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In defense of doxastic blameSynthese 195 (5): 2205-2226. 2018.In this paper I articulate a view of doxastic control that helps defend the legitimacy of our practice of blaming people for their beliefs. I distinguish between three types of doxastic control: intention-based, reason-based, and influence-based. First I argue that, although we lack direct intention-based control over our beliefs, such control is not necessary for legitimate doxastic blame. Second, I suggest that we distinguish two types of reason-responsiveness: sensitivity to reasons and appre…Read more
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Causal Connections Between Anorexia Nervosa and Delusional BeliefsReview of Philosophy and Psychology 1-22. forthcoming.Numerous studies of the beliefs of people with anorexia nervosa (AN) suggest that a subset of such individuals may experience delusions. We first describe what makes a belief delusional and conclude that such characteristics can be appropriately applied to some beliefs of people with AN. Next, we outline how delusional beliefs may relate to the broader psychopathological process in AN, including: (1) they may be epiphenomenal; (2) they may be an initial partial cause of AN; (3) they may be cause…Read more
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Temporal quantifier relativismInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy. forthcoming.In this paper, I introduce a quantifier-pluralist theory of time, temporal quantifier relativism. Temporal quantifier relativism includes a restricted quantifier for every instantaneous moment of time. Though it flies in the face of orthodoxy, it compares favorably to rival theories of time. To demonstrate this, I first develop the basic syntax and semantics of temporal quantifier relativism. I then compare the theory to its rivals on three issues: the passage of time, the analysis of change, an…Read more
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You Can Bluff but You Should Not SpoofBusiness and Professional Ethics Journal 39 (2): 207-224. 2020.Spoofing is the act of placing orders to buy or sell a financial contract without the intention to have those orders fulfilled in order to create the impression that there is a large demand for that contract at that price. In this article, I deny the view that spoofing in financial markets should be viewed as morally permissible analogously to the way bluffing is permissible in poker. I argue for the pro tanto moral impermissibility of spoofing and make the case that spoofing is disanalogous fro…Read more
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Social Groups Are Concrete Material ParticularsCanadian Journal of Philosophy 52 (4): 468-483. 2022.It is natural to think that social groups are concrete material particulars, but this view faces an important objection. Suppose the chess club and nature club have the same members. Intuitively, these are different clubs even though they have a common material basis. Some philosophers take these intuitions to show that the materialist view must be abandoned. I propose an alternative explanation. Social groups are concrete material particulars, but there is a psychological explanation of noniden…Read more
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The perspectival account of faithReligious Studies 1-16. forthcoming.This article articulates and defends an underexplored account of faith – the perspectival account of faith – according to which faith is a value-oriented perspective on the world towards which the subject has a pro-attitude. After describing this account of faith and outlining what it is to have faith on the perspectival account, I show that the perspectival account meets methodological criteria for an account of faith. I then show that this account of faith can be used to unify various faith lo…Read more
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Maybe Some Other TimeAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 101 (1): 197-212. 2023.
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What is Bitcoin?Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy. 2021.Many want to know what bitcoin is and how it works. But bitcoin is as complex as it is controversial, and relatively few have the technical background to understand it. In this paper, I offer an accessible on-ramp for understanding bitcoin in the form of a model. My model reveals both what bitcoin is and how it works. More specifically, it reveals that bitcoin is a fictional substance in a massively coauthored story on a network that automates and distributes jobs normally entrusted to centraliz…Read more
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Scepticism about the argument from divine hiddennessReligious Studies 48 (2). 2012.Some philosophers have argued that the paucity of evidence for theism — along with basic assumptions about God's nature — is ipso facto evidence for atheism. The resulting argument has come to be known as the argument from divine hiddenness. Theists have challenged both the major and minor premises of the argument by offering defences. However, all of the major, contemporary defences are failures. What unites these failures is instructive: each is implausible given other commitments shared by ev…Read more
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The Only Way To BeNoûs 53 (3): 593-612. 2017.
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Moral Uncertainty and Value ComparisonIn Russ Shafer Landau (ed.), Oxford Studies in Metaethics, Volume 13, . pp. 161-183. 2018.Several philosophers have recently argued that decision-theoretic frameworks for rational choice under risk fail to provide prescriptions for choice in cases of moral uncertainty. They conclude that there are no rational norms that are “sensitive” to a decision-maker's moral uncertainty. But in this paper, I argue that one sometimes has a rational obligation to take one's moral uncertainty into account in the course of moral deliberation. I first provide positive motivation for the view that one…Read more
APA Central Division
Laramie, Wyoming, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Religion |
Areas of Interest
Epistemology |
Philosophy of Language |
Applied Ethics |
History of Western Philosophy |
PhilPapers Editorships
Simples and Gunk |