My current research focuses on a few interconnected issues concerning parts and wholes, space and time, plurals, and fundamentality. I also have interests in the study of such themes across the history of philosophy (especially in the ancient Greek and early modern periods) as well as in non-Western intellectual traditions (especially ancient Indian thought). At the moment I'm working on a few articles and a book manuscript defending the ontological priority of collectivity over individuality.
keywords
Metaphysics and related topics in logic and philosophy of science
PHIL 1440 - Critical Thinking
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2018
Develops students' skills in evaluating arguments and other aspects of critical thinking, focusing on the ways people reason and attempt to justify their beliefs. Activities may include modeling arguments, detecting common fallacies, examining the use (and misuse) of scientific evidence, and learning the basics of symbolic logic. Formerly titled Introductory Logic.
PHIL 2440 - Symbolic Logic
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2018 / Fall 2018 / Spring 2019 / Fall 2019
Introduces students to sentential logic, the logic of quantification and some of the basic concepts and results of metalogic (interpretations, validity and soundness).
PHIL 3030 - Asian Philosophies
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2019
Explores various topics in Asian philosophy. Students will be exposed to and critically engage with a range of ethical, metaphysical, epistemological, and other philosophical issues in Chinese, Indian, and other Asian traditions, including discussion of how major Asian traditions relate to other approaches to philosophy. Specific topics and themes vary from term to term.
PHIL 4360 - Metaphysics
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2019
Traditional and contemporary theories of the basic categories of reality and the human relationship to it, including universals, substance, identity, change, mind and body, free will and modality. Same as PHIL 5360.
PHIL 4490 - Philosophy of Language
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2020
Examines the nature of language through topics such as truth, reference, meaning, and use, as well as the general relationships between language and action, cognition, logic, and reality.
