Research
I am at work on several research projects which I plan to publish in professional journals and present at graduate conferences. These include a piece where I attempt to integrate reflective judgement into Kantian theories of moral deliberation, a critique of Korsgaard's response to Parfit, a philosophical genealogy of Liberal theories of human nature from Hobbes to Locke, and a intellectual history of the unity of practical and theoretical reason in German Idealism. Some of the work just enumerated is not described in greater detail below because the pieces in question are under blind review.
The Philosophical Grounds of Liberalism
Presented at LSE Political Theory Graduate Conference
In this piece, I trace how a new conception of man in Hobbes' paved the way toward Liberal theories of governance and human nature. In particular, I focus on the bifurcation of man into "inner" and "outer" spheres in Hobbes', and the use of similar images and tropes in both Pufendorf's Duties of Man and Citizen as well as Locke's Letter Concerning Toleration.
The Question of Primacy: Theoretical and Practical Reason from Kant to Hegel
Working with Morris Kaplan, Purchase College
One of the central debates in Kant scholarship is the "unity of reason" and the question of whether theoretical or practical reason ultimately has primacy. This echoes contemporary debates concerning the relationship between epistemic and contemporary normativity. With these issues in the backdrop, I investigate the broader history of these debates in German Idealism, showing how Hegel challenged Kant's views on the primacy of theoretical reason.
Normativity, Nature, and the Sensus Communis
Working with Casey Haskins, Purchase College
In the anglophone reception of German Idealism, it's become fashionable to invoke Wilfrid Sellars' distinction between the "space of reasons" and the "realm of law". Simultaneoeusly, there have been many attempts by philosophers influenced by the Idealist tradition to understand how these two disparate realms can come into contact. Terry Pinkard, John McDowell, and Robert Pippin have all proposed their own stories about this: in this paper, I intend to provide my own by looking to the Third Critique.
In the fourth moment of the Analytic of the Beautiful, Kant introduces the doctrine of a "sensus communis", which he claims is simultaneously a mere feeling, a norm, and a faculty. Understanding how it can be all three will help us grasp how the normativity intrinsic to concepts, judgements, and rationality can be reconciled with the realm of natural law and feeling.
If you're at all interested in any of these projects, feel free to contact me for an example of my current work.