I started my appointment at Chicago in Autumn 2019. I received my BA in philosophy from Reed College and my PhD in philosophy from MIT. Before coming to Chicago, I was a Bersoff Fellow at the Department of Philosophy at New York University during the 2018-19 academic year.
My main research interests are in the philosophy of language, epistemology, and philosophical logic.
Recent Courses
PHIL 22966/32966 Epistemology of Bias
PHIL 59950 Job Placement Workshop
Course begins in late Spring quarter and continues in the Autumn quarter.
This workshop is open only to PhD Philosophy graduate students planning to go on the job market in the Autumn of 2025. Approval of dissertation committee is required.
PHIL 20100/30000 Introduction to Logic
An introduction to the concepts and principles of symbolic logic. We learn the syntax and semantics of truth-functional and first-order quantificational logic, and apply the resultant conceptual framework to the analysis of valid and invalid arguments, the structure of formal languages, and logical relations among sentences of ordinary discourse. Occasionally we will venture into topics in philosophy of language and philosophical logic, but our primary focus is on acquiring a facility with symbolic logic as such.
Students may count either PHIL 20100 or PHIL 20012, but not both, toward the credits required for graduation.
PHIL 59950 Job Placement Workshop
Course begins in late Spring quarter and continues in the Autumn quarter.
This workshop is open only to PhD Philosophy graduate students planning to go on the job market in the Autumn of 2024. Approval of dissertation committee is required.
PHIL 22960/32960 Bayesian Epistemology
This course will be an introduction to Bayesian epistemology. (B) (II)
Introduction to Logic (PHIL 20100/30000) or its equivalent.
PHIL 22961/32961 Social Epistemology
Traditionally, epistemologists have concerned themselves with the individual: What should I believe? What am I in a position to know? How should my beliefs guide my decision-making? But we can also ask each of these questions about groups. What should we -- the jury, the committee, the scientific community--believe? What can we know? How should our beliefs guide our decision-making? These are some of the questions of social epistemology Social epistemology also deals with the social dimensions of individual opinion: How should I respond to disagreement with my peers? When should I defer to majority opinion? Are there distinctively epistemic forms of oppression and injustice? If so, what are they like and how might we try to combat them? This class is a broad introduction to social epistemology. (B) (II)
PHIL 20100/30000 Introduction to Logic
An introduction to the concepts and principles of symbolic logic. We learn the syntax and semantics of truth-functional and first-order quantificational logic, and apply the resultant conceptual framework to the analysis of valid and invalid arguments, the structure of formal languages, and logical relations among sentences of ordinary discourse. Occasionally we will venture into topics in philosophy of language and philosophical logic, but our primary focus is on acquiring a facility with symbolic logic as such.
PHIL 20100/30000 Elementary Logic
An introduction to the concepts and principles of symbolic logic. We learn the syntax and semantics of truth-functional and first-order quantificational logic, and apply the resultant conceptual framework to the analysis of valid and invalid arguments, the structure of formal languages, and logical relations among sentences of ordinary discourse. Occasionally we will venture into topics in philosophy of language and philosophical logic, but our primary focus is on acquiring a facility with symbolic logic as such.
PHIL 20100/30000 Elementary Logic
An introduction to the concepts and principles of symbolic logic. We learn the syntax and semantics of truth-functional and first-order quantificational logic, and apply the resultant conceptual framework to the analysis of valid and invalid arguments, the structure of formal languages, and logical relations among sentences of ordinary discourse. Occasionally we will venture into topics in philosophy of language and philosophical logic, but our primary focus is on acquiring a facility with symbolic logic as such.
PHIL 22964/32964 Advanced Introduction to Epistemology
This course will be a broad introduction to epistemology—the study of knowledge and rationality. Here are some of the main questions we will discuss:
What is knowledge
What is the best way to acquire knowledge?
How can you be sure that you aren’t dreaming?
What makes a belief rational?
How should you revise your beliefs when you get new evidence? (B) (III)
PHIL 24015/34015 Vagueness
For each second of John’s life, consider the claim that he is young at that second. Many of these claims will be clearly true: he is young at all of the seconds that make up the first year of his life. Many of these claims will be clearly false: he is not young at all of the seconds that make up his 89th year. If all of these statements are either true or false, it follows that there was a last second at which it is true to say that he is young, and a first second at which it is true to say that he is not young. But that seems wild! One second can’t make the difference between a young person and an old person.
This is one of the central problems raised by the phenomenon of vagueness. This course will examine a variety of philosophical issues raised by the phenomenon of vagueness in the philosophy of language, philosophical logic, epistemology, and metaphysics. Among other things, we will discuss: the philosophical significance of vagueness, the relationship between vagueness and ignorance, decision-making under indeterminacy, and the question of whether vagueness is an essentially linguistic phenomenon. (B)
Elementary Logic (PHIL 20100/30000) or its equivalent.
PHIL 20100/30000 Elementary Logic
An introduction to the concepts and principles of symbolic logic. We learn the syntax and semantics of truth-functional and first-order quantificational logic, and apply the resultant conceptual framework to the analysis of valid and invalid arguments, the structure of formal languages, and logical relations among sentences of ordinary discourse. Occasionally we will venture into topics in philosophy of language and philosophical logic, but our primary focus is on acquiring a facility with symbolic logic as such.
PHIL 56707 Tim Williamson’s Knowledge and its Limits
A close reading of Timothy Williamson’s “Knowledge and its Limits,” along with some response articles from “Williamson on Knowledge.”