I am a second year Ph.D. Student in the department of philosophy at The University at BUffalo (SUNY). Currently, my research focuses on the the metaphysics of persons, bioethics, philosophy of science and epistemology.
I received my M.A. in philosophy from the University of Missouri at Saint Louis in 2006. And my B.A. in German and Philosophy from Missouri Southern State University in my hometown of Joplin, Mo in 2004.
Presently, I am teaching three recitation sections of World Civ II (UGC 112) under Dr. William H. Baumer also of the philosophy dept. In the fall I will be teaching Phil 337: Social and Ethical Values in Medicine (Bioethics). My office is in Park Hall 121. My office hours for Fall 2008 are: Mondays 1:30-2:30
Papers in progress
A Dispositional Theory of Composition
The goal of this paper is to present a dispositional theory of composition for physical objects. Previous theories of composition have overlooked the necessary connection between an object’s dispositions and its existence as a unified whole. My theory represents physical objects, whether simples or composites, as wholes unified by
their dispositional states. In what follows, I first develop this view and then respond to some initial objections to it.
Disjunctive Essentialism: A Defense on Behalf of the Categorical Neutralist
This paper defends J.J.E. Gracia's categorical neutralism by introducing the possibility that the shared nature of the categories is such that it can be expressed in terms of a predicative sentence having a disjunction in the third position.
Does Hylomorphism solve Unger's Mental Problem?
In his paper “The Mental Problems of The Many,” Peter Unger puzzles over the intolerable consequences incurred by any materialist account of human persons. If materialism is true, Unger argues, it follows that there are actually billions of thinkers seated just where you are, and thinking just what you are thinking. Unger finds this “experientially explosive” suggestion deep problematic for any “humanly realistic” metaphysics. I propose a hylomorphic response to Unger's mental problem.
Causation And Causal Attributions
[Coming Soon]
In Defense of Skepticism as a Theory of Knowledge
