About Me
Philosophical Persona
I am an old-school systematic metaphysician in a new-school specialized world. I also introduce elements of pragmatism and social justice into high church analytic metaphysics (and vice versa).
General Metaphysics
In general metaphysics,2 my current research project motivates and defends what I call noumenal metaphysics. Noumenal metaphysics is concerned with the metaphysics of entities that, in major ways, depart from the entities that we ordinarily perceive and talk about. Noumenal metaphysics should be distinguished from radically revisionary metaphysics. In the latter case, reality is very different from what we thought it was; this would be the case if monism were true and reality consisted of a single object. Noumenal metaphysics does not necessarily say that reality is different than what we thought it was. The subject matter of noumenal metaphysics consists of things we do not ordinarily talk or think about at all. A noumenal metaphysician might conclude that we are largely correct about reality, but we nonetheless need to give an account of reality*. I use the notion of noumenal metaphysics to resolve issues in debates about idealism, pragmatism, and realism in contemporary metaphysics.
I have also defended pluralism about metaphysical grounding. For more specific examples of my research, see my publications page.
Areas
Areas of Specialization: Metaphysics, Social Ontology
Areas of Competence: Philosophy of Language, Social Philosophy, Logic
Education
Massaschusetts Institute of Technolology | PhD in Philosophy | 2012 - 2017
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | BA in Philosophy | 2008 - 2012
Spirit Animal
The octopus. I have my hands on a lot of things.
Social Ontology
In social ontology,1 I argue for a spatial, scalar theory of social categories. Instead of identifying as men or women, many people now identify as non-binary, agender, or genderqueer. Instead of identifying as gay or straight, many people now identify as bisexual, pansexual, or demisexual. There is an emerging shift away from identifying with the standard binary gender (male/female) and sexual orientation (gay/straight) categories. This shift has frightened some and been a source of confusion for others. My new book presents a new way to understand gender and sexuality beyond the binary categories: the spatial theory. On this view, gender and sexuality are best understood as social spaces that individuals locate themselves within. For a longer summary, see my book page.
More broadly, my work in social ontology explores the idea of social indeterminacy and vagueness. The social world seems vague, at many cases. It is vague whether a certain law applies, whether a certain person counts as eligible to be a member of a group, whether a certain social norm is being obeyed. What do we think of such cases? And what do we do in such cases? My work explores the idea that the social world is really, truly, genuinely, deeply indeterminate.