Department of Philosophy

His areas of published research include action theory, epistemology, metaphysics, moral development, philosophy of education, of biology, and of psychology. His current interests center on ontology, philosophy of action, and philosophy of mind. His book, Against Instinct, is a skeptical critique of the rampant biological determinism of the behavioral and cognitive sciences. On the positive side, it propounds and defends a novel, radically non-nativistic conception of action and of mind.

The Realm of Experience: An Essay in Linguistic Phenomenology

Inquest of Human Identity: A Pragmatic Approach to the Metaphysics of the Self (book manuscript, in progress) This philosophical exploration is pragmatic in a number of ways-- most notably, in its methodological affinity to the special brand of "scientific metaphysics" proposed by C.S. Peirce and its eventual nod in the direction of some substantive theses of John Dewey. The most central focus of the investigation is the notion of what I call "the criterial continuity of existence". This notion, defended at length, is variously deployed in arguments that challenge many thought-experimental claims about personal identity (or the lack thereof), and is used inter alia to deny the very possibility of ' life hereafter.'

Lecture: The Peculiar Unreality of Race
Center for Practical and Professional Ethics, Sacramento State