I’m an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Saint Louis University. Previously, I was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Toronto Metropolitan University, and a Research Fellow in the School of Philosophy at Australian National University.
I received my Ph.D. from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, and my BA in philosophy at Kansas State University.
My primary research is in epistemology. I’m currently working on a monograph defending epistemic permissivism, tentatively titled Breaking Epistemic Ties: A Defense of Permissivism. Epistemic permissivism is the view that the evidence can rationally permit more than one attitude toward a proposition. (For more info on the book, see the bottom of my research page.) I’m also interested in belief and credence; I defend dualism, the view that belief and credence are mutually irreducible. My interests in epistemology also include the nature of evidence and evidentialism, (arguing against) pragmatic and moral encroachment, (defending) doxastic voluntarism, and other issues in social epistemology (e.g. disagreement, epistemic paternalism).
My secondary research interests are in philosophy of mind, specifically the nature of belief, and philosophy of religion, specifically Pascal’s Wager and the nature of faith. I have further interest in decision theory, ethics and normativity, and metaphysics. See here for a long-form interview (with Richard Marshall’s 3:16 series) that summarizes my research for a non-specialist audience.
My non-philosophical interests include sports (especially basketball), traveling, avocados, coffee, weight lifting, cooking, and podcasts.
Recent Talks & Events
2024
March 4, 2024: “Can Atheists Have Faith?” (M. Holmes Hartshorne Lecture, Colgate University) (Handout) (Video)
March 6, 2024: “Can Atheists Have Faith?” (Public Lecture, SUNY Brockport) (Handout) (Video)
March 20-23, 2024: Pacific APA (Portland, OR)
April 9, 2024: “The Psychological Case for Doxastic Voluntarism” (with Mark Boespflug) (Princeton University, online) (Slides) (Video)
May 19-21: Comments on Mike Titelbaum “The Myth of Substantive Rationality” (Saint Louis Conference on Reasons and Rationality)
June 4-6, 2024: God and Value Theory Workshop (Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, ON)
June 28, 2024: “Can Atheists Have Faith?” (Colloquium Talk, Munich School of Philosophy, online) (Handout) (Video)
July 8–13, 2024: “The Psychological Case for Doxastic Voluntarism” (with Mark Boespflug) (Summer Seminar on the Psychology of Faith, University of St. Thomas, Minnesota) (Slides) (Video)
July 18, 2024: “A Defense of Epistemic Ties” (Colloquium Talk, LMU Munich) (Handout) (Video)
August 6, 2024: “How Rational Faith Goes Beyond the Evidence” (Session on Religious Epistemology, World Congress of Philosophy, Rome, Italy) (Handout) (Video)
November 8, 2024: “A Defense of Epistemic Ties” (Colloquium Talk, Purdue University) (Handout) (Video)
November 15, 2024: “Parity and the Permissivism Puzzle: A Defense of Epistemic Options” (with Chris Tucker) (St. Louis Epistemology Group, WashU)
2025 and later
February 2025: “Direct Control is Overrated” Central APA (Session on Doxastic Voluntarism, online)
March 10-11, 2025: TBD (Concordia University at Edmonton)
March 13-14, 2025: TBD (University of New Brunswick)
April 5-6, 2025: Beliefless Spirituality Workshop
April 11, 2025: TBD (Colloquium Talk, Northwestern University)
May 18-20, 2025: St. Louis Conference on Reasons and Rationality
June 8-14, 2025: Summer Seminar on the Psychology of Faith (University of St. Thomas, Minnesota)
July 7-10, 2025: Veritas Graduate Scholars Conference (University of Notre Dame)
Summer 2025: Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association
September 2025: Keynote, SLU Graduate Conference (PGSA)
October 10-11, 2025: Midwest Epistemology Workshop (University of Oklahoma)
November 14, 2025: Locke Epistemology Workshop (online)
Contact
Saint Louis University, Department of Philosophy
Adorjan Hall 305
3800 Lindell Blvd
Saint Louis, MO 63108 USA