Areas of Specialization:
Philosophy of Language and Metaphysics
With philosophy of language and metaphysics,
I am primarily interested in language-world relations, particularly
as they inform the possibility of alternative conceptual schemes.
Among other things, I am interested in issues concerning
the language-relativity of ontology; however, I don't believe
what I would call "extreme forms" of ontological or conceptual relativity are viable
(for example, some of Quine's and Putnam's views).
My work on Wittgenstein and Putnam has lead me to metametaphysical
questions concerning the nature of metaphysical and ontological
disputes. Further, I pursue issues concerning
philosophical methodology, specifically in regard to the extent to which
philosophy is, or can be, an empirical, as opposed to armchair, discipline.
Areas of Competence: Ethics, Logic, and
the History of Western Philosophy
With ethics I am particularly interested in issues
concerning cognitivism and noncogntivism, i.e., concerning whether
ethical judgments have truth-values; and I am also interested in ethical subjectivism and
relativism. Further, I am deeply interested in the question of what
constitutes the good life and the nature of the relationships between ethics, the
good life, philosophy, and religion. Part of that deep
interest compels me to think seriously about Nietzsche, his work on the question
of values, and the role and nature of suffering in human existence.
Concerning the history of Western philosophy, I am particularly interested in the development of philosophical methodology (e.g., the ways in which philosophy has been an a priori to an a posteriori discipline). Further, I am fascinated by what we have to learn by studying the ways in which philosophical ideas are transformed as they move through the minds and lives of people who are themselves transformed both by those ideas and the historical context of their lives.
Statement of Teaching Philosophy
Sample Work and Work in Progress
Conceptual Relativity and the Intelligibility of Metaphysical Realism
MA Thesis: Wittgenstein's Conception of the Autonomy of Language and its Implications for Natural Kinds *
Wherefore the Failure of Private Ostension?
Against a Uniform Understanding of Truth
* My MA Thesis was written seven or so years ago. Since then, I have come to think that its greatest weaknesses are that it doesn't respect the autonomy of the Philosophical Investigations, its continuity and discontinuity with his Nachlass, and the thesis is too dogmatic in attributing certain views to Wittgenstein.