Professional Bio
My work began from methodological questions in the foundations of set theory, especially how new axioms can be properly criticized or defended. This focused inquiry has led to more general questions in the metaphysics and epistemology of mathematics and logic, and the relations of these subjects to natural science. Progress on all this seemed to me to require some attention to the methodology of philosophy itself; I’ve been especially interested in varieties of naturalism, including one I call ‘second philosophy’, but also logical positivism, ordinary language philosophy and its descendants, various ‘therapeutic’ approaches, conceptual analysis, etc. — and in radical skepticism as a diagnostic tool for comparing and contrasting these schools of meta-philosophical thought. This is coupled with historical interest in such figures as Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Reid, Kant, Frege, Wittgenstein, Moore, Austin, Carnap and Quine. (CV. 3AM.)
These interests are reflected in recent seminars:
- Wittgenstein — Fall 2018/Winter 2019
- Philosophy of Mathematics — Fall 2017/Winter 2018
- Philosophy of Set Theory — Fall 2016/Winter 2017
- Theory of Vision — Fall 2015/Winter 2016
- Primary and Secondary Qualities — Fall 2014/Winter 2015
- Skepticism — Fall 2013/Winter 2014
- Conceptual Analysis — Fall 2012/Winter 2013
- Philosophy of Perception — Fall 2011/Winter 2012
- Philosophy of Logic — Fall 2010/Winter 2011
- Philosophies of common sense — Fall 2009/Winter 2010
- Defending the Axioms — Winter 2009
- Skepticism, naturalism and therapy — Fall 2007/Winter 2008
- Philosophy of Mathematics — Fall 2006/Winter 2007
- Philosophy of Logic — Fall 2005/Winter 2006
- Word – World Connections — Fall 2004/Winter 2005
- Naturalism — Fall 2003/Winter 2004
- Philosophy of logic — Fall 2002/Winter 2003
- Indeterminacy — Winter 2002
- The role of mathematics in applications — Fall 2001
- Fictionalism — Spring 2001