Research

I work in epistemology, ethics, and philosophy of religion. Broadly speaking, I am interested in the nature and limits of our epistemic grasp of the world around us (including other people) and of God and in the ethical implications thereof.

"Divine Hiddenness: Evidence and Transcendence," Faith and Philosophy, 2026

Argues that, due to Michael Rea's transcendence-emphasizing reply to J. L. Schellenberg's atheistic hiddenness argument, the hiddenness argument is best formulated as an evidential argument (of the sort explored in Charity Anderson and Jeffrey Sanford Russell's work). Argues, contra Anderson and Russell, a transcendence-emphasizing reply can mitigate the atheistic impact even of an evidential version of the argument—if it is based on natural theological reasons. Open access link here.

"Aspiration and seeking understanding," Philosophical Studies, 2026

Argues, contra Agnes Callard, that a certain sort of transformative work on ourselves to which she draws our attention ("aspiration") isn't best theorized as she would have it—as, essentially, seeking a future self.  Extends, following Laura Frances Callahan, a promising view of moral understanding to a view of evaluative understanding in general. Argues that aspiration is best theorized as seeking this sort of evaluative understanding. Open access link here.

A paper about knowing people

Argues for a new account of what it is to know another person, the Perspective-Taking Account, on which A knows B insofar as A takes B's perspective, in a certain sense. Under review; email me for a draft.

A paper about knowing and understanding people

Argues for a view of understanding someone that distinguishes it from merely knowing someone and that emphasizes an underappreciated feature of such understanding (predictive power). 

A paper about objectification

Argues that objectification is seeing a person as less than a whole person. Email me for a draft.

A paper about knowing God

Argues that, due to divine transcendence, there is a special sense in which creatures can never fully know God.

A paper about advice + wisdom and testimony + understanding

Argues that (i) advice is not just a kind of testimony, but that (ii) advice-taking and testimony-acceptance have parallels, and these parallels illuminate the conditions under which accepting testimony can lead to understanding.