About

I am an Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

I work primarily in metaphysics (especially modality, laws of nature, properties, dispositions, causation, and fiction) and the general philosophy of science (especially, scientific representation, scientific models, scientific realism, evidence and confirmation, explanation), but I also have interests in epistemology and the philosophies of physics, mind, and language. 

I founded, administer, and contribute to Matters of Substance: A Group Blog Devoted to Metaphysics and It's Only A Theory: A Group Blog Devoted to General Philosophy of Science. 

I am the PhilPapers area editor for General Philosophy of Science and middle editor for Models and Idealization, Scientific Realism, and Properties.

News

Apr 24, 2012: Well, this has been a long time coming, but my paper 'Dispositions and Interferences' has finally been accepted for publication in Philosophical Studies.

Apr 4, 2012: The book symposium on  Jody Azzouni's Talking About Nothing: Numbers, Hallucinations and Fictions has just been published in Analysis. You can find my contribution to it, 'Sweet Nothings', here.

Feb 7, 2012: I've been invited to participate in an Analysis book symposium on Ted Sider's new book Writing the Book of the World. The other participants are Trenton Merricks and Jonathan Schaffer.

MY TOP 10 DOWNLOADED WORKS ON PHILPAPERS

  1. Scientific Models and Representation (253 downloads)
  2. Scientific Models and Fictional Objects (138 downloads)
  3. Modal Truthmakers and Two Varieties of Actualism (131 downloads)
  4. Representing Reality: The Ontology of Scientific Models and their Representational Function (my awkwardly-titled doctoral thesis) (95 downloads)
  5. Do Extrinsic Dispositions Need Extrinsic Causal Bases? (81 downloads)
  6. Dispositions and Interferences (77 downloads)
  7. Scientific Representation, Interpretation, and Surrogative Reasoning (76 downloads)
  8. Constructive Empiricism, Observability, and Three Kinds of Ontological Commitment (65 downloads)
  9. Empiricist Structuralism, Metaphysical Realism, and the Bridging Problem (53 downloads)
  10. The Junk Argument: Safe Disposal Guidelines for Mereological Universalists (42 downloads)

MY MOST CITED WORKS (according to Google Scholar):

  1. Scientific Representation, Interpretation, and Surrogative Reasoning (32 citations)
  2. Scientific Models and Fictional Objects (8 citations)
  3. Constructive Empiricism, Observability and Ontological Commitment (3 citations)

MY WORKS CITED IN THE STANFORD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PHILOSOPHY

  1. Do Extrinsic Dispositions Need Extrinsic Causal Bases? (cited in the entry 'Dispositions')