Home

Teaching 

Senior Theology explores the good life, using both philosophical (e.g., Plato, Aristotle) and theological (e.g., Aquinas, Himes) authors as springboards for thinking about our own lives in practical and concrete ways. In the second semester we focus on Social Justice: students craft an ethical argument, using philosophical and theological sources, that we ought to act to solve an injustice that they choose and research, and they design a website to present their research, argument, interview with an expert, and solution.

Junior Morality guides students through the science of ethics. After an introduction to the philosophical discipline and to the foundations of Catholic morality, students develop their own personal moral code and focus on applying it to situations they may encounter in their own lives.

Philosophy and Honors Philosophy introduce students to the discipline through discussing and critiquing texts, problems, and thought experiments from thinkers from Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle to contemporary philosophers. Depending on student interest, we can go on to explore questions such as whether the mind is distinct from the brain (and, if so, what is it?) and thought experiments such as "Black and White Mary" (if you were raised in a black and white environment but learned all the scientific facts about color perception, would you learn anything when you first saw colors?). Throughout the course we practice constructing and critiquing arguments, both in writing and spoken discussion. The primary objective is to enable students to think critically about complex problems from a variety of angles and generate creative solutions, which they are also able to criticize. In a world where technology often renders traditional job training obsolete, critical and creative thinking skills are the ultimate portable skills.

Science and Religion has been a particular focus for me. I have attended workshops and seminars on faith and reason with Science Department teachers at Serra. We would like to help students better understand the relation between the disciplines of science and theology and to understand how there are no conflicts between Catholic Church teaching and current scientific theories of evolution, particle physics, and cosmogenesis, just to take several examples. A better understanding of these issues should help students to understand their faith better and to be better scientists and critical thinkers.

I am also the teacher coach of the Junipero Serra Mock Trial Team and the Junipero High School Ethics Bowl Team.

Scholarship

My main focus as a scholar is the metaphysical composition of particulars in Plato, where particulars are such things as pens, plants, and peacocks—the normal, everyday objects we interact with on a day-to-day basis. But the things that make these things up are also particulars: cells, atoms, and elementary particles. One of the main questions is this: are the properties of particulars (the hardness of the pen, the greenness of the plant, and the beauty of the peacock, for example) parts of them in the same kind of way as their cells and atoms are parts of them? I argue that Plato thinks that particulars are just groups of properties (what metaphysicians call “tropes”) without any "thing" that underlies them and binds them together, and I also argue that Plato’s ideas about particulars compare favorably with those of contemporary metaphysicians. “Triangles, Tropes, and τα τοιαυτα: A Platonic Trope Theory” (Plato Journal 18:9-24) and "A Platonic Trope Bundle Theory" (Ancient Philosophy Now: Dialogoi 2 (2): 91-112) set forth the details of this argument.  My most recent publication, "Plato and Aristotle on the Nature of Reality," a chapter in The Platonic Mind (Routledge 2025), examines Aristotle's response to Plato given my reinterpretation of Plato's metaphysics. I also actively present new work to the philosophical community at conferences organized by organizations such as the American Philosophical Association and the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy. You can find more information about my research here.