Research

My recent research projects include the metaphysics of ordinary objects, mereology, mental fictionalism, and material plentitude. My paper “The Lump Sum: a Theory of Modal Parts” (2019) was recently published in Philosophical Papers, “The Polysemy of ‘Part’ ” (2019) was recently published in Synthese, and my “Counterexamples and Common Sense: When (not) to Tollens a Ponens” is forthcoming in Analysis Reviews. I recently gave a paper “Deflating Mental Fictionalism” in Budapest, Hungary for a conference on Mental Fictionalism. In the spring 2020, I’ll be presenting a paper “Modal Parts and Plentitude” at a workshop on material plentitude at the University of Texas at Austin.

 

Published: 

  1. “The Polysemy of ‘part‘” Synthese – Special Issue: Mereology and Identity (online 2019).  DRAFT
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  2. “The Lump Sum A Theory of Modal Parts” Philosophical Papers (online 2019).
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  3. “The Haecceitic Euthyphro problem” co-authored with Jason Bowers, in Analysis 78(1): 13-22 (2018).
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  4. “Saving Mental Fictionalism from Cognitive Collapse” in Res Philosophica 93(2): 405-424 (2016)
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  5. “Rearming the Slingshot?” Acta Analytica 30(3): 283-292 (2015).
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  6. “Composition as Identity, Mereological Essentialism, and Modal Parts” in Composition as Identity, eds. Donald Baxter and Aaron Cotnoir, OUP (2014).
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  7. “The Argument from Vagueness from Modal Parts” in dialectica vol. 68 (3): 355-373 (2014).
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  8. “Counterparts and Compositional Nihilism: A Reply to A. J. Cotnoir” in Thought: A Journal of Philosophy vol. 2 (3): 242-247 (2013).
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  9. “Composition as Identity: Part 1” in Philosophy Compass vol. 6(11): 804-816 (2011).
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  10. “Composition as Identity: Part 2 ” in Philosophy Compass vol. 6(11): 817-827 (2011)

 

In progress or abandoned:

Counterexamples and Commonsense: When (Not) to Tollens a Ponens – DRAFT – in progress

Modal Parts and Ontological Disagreement about Ordinary Objects – DRAFT -in progress

Deflating Mental Fictionalism: A Lesson in Metalinguistic Negotiation – DRAFT – in progress

Physicalism and Compositional Pluralism – in progress

Modal Parts, Polysemy, and Ontological Disagreement – in progress

Mental Fictionalism (2007) – abandoned