Department of Philosophy
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Aretaic exemplars : a mixed-methods approach to character education.
(2020-02-26)Virtue education is often framed in the philosophy literature as consisting of a number of discrete tactics, such as virtue-labeling, exemplar exposure, and nudging, with little regard for the level of maturity of the ... -
Virtue ethics and character development at the United States Air Force Academy.
(2022-03-07)Our nation requires that service academies “develop officers of character.” “Character,” by its very nature, is deep; it is an embedded aspect of one’s personhood. As such, character will invariably draw upon one’s deeply-held ... -
Aristotelianism and liberalism : toward a rapprochement.
(2022-01-21)In this dissertation I offer an Aristotelian approach to remedying ambiguities and inconsistencies that have in recent years undermined and weakened liberal politics and theory. To this end, I offer five sketches of problems ... -
The fate of nature : ethical naturalism in historical and critical context.
(2020-07-08)Ethical naturalism is an ethical theory that holds that practical norms are a species of natural norms. It was a position held by almost all ancient ethical theorists, but despite a renaissance among some in the past three ... -
The conscious mind unified.
(2020-07-30)The current state of consciousness research is at an impasse. Neuroscience faces a variety of recalcitrant problems regarding the neurobiological binding together of states of consciousness. Philosophy faces the combination ... -
Fallow season : depression and its forebears.
(2020-06-22)This dissertation is part history, part analysis. It surveys prima facie historical antecedents to our current clinical concept of depression—a chapter each on acedia, tristitia, noche oscura, melancholia, and Tungsindighed. ... -
Pragmatism and the theory-dependence of explanatory judgments in science.
(2020-05-28)Many philosophical accounts of scientific explanation purport to be pragmatic. They claim that what counts as a good scientific explanation depends, in a significant way, on the context in which the purported explanation ... -
Is that my heart? A hylomorphic account of bodily parthood.
(2020-03-19)This dissertation investigates the metaphysics of human body parts; particularly, the epistemic conditions under which something can be said to be a “body part of” some particular human being. In this dissertation I draw ... -
Resistance : its nature, virtues, and application to matters of faith.
(2019-04-01)There are many cries to resist particular objects (e.g. inequality in the workplace) but very little is said concerning the nature of resistance. As such, this project begins by mapping the concept of resistance. Next, I ... -
A Thomistic principle of virtue individuation.
(2018-10-16)In this dissertation, I aim to accomplish two goals. The first goal is to draw contemporary moral philosophers' attention to the need for a principal approach to virtue individuation. When we individuate virtues, we answer ... -
Roles and the ethical life.
(2018-06-06)Role ethics, broadly speaking, is a normative ethical theory that has a prominent emphasis on roles. Although it was prominent in ancient cultures, such as in China and Greece, role ethics waned during the Enlightenment ... -
Thomas Aquinas's psychology of fear.
(2018-07-10)Thomas Aquinas develops a strikingly expansive psychology of fear (timor) within his masterwork, the Summa theologiae. Whereas many classify fear under a single category (e.g., emotion, passion, or sentiment), Aquinas ... -
The virtue of taking ownership.
(2018-02-07)This dissertation argues that the capacity to “take ownership” is a fundamental feature of human life to which people may be well or poorly disposed. Although we commonly exhort others to “take ownership” in their work, ... -
Growth in infused virtue in the work of Thomas Aquinas.
(2018-03-19)Thomas Aquinas inherits two distinct conceptions of the virtuous human being. From Aristotle, he receives a vision of harmony and human achievement: through the process of habituation, the distinct parts of the virtuous ... -
Animals now and then.
(2018-01-12)One aim of this dissertation is to remove ambiguities that have impeded a clear discussion and adequate evaluation of animalism. To that end I develop a taxonomy of different varieties of animalism and argue that there are ... -
Groundwork for a Thomistic account of contemporary property roles.
(2018-04-11)Chapter one serves as an introduction to the whole dissertation. In it I explain why I think philosophers should pursue a systematic, pluralist account of contemporary property roles and consider Thomistic explanations of ... -
Starting with the obvious (and where to go after that).
(2017-01-26)Sometimes it’s tough to tell what we should to do when were thinking about what we should believe and when we’re discussing what to believe with others. Sometimes we disagree with others, even those who we know are more ... -
Quantifier variance and interpretive charity.
(2017-03-16)The ontological literature contains several ongoing discussions which seem not to be advancing: incompatible theories of what there is are energetically defended, but these defenses do not lead to consensus. Some have ... -
Living, Like the Lily, In the Present: Kierkegaard's Philosophy of Time
(2016-04-25)Each of us experiences two conflicting attitudes towards time. On the one hand, we all, at least to some degree, look ahead towards the future. On the other hand, we sometimes feel like we ought to live in the present, ... -
Knowing the transcendent : analogous properties and speaking about God.
(2016-07-06)In this dissertation I defend an account of analogous predication that resolves a tension within classical theism between divine transcendence and knowledge of God. In chapter one I explain the tension and sketch a theory ...
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