Research

My primary research interests include the metaphysics of ordinary objects, mereology, mental fictionalism, and material plenitude.

I am currently working on a monograph (under contract) with Cambridge University Press as part of their Elements series called Parts and Wholes: Spatial to Modal. It is a brief survey of various views of composition and mereology as a lead up to – and defense of – a theory of modal parts of ordinary objects.

I recently gave a paper “Deflating Mental Fictionalism” in Budapest, Hungary for a conference on Mental Fictionalism. That paper, along with an updated draft of my  unpublished manuscript “Mental Fictionalism” (2007) are planned for publication in a volume on Mental Fictionalism (Routledge).

Some of my recent publications include: “Counterexamples and Common Sense: When (not) to Tollens a Ponens” in Analysis (2020), “The Lump Sum: a Theory of Modal Parts” Philosophical Papers (2019), and “The Polysemy of ‘Part'” Synthese (2019).  In the spring 2020, I had planned to present “Modal Parts and Plenitude” at a workshop on material plenitude at the University of Texas at Austin. This intended talk is related to some other works in progress that I hope to present live and in the real world, as soon as (if) things get back to normal-ish.

 

Published: 

  1. Counterexamples and Commonsense: When (Not) to Tollens a Ponens Analysis 80(3): 544-558 (2020)
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  2. “The Polysemy of ‘part‘” Synthese – Special Issue: Mereology and Identity (2019).
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  3. “The Lump Sum: A Theory of Modal Parts” Philosophical Papers (2019).
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  4. “The Haecceitic Euthyphro problem” co-authored with Jason Bowers, in Analysis 78(1): 13-22 (2018).
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  5. “Saving Mental Fictionalism from Cognitive Collapse” in Res Philosophica 93(2): 405-424 (2016)
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  6. “Rearming the Slingshot?” Acta Analytica 30(3): 283-292 (2015).
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  7. “Composition as Identity, Mereological Essentialism, and Modal Parts” in Composition as Identity, eds. Donald Baxter and Aaron Cotnoir, OUP (2014).
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  8. “The Argument from Vagueness from Modal Parts” in dialectica vol. 68 (3): 355-373 (2014).
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  9. “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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  10. “Composition as Identity: Part 1” in Philosophy Compass vol. 6(11): 804-816 (2011).
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  11. “Composition as Identity: Part 2 ” in Philosophy Compass vol. 6(11): 817-827 (2011)

 

Forthcoming/Under Contract/In Various Stages of Progress:

Parts and Wholes: Spatial to Modal – manuscript in progress – under contract (Cambridge University Press)

“Deflating Mental Fictionalism?” – in progress – forthcoming volume Mental Fictionalism (Routledge)

“Mental Fictionalism” (draft) – working on an update for a forthcoming volume Mental Fictionalism (Routledge)

“Modal Parts and Material Plenitude” – in progress

“Immortality and Endless Possibilities: Being All that You Can Be” – in progress

Modal Parts and Ontological Disagreement about Ordinary Objects (draft) -in progress/possibly abandoned