Ethics of Persuasion, Schopenhauer, Kant, Metaethics
University of Washington, Seattle
Full Professor, September 2025 - present
Associate Professor, September 2017 – August 2025
Assistant Professor, September 2013 - September 2017
University of Melbourne
Gerry Higgins Lecturer in the History of Philosophy, July 2011 - July 2013
New York University
New York University, Department of Philosophy
Ph.D. May 2010, M.A. January 2007
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institut für Philosophie
Visiting Student. April-July 2009
Reed College, Philosophy
B.A. May 2003
The Best the World has to Offer: Schopenhauer’s Guide to a Tolerable Life
Princeton University Press (forthcoming 2027)
Just Hear Me Out: How to Change Minds without Lies, Bullshit, or Moral Compromise
University of Chicago Press (2026)
Compassionate Moral Realism
Oxford University Press (2018)
Kant’s Fundamental Assumptions
With Colin McLear. Oxford University Press (under contract)
The New Cambridge Companion to Schopenhauer
With Sandra Shapshay, Cambridge University Press (under contract)
Kant’s Lasting Legacy: Essays in Honor of Béatrice Longuenesse
With Stefanie Grüne, Routledge (2025)
Comparative Metaethics: Neglected Perspectives on the Foundations of Morality
Routledge Press (2019)
“Schopenhauer on Will, Essence, and Metaphysical Explanation”
The New Cambridge Companion to Schopenhauer, Sandra Shapshay and Colin Marshall (eds.), Cambridge University Press (forthcoming)
“Reply to Newton”
Kant’s Fundamental Assumptions, Colin Mclear and Colin Marshall (eds.), Oxford University Press (forthcoming).
“Eight-Dimensional Persuasive Respect and the Walter Sobchak Fallacy”
Topoi (forthcoming)
“Arguments as Unexpected Puppies: Agential Disrespect through Rational Persuasion”
Philosophy and Rhetoric 58: 1 (2025) 95-103
“Does Kant Debunk Robust Metaphysics?” in, Kant’s Lasting Legacy: Essays in Honor of Béatrice Longuenesse, Colin Marshall and Stefanie Grüne (eds). Routledge (2025), 224-45
“Political Persuasion is Prima Facie Disrespectful”
Journal of Moral Philosophy (2024, online first version)
“Schopenhauer on the Futility of Suicide”
Mind 134:533 (2025), 171–190
“Kant on Modality” (with Aaron Barker)
The Oxford Handbook of Kant, Anil Gomes and Andrew Stephenson (eds.). Oxford University Press (2024) , 229-48.
“Schopenhauer’s Five-Dimensional Normative Ethics” (with Kayla Mehl)
The Schopenhauerian Mind, David Bather-Woods and Timothy Stoll (eds.). Routledge Press (2024), 213-27.
"Kant's Derivation of the Moral 'Ought' from a Metaphysical 'Is'"
Sensible and Intelligible Worlds, Nicholas Stang and Karl Schafer (eds.)
Oxford University Press (2022)
“Schopenhauer’s Titus Argument”
Schopenhauer’s Moral Philosophy, Patrick Hassan (ed.).
Routledge Press (2022), 31-51
“Schopenhauer on the Content of Compassion”
Noûs 55:4 (2021), 782-99
“Spinoza and Kant”
The Blackwell Companion to Spinoza, Yitzhak Melamed (ed.)
Blackwell Press (2021)
“Kant’s (Non-Question-Begging) Refutation of Cartesian Scepticism”
Kantian Review 24:1 (2019), 77-101
"Never Mind the Intuitive Intellect: Applying Kant's Categories to Noumena"
Kantian Review 23:1 (2018), 27-40
"Schopenhauer and Contemporary Metaethics"
Palgrave Schopenhauer Handbook, Sandra Shapshay (ed.)
Palgrave (2018), 239-60
"Mendelssohn, Kant, and the Mereotopology of Immortality" (with Jonathan Simon)
Ergo 4:29 (2017), 821-44
"Kant on Impenetrability, Touch, and the Causal Content of Perception"
European Journal of Philosophy 25:4 (2017), 1411-1433
"Moral Realism in Spinoza's Ethics"
The Cambridge Critical Guide to Spinoza's Ethics, Yitzhak Melamed (ed.)
Cambridge University Press (2017), 248-65
"Schopenhauer and Non-Cognitivist Moral Realism"
Journal of the History of Philosophy 55: 2 (2017), 293–316
"Lockean Empathy"
Southern Journal of Philosophy 54:1 (2016), 87-106
"Reason in the Short Treatise"
The Young Spinoza, Yitzhak Melamed (ed.)
Oxford University Press (2015), 133-143
"Hume versus the Vulgar on Resistance, Nisus, and the Impression of Power"
Philosophical Studies 172:2 (2015), 305-319
"Does Kant Demand Explanations for All Synthetic A Priori Claims?"
Journal of the History of Philosophy 52:3 (2014), 549-576
"Kant's One Self and the Appearance/Thing-in-Itself Distinction"
Kant-Studien 104:4 (2013), 421-441
"Kant's Appearances and Things in Themselves as Qua-Objects"
Philosophical Quarterly 63:252 (2013), 520-545
"Spinoza on Destroying Passions with Reason"
Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 85:1 (2012), 139-160
"Kant's Metaphysics of the Self"
Philosophers' Imprint 10:8 (2010), 1-21
"The Mind and Body as 'One and the Same Thing' In Spinoza"
British Journal for the History of Philosophy 17:5 (2009), 897-919
(excluding monographs)
“Empathy can take a toll – but 2 philosophers explain why we should see it as a strength” (with Emad Atiq)
-The Conversation, May 22, 2025
Reprinted in Religion News Service, Yahoo News, The National Herald, and elsewhere.
“Philosophers can be awesome at political phone banking”
-Blog of the American Philosophical Association, Oct. 24, 2024
-The Conversation, May 4, 2024
Reprinted in San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, Inner Self, ArcaMax, Idaho Press, Cobb Courier, MSN, Yahoo News, and elsewhere.
“Respectful Persuasion is a Relay Race, Not a Solo Sprint”
-The Conversation, May 1, 2023
Reprinted in Government Executive, The San Francisco Chronicle, Yahoo News, Giving Compass, The American Society for Public Administration, and elsewhere.
“Does charitable Kant interpretation buttress Eurocentrism?”
-Blog of the American Philosophical Association, Sept. 20, 2022
"Helping philosophy students persuade for the November 3 election"
-Blog of the American Philosophical Association, Oct. 26, 2020
"In the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, what should you say to someone who refuses to wear a mask?"
-The Conversation, Aug. 24, 2020
Reprinted in the Chicago Tribute, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Baltimore Sun, Houston Chronicle, Albany Times-Union, The Hour, Stamford Advocate, Montana Post, and elsewhere.
John J. Callanan and Lucy Allais (eds.). Kant and Animals
European Journal of Philosophy 2022;30:1591–1594, with Aaron Barker
Ingmar Persson, Ethics from Compassion
Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2022.08.04
“Moral Principles in May’s Regard for Reason in the Moral Mind"
Behavioral and Brain Sciences 42, e160 (2019)
Melissa Merritt, Kant on Reflection and Virtue
Mind 128 (511):1002-1011 (2019)
Nathaniel Goldberg, Kantian Conceptual Geography
Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2015.07.27
Corey Dyck, Kant and Rational Psychology
Virtual Critique 2015.06.24,
“Empathy vs. Compassion: A Concluding Discussion” (with Caroline Bollen).
Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective 13 (2): 8–11.
“Reply to Bollen’s ‘Towards a Clear and Fair Conceptualization of Empathy’.” Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective 12:9 (2023): 10–14.
Deontological commentaries
Real World AI Ethics for Data Scientists: Practical Case Studies, Tracey Dowdeswell and Nachshon Goltz (eds.), in Collaboration with Peter Singer and Yip Fai Tse.
Routledge: Chapman & Hall/CRC Data Science Series (2023)
"appearance" and "impression"
The Cambridge Kant Lexicon, Julian Wuerth (ed.)
Cambridge University Press (2021)
"Compassion without Cuteness"
-New York University, April 2018
"Compassionate Moral Realism"
-Reed College, November 2015
-University of Victoria, January 2016
"How Kant refutes Cartesian idealism"
-North American Kant Society Pacific Meeting, November 2014
"Kant's derivation of the moral 'ought' from a metaphysical 'is'"
-University of Miami workshop on Kant, April 2014
-University of Victoria, January 2014
"Kant on perception and impenetrability"
-Simon Fraser University, September 2013
-University of Oklahoma, January, 2013
-University of Washington, January 2013
-University of New Mexico, February 2013
-University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, February 2013
-University of Nebraska, February 2013
"Hume on nisus and the impression of force"
-Australian Metaphysics Conference, ANU Kioloa, April 2013
"The Mind as an Idea in Spinoza's Short Treatise"
-Eastern Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, December 2012
-Deakin University, April 2012
"Why can't we perceive necessities, Kant?"
-Columbia University, September 2012
-Monash University, October 2012
-University of Sydney, November 2012
"Qua-Objects and Kant's Distinction between Appearances and Things in Themselves"
-La Trobe University, May 2012
"One Self, One World in Kant"
-Miami Workshop on New Directions in Kant, December 2011
"Empathetic Moral Realism"
-Australian National University, November 2011
"Reason in the Short Treatise"
-Conference on the Young Spinoza, Johns Hopkins University, September 2011
"Does Kant Aim to Explain All Synthetic A Priori Judgments?"
-Eastern Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, December 2010
"Spinoza on the Power of Reason over the Passions"
-New England Colloquium in Early Modern Philosophy, Yale University, May 2010
-Reed College, January 2010
-Colgate University, January 2010
-Leibniz-Preis-Forschungsprojeckt Colloquium, Humboldt University, Berlin, June 2009
"Kant on the Constitution of Everyday Objects"
-University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, January 2010
-Frankfurt University, Frankfurt am Main, June 2009
"Spinoza, Kant and the Moral Powers of Reason"
-Washington DC Spinoza Society, Goethe Institute of Washington, October 2009
"The Metaphysics of the Self in Kant"
-Humboldt University, Berlin, June 2009
"The Identity of the Self in Kant's Third Paralogism"
-Workshop on Kant on the Identity of Persons, Amiens Universite de Picardie, May 2008
"A Kantian Account of Epistemic Normativity"
-Seoul National University/NYU Micro-Conference, February 2007
"Two Arguments Against the Particular Content Reading of Nicolas Malebranche's 'General Volitions'"
-Pacific meeting of the American Philosophical Association, March 2006
Author-meets-critics on Justin Clarke-Doane, Morality and Mathematics
-Canadian Philosophical Association Meeting, June 2019
Comments on Karl Ameriks (Notre Dame)
-NYU Conference on History of Philosophy, November 2018
Comments on Thomas Moore (Brown): “Regulativity in the Critique of Pure Reason.”
-North American Kant Society Biennial Meeting, May 2018
Comments on James Messina, "The Metaphysics of Kantian Intuitions"
-Pacific meeting of the American Philosophical Association, March 2016
Author-meets-critics on Corey Dyck, Kant & Rational Psychology
-Canadian Philosophical Meeting, May/June 2015
-Online at Virtual Critique, with a reply by Dyck
Comments on Andrew Brook, "Apperception and Dark Representations"
-Canadian Philosophical Meeting, May/June 2015
Comments on Eugene Marshall, "From Passion to Action"
-Eastern meeting of the American Philosophical Association, December 2012
Comments on Richard Swinburne, "Does God Exist?"
-Veritas Forum, New York, April 2011
Comments on Jeff Edwards, "Moral Worth in Kant and Hume"
-New York Idealism Workshop, March 2011
Royalty Research Fund Scholar Program, University of Washington, 2016
Faculty Teaching Support Fellowship, University of Melbourne, 2012
Graduate Fellow, New York Institute of Philosophy, 2009-2010
Dean's Dissertation Fellowship, 2009-2010
DAAD Scholarship, for study in Germany, 2008
Fulbright Award (declined in order to accept DAAD), 2008
Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Prize, Pacific APA, March 2006
MacCracken Fellowship, NYU, 2004-2009
Edwin N. Garlan Prize in Philosophy, Reed College, 2003
Phi Beta Kappa Society, Reed College. Admitted May, 2003
Commendation for Academic Excellence, Reed College, 2002-2003
Commendation for Academic Excellence, Reed College, 2001-2002
Robert C. Byrd Scholarship, State of New Mexico, 1999-2003
Program Chair, 2026 Pacific Divisional Meeting of the American Philosophical Association (online)
Article referee: Ancient Philosophy, Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, History of Philosophy Quarterly, Journal of Moral Philosophy, Journal of the History of Philosophy, Mind, Nous, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophers' Imprint, Philosophical Papers, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Res Philosophica, Southern Journal of Philosophy, Theoria, and others
Book referee: MIT Press, Oxford University Press, Routledge Press
Co-Editor (with John Morrison), PhilPapers.org,"Spinoza"
Editor, PhilPapers.org, "Spinoza: Epistemology"
Editor, PhilPapers.org, "Spinoza: Works"
Editor, PhilPapers.org, "Kant: Philosophy of Mind"
Co-Founder, New York Institute of Philosophy Outreach Program
Volunteer Instructor, New York Institute of Philosophy Outreach Program, 2008-2010
Judge, 2010 Long Island Ethics Bowl
Judge, 2012 VAPS Philosothon
At NYU:
Graduate Student Representative, 2007-2008
Invited panel member, Departmental Orientation for New TAs, 2007, 2008
Curriculum committee, 2004-2005
Paper reviewer for NYU/Columbia Graduate Student Conference, 2004-2009
Organizer, Washington Square Circle, Spring 2006-Spring 2008