My early research in the philosophy of mathematics mostly revolved around Paul Benacerraf's 1973 paper "Mathematical Truth." Specifically, I've written about epistemological arguments against mathematical platonism and Quinean semantic arguments for mathematical platonism.
Benacerrafian epistemological concerns still drive some of my current research. Thanks to a few months with cognitive psychologists at the University of Canterbury (NZ), some of my in-progress epistemological work engages with psychological research into mathematical cognition. Some of it engages with the difference between belief and acceptance. And some of it engages with Benacerraf-related debunking arguments in metaethics.
(click for papers)
forthcoming. "Mathematical Knowledge" in Kurt Sylvan, Ernest Sosa, Jonathan Dancy, and Matthias Steup (eds.) The Blackwell Companion to Epistemology, 3rd Edition. (penultimate version)
2022. "The Benacerraf Problem of Mathematical Truth and Knowledge." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
2020. "Benacerraf, Field, and the Agreement of Mathematicians." Synthese 197(5): 2095--2110. (penultimate version)
2018. "Ontological Realism and Sentential Form." Synthese 195(11): 5021--36. (penultimate version)
2018. "The Limits of Reconstructive Neologicist Epistemology." The Philosophical Quarterly 68(273): 717--738. (penultimate version)
2016. "To Bridge Godel's Gap." Philosophical Studies 173(8): 2133--50. (penultimate version)
In metaphysics proper, my focus is primarily on the ontology of abstracta. In the past I've coathored papers on the metaphysics of propositions and on grounding and essence. My current work tends towards generative/constructive and abstractionist approaches to ontological issues.
(click for papers)
forthcoming. "Chain Accounts of Sets and Propositions" in Karen Bennett and Dean Zimmerman (eds.) Oxford Studies in Metaphysics (accepted version)
Runner-up for the 2026 Sanders Prize in Metaphysics
2023. "Hylomorphic Propositions" in Chris Tillman and Adam Murray (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Propositions. (with Ben Caplan and Chris Tillman) (penultimate version)
2018. "Constitutive Essence and Partial Grounding." Inquiry 61(2): 137--161. (with Ben Caplan and Chris Tillman) (penultimate version)