Biography
When asked how I came to be a philosopher, I usually say philosophy chose me: I couldn’t help it. Before going to college, I was advised to read Plato’s Apology, and although I didn’t know it at the time, in retrospect I can say that it hooked me.
For me, the value and power of philosophy come from its role in everyday life, both for individuals and in more public arenas. When I stumbled into a situation that got me thinking about cancel culture and that resulted in my writing an article for a popular audience philosophy magazine, I realized that the kind of philosophy that really matters to me is the kind that comes from real situations and speaks to real people.
On my last sabbatical I wrote a yet-to-be-published popular-audience book manuscript called Who We Are and How To Live: How Our Answers to One Big Question Shape Our Answers to Another (And What We Can Do About It). Its two central themes are that philosophy matters because philosophical ideas have shaped the course of Western culture (and have ongoing influence), and that what we think about human nature influences how we think about ethics (so we need to get our view of human nature right). It argues that moving from an outdated individualistic view of human nature to one centered on relational ethics promises meaningful progress on some of the most pressing issues of our times.
I’ve also been writing a Substack newsletter for a non-academic audience. Humaning is Hard, But Philosophy Can Help is about the ways philosophy shows up in everyday life.
Education
- Ph.D. in Philosophy, University of Michigan
- M.S. in Logic and Computation, Carnegie Mellon University
- B.A., Gustavus Adolphus College
Research Interests
Ethics, especially issues centered around relationships and identity: love and caring, self-creation, virtue, and personhood; moral philosophy; applied ethics; philosophy of human nature; logic
Email: [email protected]