Teaching
Current Students
Michael Veldman. PhD. Proposal in progress.
Qiu Lin. PhD. ABD.
Dissertation title: "John Locke and Émilie du Châtelet on the Epistemology of Space"
John Hanson. PhD. ABD.
Dissertation title: The Darkened Eye of the Intellect: Descartes on Mental Representation.
Co-advisor Sam Newlands.
Former Students
Monica Solomon. PhD. 2017.
Dissertation title: On the Interactions between Mathematics and Metaphysics in Isaac Newton’s Writings: the Case of Mathematical Forces.
Current position: Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University.
Pablo Ruiz de Olano. PhD. 2016.
Dissertation title: Epistemic Values in Theoretical Physics: Symmetries, Conservation Laws, and the Strong Nuclear Interaction.
Current position: Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin.
Ryan Dominguez. Senior thesis. 2013/14.
Shannon Hughes. Senior thesis. 2012/13.
Winner of the Philosophy Department’s Dockweiler medal for best senior thesis in philosophy.
Julie Brauer. Senior thesis. 2012/13.
Kristina Sault. Senior thesis. 2009/10.
Joint winner of the Philosophy Department’s Dockweilter medal for best senior thesis in philosophy.
Beata Aldridge. Senior thesis. 2008/09.
Classes
Spring 2021
Natural philosophy from Descartes to Kant (PHIL590S)
Fall 2020
History of modern philosophy (PHIL201)
Co-taught with Qiu Lin.
Dissertation seminar (PHIL797)
Spring 2020
Historical and Philosophical Perspectives on Science (PHIL541S)
Core seminar of the HPSTM graduate certificate program.
Co-taught with Jennifer Jhun.
Problems in Philosophy of Science (PHIL242S)
An introduction to some topics in philosophy of science and philosophy of physics.
Fall 2019
Problems in Philosophy of Science (PHIL242)
An introduction to some topics in philosophy of science and philosophy of physics.
Co-taught with Felipe De Brigard.
Dissertation seminar (PHIL797)
Spring 2019
Historical and Philosophical Perspectives on Science (PHIL541S)
Core seminar of the HPSTM graduate certificate program. Co-taught with Andrew Janiak.
Methodology of the Empirical Sciences: Newton's Principia (PHIL633S)
With George Smith's
Newton Lectures livecast from Tufts.
Fall 2018
Problems in natural philosophy from Descartes to Kant (PHIL590S)
Focus: space, time and matter.
Issues include: questions of metaphysics, epistemology, and methodology, and we will cover such topics as absolute versus relative space and time, laws of nature, causality, determinism, and the nature and properties of bodies.
Main characters: Descartes, Newton, Leibniz, Du Châtelet, Euler, d'Alembert.
Supporting cast includes: Spinoza, Locke, Malebranche, Wolff, Berkeley, Maupertuis, Hume, Kant.