Complete CV (PDF, includes dissertation abstract)
Research Interests
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Language, Philosophical Logic
Areas of Competence
Epistemology, Philosophy of Mind, History of Analytic Philosophy, 20th Century Continental Philosophy
Education
University of Texas, Austin, Fall 2005 - present
Ph.D. Candidate Philosophy (expected graduation date: May 2010)
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Fall 2001 - Summer 2005
M.Phil. Philosophy, Logic and Theory of Science
University of Oxford, Oxford, Fall 2003 - Summer 2004
Visiting Full-Time Undergraduate Student
Dissertation
Modality in Flux
Committee: Nicholas Asher (co-chair), Josh Dever (co-chair), David Beaver, Hans Kamp, Mark Sainsbury
Short Abstract: I develop a novel semantic theory for modals that has important consequences for contemporary work in epistemology, metaphysics and ethics. My theory replaces the dominant view about semantics—that our best theory of meaning should ascribe truth-conditions to modalized sentences—with a non-truth-conditional yet fully compositional semantics for modals. Its contributions to current debates in analytic philosophy include an explanation of the possibility of modal disagreement that avoids relativism, a solution to the paradoxes about conditional obligations (including the gentle murder paradox), and new impulses for a generalized solution to the Frege-Geach problem for noncognitivism.
Publications
Realizing What Might Be, forthcoming in Philosophical Studies
New Surprises for the Ramsey Test, forthcoming in Synthese
Der Wahrheitsbegriff in Martin Heideggers Sein und Zeit, Philosophisches Jahrbuch, 113 (1): 78 - 98, 2006.
Refereed Presentations at APA Meetings
Symposium on New Dynamics for Epistemic Modality
106th Annual Meeting of the APA Eastern Division
New York, December 2009
Colloquium on Visual Perceptions: A Plea for Simple Contents
82nd Annual Meeting of the APA Pacific Division
Pasadena, March 2008
Colloquium on In Defense of the Phenomenal Concept Strategy
81st Annual Meeting of the APA Pacific Division
San Francisco, April 2007
Other Refereed Presentations
New Dynamics for Epistemic Modality
9th NYU/Columbia Graduate Student Philosophy Conference
New York, March 2009
New Surprises for the Ramsey Test
36th Annual Meeting of the Society for Exact Philosophy
Laramie, May 2008
Moore + Ramsey ≠ God
3rd Annual USC/UCLA Graduate Philosophy Conference
Los Angeles, February 2008
Negative Existentials and DRT
35th Annual Meeting of the Society for Exact Philosophy
Vancouver, May 2007
In Defense of the Phenomenal Concept Strategy
MIND 2006
Bristol, UK, June 2006
Selected Comments
Jon Litland's "An Actualist Theory of Properties"
UT Austin Graduate Philosophy Conference
Austin, April 2009
Thony Gillies's "Must …Stay …Strong!"
3rd Annual UT/UNAM Conference
Austin, October 2008
Pedro Stepanenko's "The Pyrrhonean Reports"
2nd Annual UT/UNAM Conference
Mérida, Mexico, October 2007
Shawn Standefer's "Least Common Denominator"
UT Austin Graduate Philosophy Conference
Austin, April 2007
Michael Allers's "‘Bruce’: A Predicate"
UT Austin Graduate Philosophy Conference
Austin, April 2006
Selected Honors
Cogburn Family Foundation Philosophical Prize
University of Texas, Austin, April 2009
University Continuing Fellowship
University of Texas, Austin, Academic Year 2008–9
Summer Fellowship
University of Texas, Austin, Summer 2007
Teaching
Instructor, University of Texas at Austin
Introductory Symbolic Logic (PHL 313), Spring 2010
Human Nature (PHL 303), Fall 2009
Teaching Assistant / Reader, University of Texas at Austin
TA, Introduction to Ancient Philosophy (PHL 301K), L. Salas, Spring 2008
TA, Introduction to Philosophy (PHL 301), R. Kane, Fall 2007
TA, Contemporary Moral Problems (PHL 304), C. Krecz, Spring 2007
TA, Logic and Scientific Reasoning (PHL 313Q), J. Dever, Fall 2006
Reader, Introduction to Philosophy (PHL 301), J. Leon, Spring 2006
Reader, Knowledge and Reality (PHL 310), M. Goss, Fall 2005
Tutor, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich
Metaphysics & Ontology (Theoretical Philosophy I/II), J. Hübner, Spring 2006
Memberships
Society for Exact Philosophy
American Philosophical Association