Generally speaking, my interests are in the areas of metaphysics and epistemology:
What is there? And how do we find out about it? These questions are obviously
interconnected. If we circumscribe the domain of what there is to include
only spatio-temporal entities causally connected to one another, then the
answer as to how we found out about them seems relatively straightforward.
(I say 'relatively' because providing philosophical answers is never an entirely
straightforward process). We obtain knowledge about physical objects by
means of observation and the methods of inquiry characterizing the natural
sciences. However, if we enlarge the domain of existing things to include
the non-spatial, non-temporal and non-causal, numbers for example, then accounting
for our knowledge of all that there is becomes much more problematic. For
this reason, my general interests have inevitably led me to questions considered
within the philosophy of mathematics.
Currently, I am writing my
dissertation on how Kant and certain 19th century philosophers (e.g. Hermann
Helmholtz, Hermann Cohen, and Gottlob Frege) answered the following questions:
What are mathematical entities? How do we uncover the truths about such
entities? Why are the truths we uncover about mathematical entities also
applicable to physical entities? I am especially interested in how the latter
three men positioned their answers relative to Kant and each other. My hope
is that articulating a particular dialectic occurring among 19th century
German philosophers of mathematics will help illuminate and perhaps broaden
contemporary debates surrounding these issues.
Education
B.A., Philosophy, California State College, Fullerton
M.A., Philosophy, University of California, Irvine