Research

Selected Work

My philosophical work is broadly unified by an interest in the limitations of conceptual resources in helping us make sense of the world. This work demonstrates the ongoing relevance of German Idealist philosophy to contemporary efforts to understand the sources and limitations of our conceptual practices.

Work completed during my doctorate includes scholarship on Kant’s theology and epistemology with a corresponding intervention within contemporary epistemology. The doctoral work focuses on theoretical questions concerning in-principle issues about conceptual practices. I'm currently working on what the early German Idealists (Kant, Fichte, and early Hegel) have to say about the kinds of conceptual practices that are central to moral and political life, with applications to feminist and social theory.

The Totality of the Thinkable, dissertation (completion expected in early 2023)

Five chapters on the theological and epistemological views of Immanuel Kant and related themes within contemporary epistemology. Each of the five chapters addresses a discrete problem related to the idea of the totality of the thinkable, or the idea of a totality of possible concepts. Taken together, these chapters constitute a unified argument that variants of both historical and contemporary 'rationalism' have tacitly appealed to an idea of the totality of the thinkable in a way that raises significant philosophical problems.

The first four chapters of the dissertation explore the way the idea of totality of the thinkable is implicated in Kant’s criticisms of his German rationalist predecessors. These chapters argue that, according to Kant, this idea forms part of a distinctive kind of self-deception through which the mind mis-represents its relationship to reality. Connections to Kant's moral philosophy and Kant's views on Spinoza are also explored. The fifth chapter adapts a version of Kant’s criticisms to apply to appeals to ideal reasoners within contemporary epistemology.

“Kant’s Critical Theory of the Best Possible World”, Kantian Review (2020)

Argues that in the Critical Period, Kant continues to endorse the view that God creates the best possible world; presents an interpretation of what Kant thinks it is for a world to be best-possible according to which best possible worlds are infinite in value.