoming.
• “Kant on Plants: Self-Activity, Representations, and the Analogy with Life.” Philosopher’s Imprint. Volume 21, No. 11, May, pages 1-30, 2021.
• “Kant on Vital Forces and the Analogy with Life.” In Proceedings of the 13th International Kant Congress ‘The Court of Reason’ (Oslo, 6-9 August 2019) ed. by Camilla Serck-Hanssen and Beatrix Himmelmann. Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter. Vol 2, pages 961-972. 2021.
• “Kant, Frege, and the Normativity of Logic: MacFarlane's Argument for Common Ground.” European Journal of Philosophy. Volume 24, Issue 4, December, pages 988-1009. 2021.
• “Review of Huaping Lu-Adler, Kant and the Science of Logic: A Historical and Philosophical Reconstruction.” Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy, Volume 8, Number 7, pages 17-31. 2020.
• 'Logical Mistakes Logical Aliens and the Laws of Kants Pure General Logic',  Mind, 2019.
  • Won the American Philosophical Association, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Prize (2019)
• 'Modeling Unicorns and Dead Cats:  Applying Bressans MLv to the Necessary Properties
  of Nonexistent Objects', Journal of Philosophical Logic , 95-121, 2018.
• 'Definitions of Kant's Categories', Canadian Journal of Philosophy: Supplemental Volume
  on Mathematics in Kant's Critical Philosophy, 44 (5-6): 631-657, 2014.

Recent and Upcoming Presentations

• “The Fall of Intuition and the Contradiction of Relativity: Russell’s 1897, ‘On the Relations of Number and Quantity’”
  •  Wesleyan University and University of Connecticut. Annual meeting of the Society for the History of Analytical Philosophy. Summer 2024
  • American Philosophical Association, Central Division. Winter 2024
• “Not Quite Yet a Hazy Limbo of Mystery: Intuition in Russell's The Foundations of Geometry” 
  • Colloquium talk, Metropolitan State University of Denver. Spring 2024
  • University of Notre Dame, Midwest Philosophy of Mathematics Workshop. Fall 2023*
  • Colloquium talk, Auburn University. Fall 2023
  • Chung Cheng University. Chiayi, Taiwan. Summer 2023
  • University of Illinois, Chicago. Philosophy of Mathematics in the Aristotelean Tradition. Spring, 2023
  • University of Pittsburgh. Logic, Truth, and Objecthood: A celebration of Tom Ricketts' work in the history of analytic philosophy. Fall 2022
• Comment on Tyler Olsson’s “Concept Acquisition and Heidegger’s Adaptation of Kant’s Aesthetics,” Furman University, the Southern Aesthetics Workshop V. Fall 2023
• Critic for “Author Meets Critics: Daniel Sutherland, Kant's Mathematical World.” Pacific APA, San Francisco, CA. Spring, 2023
• “The Twilight of Intuition and Russell’s Early Hylomorphism: Space in his Foundations of Geometry”
  • Shanxi University, China (On Zoom). Society for the Study of the History of Analytical Philosophy (SSHAP). Summer 2022*
  • UC Irvine. Contributed paper. Biennial Congress of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science (HOPOS). Summer 2022*
  • McMaster University. Bertrand Russell Society Annual Meeting. Summer 2022*