People | Current Graduate Students

Originally from North Carolina, Sarah graduated from Davidson College with a BA in Philosophy in 2010. She began her studies at the University of Indiana in the fall of 2011, and some of her philosophy interests include Philosophy of Language, Logic, and Metaphysics. She is particularly interested in the concepts of infinity and nothing, and how they might relate to numbers and time. She also enjoys reading Existentialism (although she probably doesn't understand much of it).

When not studying philosophy, Sarah likes to read, do jigsaw puzzles, play Scrabble with her roommates, go hiking, or teach belly dancing classes.

Nick Best received a BSc in chemistry and a BA(Hons) in philosophy and history & philosophy of science from the University of New South Wales. He is currently enrolled in the MA program in Philosophy while completing a PhD in HPS.

His interests include philosophy of science, epistemology, ethics and history of science.

Susan began life as a baby. Since then, she has filled her time with learning languages -- most lately Chinese -- and engaging in disputation. Her interests include epistemology and some philosophy of language, as well as Chinese philosophy and getting enough sleep.

This semester, she will be struggling through a Qing-dynasty commentary on the Mohist Canons.

My research interests concern a nest of related issues in epistemology, philosophy of logic, philosophy of science, philosophy of mathematics, and the history of analytic philosophy (particularly Frege, Carnap, and Quine). Of primary interest in my current research is the issue of which principles of deductive inference we should accept. This is an epistemological question, but it is motivated in part by debates in the philosophy of logic and philosophy of mathematics concerning the (in)validity of various principles of deductive inference. Since these debates often involve sophisticated reasoning, an important, but oft-overlooked, issue is that of which principles of inference are employed by the parties to these debates. Careful consideration of this question is needed in order to assess charges of epistemic circularity, question-begging, and self-undermining argumentation. A central contribution of my dissertation is the development of a framework within which we can fruitfully consider these issues and their bearing on the epistemology of logic.

https://sites.google.com/site/matthewcarlsonphilosophy/

I’m a PhD candidate specializing in epistemology. My dissertation is on doxastic involuntarism, deliberation and epistemic agency. My other research interests in epistemology include the distinction of acceptance and belief, ethics of belief, moral psychology of deliberation, theories of epistemic justification, contextualism, etc. Business ethics is my second area of specialty. I have published in Journal of Business Ethics and Journal of Organizational Moral Psychology, and there are several Chinese contributions in Hong Kong and China. Recently I am interested in a re-orientation of business ethics with an emphasis on sociology of work and workplace. Starting August 2012, I teach primarily business ethics at University of Dayton.

Adam graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 2011 with a BS in mathematics and philosophy. His interests are in logic, the foundations of mathematics, computability theory, philosophy of mind, cognitive science, and the philosophy and implementation of artifical intelligence. These interests overlap in interesting ways, and Adam intends to pursue a joint PhD in philosophy and cognitive science to explore the connections between each of them more closely.

In his free time, Adam searches for new music to listen to, plays guitar, and juggles. Adam is also an avid endurance athlete, competing in triathlons and ultramarathons and training year-round.

Interests include: ethics, action theory, practical reason; the mind-world relation; philosophy and literature; select currents in Continental philosophy; Kant & German Idealism, Wittgenstein, Sellars, Davidson, Cavell, and McDowell.

I have a BA in philosophy from the University of Vermont and an MS in math from George Mason University. The following quote by Achille Varzi (given in a different context) aptly describes my research priorities: "Metaphysics comes first, as long as logic is already there."

Josh Hieronymus received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University in 2007. His main areas of interest are metaphysics and logic, with a particular focus on the topics of material ontology, properties, and causation.

I was born in Haifa, Israel. That was a long time ago. Later I moved to Tel-Aviv where I worked as a programmer and studied philosophy, earning a B.A. and an M.A. from Tel-Aviv University. My philosophical interests are diverse and include Kant's ethics, Kant's aesthetics and Kant's philosophy of religion. Additionally I like ordinary language philosophy. Since I moved to Bloomington my hobbies were limited to reading political blogs and gadgets news, refined TV and Mario Kart Wii.

Derek earned a BA in Philosophy and Literature and a BFA in Creative Writing from the University of Evansville, as well as an MA in Philosophy from the University of Houston. He arrived at IU in 2008. His current interests include mental representation, situated/embodied cognition, collective intentionality and the metaphysics of groups. Derek also enjoys various issues in epistemology and their intersections with some of the above topics. In his spare time he ascribes intentional states to things and tries to be a good husband and father. The bearded model shown here is presently unavailable, but a non-bearded version is available upon request.

My primary research is in the philosophy and foundations of mathematics and associated issues in the philosophy of language, philosophy of science and history of 20th Century philosophy. I am currently engaged in a project on the conflict between intuitionistic and classical mathematics, with special focus on Michael Dummett’s work in understanding that conflict. In addition, I maintain active interests in the phenomenological and existentialist traditions (especially in Kierkegaard’s philosophy) and in medieval philosophy.

Daniel got a BA in theology from Southern Nazarene University, and then a MA in the humanities from the University of Chicago. He likes Wittgenstein, Davidson, Germans, and McDowell.

Sharon began her studies at Indiana University in the fall of 2007 after earning a M.A. in Philosophy from Northern Illinois University. Her undergraduate degree is from Cedarville University where she double-majored in Philosophy and Communication Arts. Her main interests are in epistemology and the history of epistemology, particularly questions regarding justification, metaepistemology, and contextualism. She is also currently pursuing questions regarding the logic of self-deception and the relation between knowledge and action.

I am currently working on my dissertation, in which I develop an account of normative guidance and rational agency. My main research areas include ethics, metaethics, and philosophy of action. But I also have interests in questions about rule-following, self-knowledge, and evolutionary considerations bearing on morality and moral psychology.

I regularly teach an Introduction to Ethics course, which focuses not only on moral theory but also on how moral theoretical inquiry can be assessed and improved by applying it to timely issues of moral concern, such as the ethics of modern war.

Sam received his undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago in 2006. He is interested in philosophy of language and epistemology, with a particular focus on ordinary language philosophy and J. L. Austin.

Originally from Tennessee, Nick received his BA in Philosophy and Religion with a concentration in Classics from Roanoke College in 2009. In the fall 2010, Nick received an MA in Philosophy from Brandeis University, and began his studies at Bloomington in the fall 2011. His primary interests are in Metaphysics and Philosophy of Language, with particular emphasis on ontology, meta-ontology, vagueness and what, if any, the limits of expression for certain properties and propositions might be. He also enjoys (?) being very confused by many of the questions in the Philosophy of Religion.

Outside of the philosophy classroom, Nick enjoys comic books, television, puns, hats, table top games, hiking, inserting nonsense words into normal conversation, eating, and trying different sorts of beer.

Elizabeth Palmer, a Ph.D candidate in philosophy at IUB, is currently writing her dissertation in balmy Florida. Her area of specialization is epistemology, and she has an ever-growing interest in the philosophy of perception. Her dissertation project is to examine the role perceptual experiences play in justifying our empirical beliefs: specifically whether and how they can constitute agents' reasons for beliefs.

Outside of philosophy, Elizabeth enjoys reading and watching anything noir, gardening, cooking, and tutoring at the PACE Center for girls in Alachua County.

Tim begun his studies at IU in the Fall of 2010, after receiving a BA in philosophy from Calvin College the same year. His primary interest is epistemology, specifically the nature of knowledge and evidence, and the role of logic and conditionals in epistemology. He is also interested in philosophy of religion and metaphysics.

Luke's dissertation explores the notion of a rivalry between the aesthetic and the moral and how it develops from Kant and Schiller through Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. His three areas of specialization are the history of philosophy, specifically 18th and 19th century continental (mostly German) philosophy, ethics, and aesthetics. He has a special interest in applied ethics and a strong commitment to coaching the highly successful IU National Ethics Bowl team, which he has done for three years. His languages are German, French, and now, thanks to the University of Chicago's intensive summer Latin program, Latin. Born in New York City, Luke enjoys acting, karaoke, watching old movies and coining new words.

Double major with New Eastern Languages and Cultures

I received my A.B. from Wabash College with a major in Classical languages (Latin, Greek). From there I went to I.U. to earn a Master in Library and Information Science. I worked as a professional librarian for about 12 years. Then I went to seminary (Christian Theological seminary in Indy) and earned a Masters in Theology. Following that, I came to IU in '03 to begin work on dual PhDs: Islamic Studies and Philosophy. My area of interest is Mediaeval Islamic Metaphysics. My area of concentration is History of Philosophy.

After receiving his B.A. in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Mike Rings embarked on a series of misadventures involving (but not limited to) marriage, fatherhood, employment as a federal agent, and a sojourn in the Los Angeles music scene. He happily returned to graduate school in 2003, acquiring his M.A. in philosophy from California State University, Long Beach, and writing his thesis on the ontology of musical works. He arrived at IU in the fall of 2005.

Mike's interests lie in the area of aesthetics primarily, and value theory generally. He is lately interested in theories of artistic genres, and issues that lie at the intersection of aesthetics and ethics.

Krista Rodkey graduated summa cum laude from Westmont College in 2007 and started her graduate studies at IU in the fall of that year. In 2009-10 she did an MSt program in ancient philosophy at the University of Oxford. She is now continuing her studies at IU where she finds herself perpetually intrigued by the following: ancient philosophy (especially Plato), Hume and Berkeley, early analytic philosophy (especially Carnap and dear old Frege), and issues of imagination and conceptualization whenever and wherever they arise.

I am currently writing a dissertation on Plato entitled "Metaphysics and Religion in Plato's Euthyphro." In it, I tackle several thorny interpretive questions regarding the Socratic Dialogues and the function of the Euthyphro in the Platonic corpus. In additional to Ancient Greek Philosophy I also have an interest in Philosophy of Religion, especially topics in the rationality of Theism and Divine Providence.

Kari earned a BS in biology and a BA in philosophy, both from the University of Cincinnati. She is interested mainly in the philosophy of biology, philosophy of mind, and their intersection, including the philosophy of psychology and neuroscience. She is particularly interested in issues concerning mechanism and reduction. She is also interested in problems in the philosophy of science generally, especially in the structure of scientific theories, the nature of scientific explanation, and the metaphysics of science. Currently, Kari is also actively cultivating interests in feminist philosophy of science and in the history of analytic philosophy, especially Quine.

Ellie Hua Wang is a PhD student in Philosophy and Cognitive Science at IUB. She works mainly in normative ethics and moral psychology, but also has interests in metaethics, philosophy of mind, and logic. She is currently working on her dissertation regarding a proper understanding of commitment and character, and its role in the friendship critique of consequentialism.