Kris McDaniel
William J. and Dorothy K. O’Neill Professor of Philosophy
Department of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame
kmcdani1@nd.edu
Philpapers page: https://philpapers.org/s/kris%20mcdaniel
Google scholar page: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=I5gxw7gAAAAJ&hl=en
Education
1994-1998: Western Washington University, BA in philosophy
1999- 2004: University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Ph.D. in philosophy
Employment History
William J. and Dorothy K. O’Neill Professor of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame, 2022-present
Professor, University of Notre Dame, 2019-2022
Professor, Syracuse University, 2015-2019
Associate Professor, Syracuse University, 2010-2015
Assistant Professor, Syracuse University, 2004-2010
Visiting Positions
Plantinga Fellow at the Notre Dame Center for the Philosophy of Religion, Spring 2018.
Visiting Fellow at the University of Colorado-Boulder, April 2017.
Books
The Fragmentation of Being. 2017. Oxford University Press. (winner of the 2018 Sanders Book Prize)
paperback edition published in 2019.
This is Metaphysics: an Introduction. 2020. Wiley-Blackwell publishing.
Edited Book
The Good, The Right, Life and Death. 2007. edited by Richard Feldman, Kris McDaniel, Jason Raibley, Michael Zimmerman, Ashgate Press.
Articles
46. “Modality in 20th Century Philosophy”, forthcoming in Modality, edited by Samuel Newlands and Yitzhak Melamed, Oxford University Press.
45. “The Ethics of Mary Whiton Calkins” forthcoming in Oxford Handbook of American and British Women Philosophers in the Nineteenth Century, edited by Lydia Moland and Alison Stone, Oxford University Press.
44. “Precis of The Fragmentation of Being” and “Replies to Pedersen, Han, and Eklund”, Philosophical Studies 179: 3111–3112 (2022); 179: 3123–3132 (2022).
43. “Heidegger and the Authority of Logic”, (2022) in Heidegger on Logic, edited by Daniel Dahlstrom and Filippo Casati, Cambridge University Press.
42. “Ontological Pluralism and the Two Truths: a Reply to Andrew Brenner“, Philosophy East and West 70.2 (2020): 557-565.
41. “Teleological Suspensions in Fear and Trembling”, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 100.2 (2020): 425-451.
40. “The Principle of Sufficient Reason and Necessitarianism”, Analysis 79.2 (2019):230-236.
39. “Abhidharma Metaphysics and the Two Truths”, Philosophy East and West 69.2 (2019):439-463.
38. “Freedom and Idealism in Mary Whiton Calkins”, British Journal for the History of Philosophy 27.3 (2018):573-592.
37. “Normative Accounts of Fundamentality”, Philosophical Issues 27.1 (2017): 167-183.
36. “Ontology and Philosophical Methodology in the Early Susanne Langer”, (2017) in Innovations in the History of Analytical Philosophy, edited by Sandra Lapointe and Christopher Pincock, Palgrave Publishing.
35. “The Idealism of Mary Whiton Calkins”, (2017) in Idealism: New Essays in Metaphysics, edited by Tyron Goldschmidt and Kenny Pearce, Oxford University Press.
34. “Are There Essential Properties? Yes.”, (with Steve Steward), (2016) in Current Controversies in Metaphysics, edited by Elizabeth Barnes, Routledge Publishing.
33. “Heidegger and the “There Is” of Being”, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 93.2 (2016): 306-320.
32. “Eternity in 20th Century Philosophy”, (2016) in Eternity, edited by Yitzhak Melamed, Oxford University Press.
31. “Propositions: Individuation and Invirtuation”, Australasian Journal of Philosophy 93.4 (2015): 757-768.
30. “A Philosophical Model of the Relation between Things in Themselves and Appearances”, Nous 49.4 (2015): 643-664.
29. “Edith Stein: On the Problem of Empathy”, (2014) in Ten Neglected Philosophical Classics, edited by Eric Schliesser, Oxford University Press.
28. “Metaphysics, History, Phenomenology”, Res Philosophica 91.3 (2014): 339-365.
27. “A Moorean View of the Value of Lives”, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 95 (2014): 23-46.
26. “Compositional Pluralism and Composition as Identity”, (2014) in Composition as Identity, edited by Donald Baxter and Aaron Cotnoir, Oxford University Press.
25. “Degrees of Being”, Philosophers’ Imprint 13.19 (2013): 1-19.
24. “Heidegger’s Metaphysics of Material Beings”, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 87.2 (2013), pp. 332-357.
23. “Existence and Number”, Analytic Philosophy 54.2 (2013): 209-228.
22. “Death and Desires”, (with Ben Bradley), (2013) in Death: New Essays on Metaphysical and Ethical Issues Surrounding Death, edited by James Taylor, Oxford University Press.
21. “Parthood is Identity?”, (2014) in Mereology and Location, edited by Shieva Kleinshmidt, Oxford University Press.
20. “Ontological Pluralism and the Question of Why There is Something Rather than Nothing”, (2013) in The Philosophy of Existence: Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?, edited by Tyron Goldshmidt, Routledge publishing.
19. “Composition as Identity Does Not Imply Universalism”, Erkenntnis 73 (2010): 97-100.
18. “Being and Almost Nothingness”, Nous 44.4 (2010): 628-649.
17. “A Return to the Analogy of Being”, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 81.3 (2010): 688-717.
16. “Parts and Wholes”, Philosophy Compass 5.5 (2010): 412-425.
15. “John McTaggart”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2009).
14. “Structure-Making”, Australasian Journal of Philosophy 87.2 (2009): 251-274.
13. “Extended Simples and Qualitative Heterogeneity”, the Philosophical Quarterly 59.235 (2009): 325-331.
12. “Ways of Being”, (2009) in Metametaphysics, edited by David Chalmers, David Manley, and Ryan Wasserman, Oxford University Press.
11. “Desires”, (with Ben Bradley), Mind 117 (2008): 267-302.
10. “Against Composition as Identity”, Analysis 68.2 (2008): 128–133.
9. “Extended Simples”, Philosophical Studies 133.1 (2007): 131-141.
8. “Brutal Simples”, Oxford Studies in Metaphysics (2007), volume three.
7. “Discrete Space and Distance”, Synthese 155.1 (2007): 157-162.
6. “Gunky Objects in a Simple World”, Philo 9:1 (2006): 47-54.
5. “Modal Realisms”, Philosophical Perspectives: Metaphysics 20 (2006): 303-331.
4. “Modal Realism with Overlap”, Australasian Journal of Philosophy 82.1 (2004): 137-152. (This is reprinted in Lewisian Themes, edited by Frank Jackson and Graham Priest, Oxford University Press, September 2004.)
3. “No Paradox of Multi-Location”, Analysis 63.4 (2003): 309-311.
2. “Against MaxCon Simples”, Australasian Journal of Philosophy 81.2 (2003): 265-275.
1. “Tropes and Ordinary Physical Objects”, Philosophical Studies 104.3 (2001): 269-290.
Critical Studies
7. “Me and My Imaginary Friend: a Critical Study of Virtual Persons, Fugitive Selves“, Analysis 82.3 (2022): 526–536.
6. “Author Meets Critics: Matti Eklund’s Choosing Normative Concepts“, Inquiry (forthcoming).
5. “Nicholas Stang’s Kant’s Modal Metaphysics”, Kantian Review 23.3 (2018):461-472.
4. “Critical Study of Peter van Inwagen’s Existence: Essays on Ontology“, Analysis 78.1 (2018) :150-159.
3. “Remarks on Robert Pasnau’s Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671: Pasnau on Category Realism”, Philosophical Studies 171.1 (2014):17-25.
2. “Critical Study of On Myself, and Other, Less Important Subjects by Caspar Hare”, Ethics 122.2 (2012): 403-410.
1. “Trenton Merricks’ Truth and Ontology”, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 83.1 (2011): 203–211.
Reviews
7. “Review of Common Sense Metaphysics: Essays in Honor of Lynne Rudder Baker”, Faith and Philosophy (forthcoming).
6. “Review of Karen Bennett’s Making Things Up“, Journal of Philosophy (forthcoming).
5. “Review of Georgio Lando’s Mereology: a Philosophical Introduction“, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, October 2018.
4. “Review of Lucy Allais’s Manifest Reality: Kant’s Idealism and His Realism”, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, May 2016.
3. “Review of A.W. Moore’s The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics: Making Sense of Things”, Mind 496.1 (2015): 1344-1347.
2. “Review of D.M. Armstrong’s Truth and Truthmaking”, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, August 2005.
1. “Review of Phil Dowe’s Physical Causation”, Erkenntnis 56.2 (2002), pp. 258-263.
Work in Progress/Under Review
Shadows of Being. Book manuscript under contract with Oxford University Press.
Metaontology. Book manuscript under contract with Cambridge University Press.
A Dreamer’s Guide to Philosophy (book manuscript)
Presentations
“Being and Value”, Metaphysical Mayhem, Rutgers University, August 2023.
Comments on Mark Textor’s “MY Thoughts, MY Self”, at the Kant and the 19th Century Workshop, University of Notre Dame, April 2023.
“Physical Degrees Monism and Religion”, University of Pittsburgh (zoom talk), April 2023.
“Physical Degrees Monism and Religion”, Texas A&M University (zoom talk), April 2023.
“Are Virtual Objects Bad for Us?”, zoom talk, Augmented Reality Network, September 2022.
“Physical Degrees Monism and Religion”, Sanders Lecture in the Philosophy of Religion, Rutgers University, April 2022.
“Kantian Ontological Pluralism without Transcendental Idealism”, Brickerfest, University of Massachusetts, April 2022.
“Kantian Ontological Pluralism”, Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association, April 2022.
“Some Recent Conceptions of Philosophy”, conference on concepts of philosophy in the history of philosophy, University of Notre Dame, April 2022.
“Kantian Ontological Pluralism without Transcendental Idealism”, Boston University (zoom talk), September 2021.
“Kantian Ontological Pluralism without Transcendental Idealism”, Tel Aviv University (zoom talk), January 2021.
“Kantian Ontological Pluralism without Transcendental Idealism”, Columbia University (zoom talk), November 2020.
“The Essence of Being”, invited symposium, Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association, Jan. 2020.
“Kantian Ontological Pluralism without Transcendental Idealism”, Bowling Green University, November 2019.
“Chains”, Regress Arguments, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada, May 2019.
“Kantian Ontological Pluralism without Transcendental Idealism”, University of Texas-Austin, April 2019.
Comments on Sara Aronowitz: “History as a Science in Islamic Modernism”, Vancouver Summer Philosophy Conference, August 2018.
“The Essence of Being”, Conference on the Fragmentation of Reality, Lugano, Switzerland, July 2018.
“Kantian Ontological Pluralism without Transcendental Idealism”, Notre Dame Center for the Philosophy of Religion, April 2018.
“Kantian Ontological Pluralism without Transcendental Idealism”, Kant and Analytic Metaphysics conference, University of Toronto, Canada, April 2018.
“Kantian Ontological Pluralism without Transcendental Idealism”, PoSe talk at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, April 2018.
“Author Meets Critics Symposium: the Fragmentation of Being; critics: Gideon Rosen, Jason Turner, and Christina van Dyke”, Pacific Division Meeting, the American Philosophical Association, March 2018.
“Abhidharma Metaphysics and the Two Truths”, Notre Dame Center for the Philosophy of Religion, March 2018.
“Calkins on Freedom and Idealism”, Metaphysics Workshop at Notre Dame, February 2018.
“The Essence of Being”, Notre Dame Center for the Philosophy of Religion, February 2018.
“Calkins on Freedom and Idealism”, New York University Conference on Idealism, November 2017.
“van Inwagen on Being”, Quo Vadis, Metaphysics? Dedicated to Peter van Inwagen’s 75th Birthday, Warsaw, Poland, September 2017.
“The Essence of Being”, Dartmouth University, August 2017.
“Modes of Instantiation”, University of Colorado-Boulder, April 2017.
“Modes of Instantiation”, Pluralisms Conference, Bonn University, Germany, March 2017.
“Ontology and Philosophical Methodology in the Early Susanne Langer”, University of Virginia, February 2017.
“Normative Accounts of Fundamentality”, Arizona Metaphysics Conference, January 2017.
“Normative Accounts of Fundamentality”, University of Notre Dame, December 2016.
“Normative Accounts of Fundamentality”, Denison University, November 2016.
“Author Meets Critics: Nicholas Stang, Kant’s Modal Metaphysics”, North American Kant Society, Montreal, Canada, October 2016.
“Ontology and Philosophical Methodology in the Early Susanne Langer”, University of Toronto, Canada, October 2016.
“Workshop on the Fragmentation of Being”, University of Indiana-Bloomington, June 2016.
“Normative Accounts of Fundamentality”, at Fundamental Truthmakers: a Metaphysics Festival, University of Miami, April 2016.
“Being and Essence”, Kyoto University, Japan, March 2016.
“Five Lectures on the Fragmentation of Being”, five invited talks given at Seoul National University and sponsored by the Pluralisms Global Research Network, South Korea, March 2016.
“Comments on Jonathan Schaffer’s The Ground Between the Gaps”, Arizona Ontology Conference, January 2016.
“Normative Analyses of Fundamentality”, CUNY Graduate Center, December 2015.
“Normative Analyses of Fundamentality”, University of Calgary, December 2015.
“Being and Essence II: Universality, Ground, Possibility”, Hamburg University, Germany, July 2015.
“Being and Essence”, University of Geneva, Switzerland, Eidos Conference on Existence, Non-Existence, and Intentionality, July 2015.
“Modes of Instantiation”, University of Bergamo, Italy, Conference on the Metaphysics of Properties, July 2015.
“Normative Analyses of Naturalness”, Metaphysics Conference at Ovronnaz, Switzerland, June 2015.
“Better to Not Really Be”, Mind, Eternity, and Immortality Workshop, Johns Hopkins University, April 2015.
“Comments on Martin Glazier’s Explanation, Actualist Possibility and Tomorrow’s Sea Battle”, Pacific Division Meeting, American Philosophical Association, April 2015.
“Comments on Gabriel Uzquiano’s Recombination and Paradox”, Arizona Ranch Metaphysics Conference, February 2015.
“Categories”, The Relationship Between Metaphysics and Logic, University Southern California, January 2015.
“Normative Analyses of Naturalness”, University of Las Vegas, December 2014.
“Non-Standard Mereology: Questions about the Dialectical Situation”, Conference on Mereology at St. Andrews, UK, November 2014.
“Being and Essence”, Brown University, October 2014.
“Being and Essence”, Georgetown Conference on the Philosophy of Religion, Georgetown University, Washington DC, October 2014.
“Being and Essence”, Conference on Intensional/Hyper-Intensional Metaphysics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico, September 2014.
“Being and Essence”, University of Vermont, September 2014.
“Metaphysical Naturalness and Normativity”, Rocky Mountain Ethics Conference, UC Boulder, August 2014.
“Propositions Metaphysically Individuated”, Conference on Propositions for the Leeds Representation Group, University of Leeds, UK, May 2014.
“Being and Essence”, invited Symposium at the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association, San Diego, April 2014.
“Ways of Being and Time” and “Fundamental People” while Philosopher in Residence at University of Iowa at Ames.
“Propositions, Tuples, and Hyper-Intensionality”, Metaphysics on the Mountain Conference, Idaho, March 2014.
“Comments on Sam Cowlings, “The Way of Actuality”, Central Division of the America Philosophical Association, Chicago, Feb 2014.
“Fundamental People”, at Themes from Baxter II, Ligerz, Switzerland, October 2013.
“Propositions, Tuples, and Hyper-Intensionality”, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, September 2013.
“A Philosophical Model of the Distinction Between Things in Themselves and Appearances”, Conference in Honor of Lynne Rudder Baker’s retirement, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, April 2013.
“Metaphysics, History, Phenomenology”, at Methodology in Metaphysics, University of Michigan Anne-Arbor, March 2013.
“Pasnau on Category Realism”, Author Meets Critics session for Robert Pasnau’s Metaphysical Themes: 1274-1671, Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association, San Francisco CA, March 2013.
Comments on Peter van Inwagen’s “Mixed Inferences: a Problem for McDaniel’s Heidegger”, Arizona Ontology Conference, Tucson AZ, January 2013.
“Fundamental People”, University of Alberta, Ottawa, November 2012.
“Degrees of Being”, New York University, October 2012.
“Fundamental People”, Boston University, April 2012.
Comments on Christopher Hom and Jeremy Schwartz: “The Unity of the Proposition and the Frege-Geach Puzzle”, Pacific division meeting of the American Philosophical Association, Seattle WA, April 2012.
“Fundamental People”, University of Ottawa, March 2012.
“Fundamental People”, John Hopkins University, March 2012.
“Fundamental People”, University of Kentucky-Lexington, February 2012.
“Fundamental People”, conference on Persistence at the University of Southern California, January 2012.
“Compositional Pluralism and Composition as Identity”, invited talk at the Eastern division meeting of the American Philosophical Association, December 2011.
“Eternity in 20th Century Philosophy”, Conference on Eternity, the University of Bochum Germany, December 2011.
Comments on Christian van Dyke: “A Prior Puzzle about the A Priori”, A Priori Workshop at the University of British Columbia, Canada, November 2011.
“Degrees of Being”, University of Nottingham, October 2011.
“Degrees of Being”, University of Birmingham, October 2011.
“Existence and Number”, University of Leeds, October 2011.
“What Are Ontological Categories?”, LOGOS conference on fundamentality, University of Barcelona in Spain, September 2011.
“Parthood and Relative Identity”, University of Geneva, Switzerland, May 2011.
“The Moorean View of Lives: a Partial Defense”, conference on organic unities, University of Geneva Switzerland, May 2011.
“The Values of Knowledge and Their Implications, If Any, For Its Nature”, keynote talk given at Western Washington University conference, May 2011.
“Degrees of Being”, ANU Conference on Fundamentality, Australian National University, July 2010.
“Being, Ways of Being, Degrees of Being”, Metaphysical Mayhem 2010, Rutgers University, June 2010.
“Parthood is Identity?”, Conference on The Ontology of Ordinary Objects, Auburn University, February 2010.
“The Metaphysics of Axiology and the Welfare of Animals”, Bloomsburg University, February 2010.
“The Metaphysics of Axiology and the Welfare of Animals”, R.O.M.E. UC-Boulder, August 2009.
“Categories of Being”, Princeton Conference on Philosophical Logic, May 2009.
“Degrees of Reality”, Mellon Metaphysics Workshop, Cornell University, May 2009.
“Categories of Being”, Duke University, February 2009.
“Metaphysical Naturalness and Degrees of Reality”, SUNY-Fredonia, February 2009.
“Ways of Being and Time”, Arizona Ontology Conference, January 2009.
Comments on Gabriel Uzquiano: “Mereological Harmony”, Leeds Conference on Metaphysics, September 2008.
Comments on Jessica Wilson: “Trope Determination and Contingent Characterization”, Bellingham Summer Philosophy Conference, August 2008.
Comments on Carrie Jenkins “What is Ontological Realism?” and “Realism and Independence”; Comments on Matti Eklund “Neo-Fregeanism and Maximalism”, Metaphysical Mayhem, Rutgers University, July 2008.
“Ways of Being and Time”, Philosophy of Time meeting at the Central Division American Philosophical Association, April 2008.
“A Return to the Analogy of Being”, Inland Northwest Philosophy Conference, March 2008.
“Ways of Being and Time”, University of Toronto, March 2008.
“A Return to the Analogy of Being”, Williams College, February 2008.
“Desires” (with Ben Bradley), Ninth Bi-annual UMass-Amherst Philosophy Reunion, October 2007.
“Ways of Being”, University of Rochester, September 2007.
“Desires” (with Ben Bradley), Bellingham Summer Philosophy Conference, August 2007.
“Ways of Being”, Inland Northwest Philosophy Conference, April 2007.
“Kantian Ignorance”, Workshop on Transcendental Idealism, University of Exeter, March 2007.
“Desires”, University of Leeds, March 2007.
“Ways of Being”, Conference on Structure in Metaphysics, Leeds University, March 9th, 2007.
Comments on Kathrin Koslicki: “A Defense of Kinds”, at the Arizona Ontology Conference, January 2007.
“Structure-Making”, at the Mereology, Topology, Location Conference, Rutgers University, October 2006.
“Ontology and Rationalism”, Tufts University, April 2006.
Comments on Georges Dicker: “Refutation of Idealism”, at the Early Modern Philosophy Workshop, Syracuse University, February 2006.
Comments on J.C. Beal: “True, False, and Other”, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, October 2005.
“Extended Simples”, Creighton Club Meeting, October 2005, Cornell University.
Comments on Cody Gilmore: “Time Travel, Coinciding Objects, and Persistence”, Bellingham Summer Philosophy Conference, August 2005.
Comments on Josh Parsons: “Is Everything a World?”, Pacific Division Meeting, American Philosophical Association, March 2005.
“Kantian Ignorance”, University of Colorado-Boulder, February 2005.
“Kantian Ignorance”, Western Washington University, February 2005.
“Kantian Ignorance”, Arizona State University, January 2005.
“Kantian Ignorance”, Cornell University, November 2004.
Comments on Mathew McGrath: “No Objects, No Problem? Nihilism and the Puzzles of Material Constitution”, Bellingham Summer Philosophy Conference, August 2004.
“Brutal Simples”, Davidson College, February 2004.
“Brutal Simples”, Syracuse University, January 2004.
“Brutal Simples”, University of Manitoba, January 2004.
Comments on Andy Egan: “Second-Order Predication and the Metaphysics of Properties”, Bellingham Summer Philosophy Conference, August 2003.
Comments on Andrew Cortens: “Dividing the World into Things”, Bellingham Summer Philosophy Conference, August 2000.
“Tropes and Ordinary Physical Objects”, Pacific Division Meeting, American Philosophical Association, April 2000.
“Tropes and Ordinary Physical Objects”, Western Washington University, January 2000.
“Persons and Temporal Gappiness” (with Shawn Larsen-Bright), Pacific Division Meeting, American Philosophical Association, April 1999.
Comments on Andy Lloyd: “Spukhafte Fernwirkungen: the Relationship Between Science and Philosophy”, Inland Northwest Philosophy Conference, April 1998.
Teaching Experience
At the University of Notre Dame:
Undergraduate courses:
Introduction to Philosophy
Freshman University Seminar
Topics in Metaphysics (Time, Material Constitution, Modality, Existence)
The Philosophy of Edith Stein
Graduate Courses:
Graduate Proseminar
Being and Non-Being, Then and Now (co-taught with Sam Newlands)
Monism
At Syracuse University:
HNR 100: Six Myths about the Good Life
Philosophy 109: Honors Introduction to Philosophy
Philosophy 313: British Empiricism
Philosophy 321: 20th Century Theories of Knowledge and Reality
Philosophy 341: Philosophy of Religion
Philosophy 401: Truth and Truthmakers
Philosophy 401: Topics in Metaphysics
Philosophy 401: Meta-Ethics
Philosophy 401: Metaphysics
Philosophy 402/602: History of the A Priori
Philosophy 500: Early 20th Century Philosophy
Philosophy 583: Metaphysics
Philosophy 615: Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason
Philosophy 687: Proseminar: Language, Epistemology, Mind, Metaphysics
Philosophy 700: Husserl’s Logical Investigations
Philosophy 730: Leibniz: Substance, Modality, Causation (co-taught with Kara Richardson)
Philosophy 730: Descartes’ Metaphysics (co-taught with Kara Richardson)
Philosophy 750: Parts and Wholes
Philosophy 750: The Metaphysics of Ethics (co-taught with Ben Bradley)
Philosophy 751: Hyper-Intensionality
Philosophy 751: Modality
Philosophy 840: Properties
Philosophy 840: Essence and Potentiality
Philosophy 840: Ordinary Objects: the Metaphysics of Socks
Philosophy 860: Parfit’s Reasons and Persons (co-taught with Ben Bradley)
Philosophy 860: Foundations of Analytic Ethics (co-taught with Ben Bradley)
Philosophy 860: The Metaphysics of Ethics (co-taught with Ben Bradley)
Philosophy 860: Existence
At the University of Massachusetts-Amherst:
Philosophy 100: Introduction to Philosophy
Philosophy 110: Introduction to Symbolic Logic
Philosophy 160: Introduction to Ethics
Philosophy 164: Medical Ethics
Philosophy 332: Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason
Philosophy 383: Philosophy of Religion
Dissertation Committees
Current:
Benjamin Cook (chair) “Powers and Fundamentality”
Thiago de Melo (chair) “Relativized Naturalness”
Mack Sullivan (TBA)
Qiong Wu (TBA)
Completed:
Mark Barber “Ground and Relative Fundamentality”
Kay Malte Bischof “Engaging Spinoza and Spinozism”
Joel Brown “Kant, Derivative Influence, and the Metaphysics of Causality”
Filipo Casati “Being: a Dialetheic Interpretation of the Late Heidegger”
Arturo Javier Castellanos “Issues in the metaphysics of material objects”
Naomi Dershowitz “All the Small Things: Contingent Mereological Nihilism”
Jordan Dodd “Meaningful Experiences: An Essay on Experiences of Understanding”
David BzDak “Knowing How: An Empirical, Functionalist Approach”
Kendall Fisher (co-chair) “Thomas Aquinas on the Metaphysical Nature of the Soul and Its Union with the Body”
Anthony Fisher “Ideology and Fundamentality: A Study in Metaphysics”
Gregory Fowler “The Nature and Structure of Space”
Carolyn Garland (chair) “The Metaphysics of Grief”
Deke Gould “Analyticity, Platonism, and A Priori Knowledge”
Kora Gould “Personal Identity, Reductionism and Eliminativism”
Li Kang (chair) “Spreading Structures”
James Lee (chair) “A Metaphysician’s User Guide: The Epistemology of Metaphysics”
Isaiah Lin (chair) “On the Plurality of Existences”
Jeremy Pierce “A Realist Metaphysics of Race: a Context-Sensitive, Short-Term Retentionalist, Long-Term Revisionist Approach”
Daniel Rabinoff “Making Sense of Relativized Identity”
Jason Rourke “Questions and Inquiry: Some Epistemological Applications”
Byron Simmons (chair) “The Nature of Being”
Matthew Skeene “Putting the Ghost Back in the Machine: A Defense of Common Sense Dualism”
Andrew Specht “Kant and the Neglected Alternative”
Irem Kurstal Steen “Composition, Vagueness, and Persistence”
Mark Steen “Stuff, Process, and Object: An Examination of Substance and Its Alternatives”
Steven Steward (chair) “On What Consists in What”
Mack Sullivan TBA
Jan Swiderski “Metaphysical Coherentism”
Dar Triffon-Reshef (co-chair) TBA
Stella Jiayue Zhu “Social Tools: a Collective Intentional Theory of Artefacts”
Service
To the Profession:
Area Editor for Ergo: an Open Access Journal of Philosophy (January 2019-present)
Area Editor for Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2022-present)
Referee for American Philosophical Quarterly, Analysis, Analytic Philosophy, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, Dialectica, Episteme, Erkenntnis, Faith and Philosophy, Journal of Analytic Theology, Journal of the American Philosophical Association, Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy, Journal of the History of Philosophy, Journal of Philosophy, Logic and Logical Philosophy, Kantian Review, Mind, Nous, Organon F, Oxford Studies in Metaphysics, Oxford University Press, Philosophers’ Imprint, Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophical Review, Philosophical Studies, Philosophy East and West, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Philosophy of Science, Religious Studies, Res Philosophica, Rowman and Littlefield, Synthese, Theoria, Thought.
American Philosophical Association Program Committee (Eastern Division), S2019-on-going
Program committee member for the 2009 Bellingham Summer Philosophy Conference.
Founding member of the Monads.
Founding member of the 21st Century Monads.
Department/University (Notre Dame):
History of Philosophy search committee (chair) (Fall/Spring 2022-2023)
Ethics search committee (Fall/Spring 2019-2020)
Colloquium committee (Spring 2020)
Graduate admissions committee (Fall 2020/Spring 2021)
Department/University (Syracuse):
Graduate Director for the Department of Philosophy, Summer 2014-Summer 2016.
Philosophy climate committee, Spring 2014-Spring 2015.
Faculty adviser for undergraduates, Fall 2008-Spring 2009.
Philosophy adviser for the Honors College, Fall 2008-Fall 2013.
External speaker committee, Fall 2011-2012.
External speaker committee, Fall 2008-Spring 2009.
History of Philosophy search committee, Fall 2007-Spring 2008.
External speaker committee, Fall 2005-Spring 2007.
Executive committee, Fall 2006- Spring 2007.
Faculty coordinator for the Dissertation workshop Spring 2006, Spring 2007.
Interviews
“What is Being?“, interview conducted by Justin E.H. Smith, for the “What is X?” podcast,
Interview conducted by Richard Marshall at 3AM. (Archived version here.)
Interview conducted by NewApps.
Solicited editorial from Gavagai. “Is there (still) a Continental – Analytic divide in philosophy? Is it necessary to bridge the Analytic – Continental divide?” (2018, pp. 190-191).