RESEARCH
Dissertation
In my dissertation, I offer a defense of the value and methodological soundness of metaphysics conceived according to what I refer to as the structural modeling conception. According to the structural modeling conception, the ultimate task of metaphysics is that of uncovering the structure of reality, and the immediate objects of metaphysical inquiry are best understood, not as facts, or propositions, but as candidate models of this worldly structure.
I successfully defended my dissertation in June of 2025.
My dissertation committee consisted of (in alphabetical order): Karen Bennett (Rutgers), Mark Heller (advisor, Syracuse), Josh Hunt (Syracuse), Kris McDaniel (Notre Dame), Erica Shumener (Syracuse), and Scott Watson (chair, Syracuse).
You can read my dissertation online, in its entirety, at the link below:
Works in Progress
I’m always working on some paper or other. Usually I’m working on several at once! Below are some brief descriptions of projects That either exist as complete drafts already, or are substantially underway:
A paper, adapted from the first chapter of my dissertation, in which I explicate and defend a novel conception of metaphysics as characteristically concerned with the construction and comparison of models of worldly structure.
A paper, adapted from the fourth chapter of my dissertation, in which I argue that the results of science indirectly constrain metaphysical theorizing.
A paper in which I argue that scientists’ practice of evaluating theories partly on the basis of aesthetic considerations threatens realism.
A paper in which I propose to clarify a persistent ambiguity in the philosophy of physics literature by means of a (loosely) Kantian-inspired distinction between “two-world” and “two-aspect” realism about the wave function.
A short paper in which I argue against an intuitive-seeming account of the grounds of restrictedly general facts.