I’m a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Extending New Narratives in the History of Philosophy project at McGill University.
I work on issues in epistemology, methodology, and the philosophy of science, with a focus on their development in the history of analytic philosophy.
I received my PhD in Philosophy from the University of California, Irvine (June 2024), after completing an MA in Philosophy at Brandeis University and a BFA in Studio Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Before finding my way to philosophy, I wrote on internet-influenced art in New York.
I’m also the Project Manager for the New Voices in the History of Philosophy podcast and an Editorial Assistant at the Journal for the History of Analytical Philosophy.
Susan Stebbing (1885–1943) was a pivotal figure in early analytic philosophy.
Our volume, the first to be devoted exclusively to Stebbing’s philosophy, aims to bring her back into focus, showing why she mattered then and why she matters now.
Introduction PDF •
OUP •
Amazon
I advance a new interpretation of Moore’s famous proof of an external world. Drawing on unpublished archival material, I show that its apparent circularity reflects Moore’s effort to come to terms with an additional “fourth condition” on proof—beyond validity, truth, and knowledge of the premises—namely, its capacity to establish new knowledge rather than merely restate what is already known.
I raise two worries about Bergmann’s “autodidactic” method. I then use his view to highlight the limits of rational argument and contrast it with an alternative that also emphasizes the personal nature of philosophical inquiry while remaining more neutral regarding the rational standing of competing intuitions.
This is my contribution to a workshop on Michael Bergmann’s Radical Skepticism and Epistemic Intuition held at Arizona State University on December 7, 2024.
We argue that philosophy progresses much like science—despite deep disagreements—because many disputes remain evidence-responsive within shared intra-theoretical frameworks.
In Attitude in Philosophy, eds. S. Goldberg and M. Walker.
I reexamine the relationship between Stebbing and Moore on common sense, showing that Stebbing’s account is both more distinct from and more indebted to Moore’s than scholars recognize. I argue that their key divergence lies in what I call Stebbing’s unity thesis—the view that common-sense and scientific knowledge form a genuine unity—yielding a dynamic position in which common-sense concepts may be clarified or revised by science, but not displaced wholesale.
In Susan Stebbing: Analysis, Common Sense, and Public Philosophy, eds. A. Coliva and L. Doulas.
We distinguish two ways in which one may be led to skepticism about philosophical knowledge. We then introduce an alternative, hinge-theoretic account that promises to recover philosophical knowledge while preserving optimism about philosophical progress.
In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Disagreement, eds. M. Baghramian, J. A. Carter, and R. Rowland.
We argue that pervasive disagreement in philosophy—often taken to motivate skepticism about philosophical knowledge—can be reconciled with the possibility of such knowledge.
Common sense is often thought to withstand even the most sophisticated philosophical proofs. We show why Bryan Frances’s recent argument to the contrary fails and present a dilemma that exposes deeper problems for his attempt to undermine common sense methodology.
I introduce the idea of negative Moorean facts—negative existentials that have the status of Moorean certainties—and show how they complicate certain approaches to settling existence debates.
N. G. Laskowski’s post on Bluesky prompted a detective mission to learn more about Mary Evelyn Clarke. This PDF collects what I have found so far; corrections and additions welcome.
I clarify why Moore’s proof invokes two hands, rather than one. Note: I probably won’t publish this, though feel free to cite.