Areas of Interest

Moral Psychology, esp. Practical Reason
Ethical Theory
Philosophy of Mind and Language
Philosophy in Film

Current Research Projects

If I were to characterize, in a single sentence, my current research program it would be: an attempt to understand the explanatory and justificatory dimensions of human agency in the context of normative inquiry. In other words, my focus is on the question of how we ought to explain and justify human action in order to make sense of the kinds of normative enterprises we engage in as reflective agents. I am currently working to lay the groundwork for a book project that attempts to make some progress on that question.

Publications

• Reasons to be Moral Revisited, supplementary volume of the Canadian Journal of Philosophy, co-edited with Sam Black, forthcoming.
  
  
• Deflationary Normative Relativism,” forthcoming in Reasons to be Moral Revisited.

• “How Kantian Must Kantian Constructivists Be?” Inquiry 49 (December, 2006): 524-546.

• “Can Humeans Ask, ‘Why Be Rational?’” American Philosophical Quarterly 43 (April 2006): 133-145.

• “Alienation and Internal Reasons for Action,” Social Theory and Practice 29 (July 2003): 387-418.

• “A Functional Account of Moral Motivation,” Southern Journal of Philosophy 41 (Winter 2003): 601-625.

• "Alienation and Internal Reasons for Action" Social Theory and Practice 29 (July 2003): 387-418.

• "The Rational Character of Belief and the Argument for Anomalous Monism" Philosophical Studies 103 (April 2001): 285-314.

• "What's Essential About Indexicals?" Philosophical Studies 100 (July 2000): 35-50.

• "Semantics San Diego Style," Journal of Philosophy 96 (Aug 1999): 416-429.