I write on issues in epistemology, social epistemology, ethics, metaethics, and religion. I have projects in the works related to epistemic trespassing, post-truth explanations, conversion, radicalization and extremism, humility, and self and other licensing. I worry about overconfidence, divisions in belief, and people's resistance to changing their minds. I am especially interested in the ways people's self-conceptions interact with their belief and opinion management. I'm starting to think seriously about epistemic, ethical, and political issues related to climate change.
Publications Please don't hesitate to email for copies of these papers if you can't access them!
Work in Progress I welcome feedback. Please email me for drafts or with comments. A paper on epistemic trespassing. A paper on moral and epistemic self-licensing. A paper on "post-truth" explanations. A paper on radicalization. A paper on radicalization and "enthusiasm," as understood by the early moderns. A paper on the rationality of prejudice, extremism, and beliefs formed and sustained in echo chambers. A paper on disagreement with converts.
Ideas Being Baked Reasonable person standards in the law Information cascades, social media, and self-licensing More on the relation between testimony and conversion The relation between love, respect, and conversion The nature of religious, moral, and political "belief" and how this informs questions about conversion The idea (found in Ta-Nehisi Coates and Baldwin, among other places) that there is a moral imperative to see reality as it is Miscarriage and abortion Transformative experience and autonomy in medicine Transformative experience and epistemic injustice