About

I am a philosophy doctoral candidate at the University of Colorado, Boulder with an interest in ethics, and especially in the realist/anti-realist debate in meta-ethics. My dissertation, which I plan to defend in the spring of 2018 under the direction of Prof. Graham Oddie, will advance a version of the epistemic argument argument for moral realism. In a nutshell: If epistemic realism is true, then moral realism is true; epistemic realism is true (i.e., there are objective truths about what we ought to believe). It follows that moral realism is also true, meaning that there are truths about ethics which in no way depend upon subjective human attitudes.

I am also interested in epistemology, philosophy of religion, comparative philosophy, and the work of Hungarian philosopher of science and society Michael Polanyi. In 2016, I became a board member for the Michael Polanyi Society and will soon be assistant book review editor for their quarterly publication, Tradition and Discovery. I was also a 2012-13 Egypt Fulbright grantee, and researched the ethical philosophy of the 10th century Persian writer of Arabic philosophy, Miskawayh.

As a philosophy major and creative writing minor, I received a BA from Idaho State University (that’s in Pocatello, not Boise) in 2009. In 2012, I received an MA in philosophy from the University of Colorado, Boulder. I was enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve as a public affairs specialist from 2004 to 2012. Twice, my studies were interrupted by deployments that lasted over a year. From 2005-2006, I was deployed with the 207th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment to Iraq, and from 2009-2010, I was deployed with the 304th Public Affairs Detachment to Afghanistan. During both deployments, I helped produce internally-circulated print products. Many of the stories I wrote were published in local newspapers all over the country (and some were published internationally). I am now, thank God, a civilian and intend to keep it that way. Once a soldier… once a soldier.

When I am not devoting my time to researching, writing, and teaching philosophy I like to write about other things, usually politics. When I am trying not to think about politics because it’s simultaneously too depressing and too infuriating a topic to contemplate for long, I enjoy swing dancing, running, and cooking vegan food.