Publications

  1. (forthcoming) 'Explaining Contingent Facts', Philosophical Studies 
  2. (forthcoming) 'Neo-Rationalist Metaphysics', Principle of Sufficient Reason (Eds. Fatema Amijee and Michael Della Rocca)
  3. (forthcoming) 'Metaphysical Explanation in Spinoza and Leibniz' Routledge Handbook of Metaphysical Grounding (Ed. M. Raven)
  4. (forthcoming) 'Russell's Commitment to the Principle of Acquaintance' Oxford Handbook of Bertrand Russell (Ed. K. Klement)
  5. (2013) 'The Role of Attention in Russell's Theory of Knowledge' British Journal for the History of Philosophy 21 (6): 1175-1193.
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Dissertation Abstract

The Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR) holds that everything has an explanation. My dissertation defends the PSR—what many take to be a prime tenet of the rationalist metaphysics of Leibniz and Spinoza—from three influential challenges: (1) that we lack reason to accept the PSR; (2) that the principle is not consistent with the now widespread recognition of metaphysically fundamental facts; (3) that the PSR entails that the world could not have been otherwise. A longer dissertation abstract can be found here. 

Research Statement

My current and planned research projects lie in metaphysics, the history of early modern philosophy (including Kant), the history of analytic philosophy (Frege, Russell and early Wittgenstein) and the philosophy of race and gender. I have papers-in-progress in all these areas, many of which I have had the opportunity to workshop at several venues. Descriptions of some of these projects can be found here.