Research
I am currently working on several projects concerning principles of individuation and the logic of identity:
- My Banting postdoctoral project, "The Principle of Individuation in Leibniz, Kant, and Contemporary Philosophy" investigates one of the most fundamental questions in metaphysics: in virtue of what is something an individual object? The project undertakes a close study of the principle of individuation in Leibniz's and Kant's work and seeks to extract lessons from their debate for contemporary metaphysical inquiry.
- Together with Beau Madison Mount , I am working on a paper exploring metaphysical systems that deny Leibniz's Law.
- My dissertation, "Ontological Nihilism and Existential Commitment," undertakes a systematic investigation of ontological nihilism, the view that it is not the case that individuals are part of the basic fabric of the world. It develops a form of feature-placing metaphysics, provides an account of the language suitable for this metaphysics, and argues that this view is well-motivated. For more information, see my dissertation abstract.
- My paper, "A Language for Ontological Nihilism," recently appeared in Ergo. In it, I defend predicate-functorese nihilism against the charge that it inherits the commitments of the corresponding theory in standard predicate logic.
- I'm also interested in issues concerning the fineness of grain of reality. For a draft of some work-in-progress on this, see here.
- In addition, I have published a critical response, 'Versteckte Zahlen,' to Katharina Felka's Talking about Numbers: Easy Arguments for Mathematical Realism in the Zeitschrift für philosophische Forschung (2016) (German)
- Tobias Rosefeldt and I have published two articles on Markus Gabriel's 'new realism' as part of a series concerned with critical engagement with the work of contemporary philosophers in the Philosophisches Jahrbuch (2015 and 2016).