Research Interests

Dissertation

    I am currently finishing my dissertation, A Study of Rational Intuition. In it I address the question of how we acquire our knowledge of abstract matters, and in particular our knowledge of mathematics. One way to appreciate why philosophers find this question particularly puzzling is to contrast it with the question of how we acquire our knowledge of our immediate environment. Here the answer is obvious: sensory perception. It is not so obvious how we acquire our knowledge of mathematics. It is not by sensory perception. It is not just by reasoning, since reasoning requires starting points arrived at without reasoning. It is not just by instruction, since instruction depends on the fact that at some point someone knows without instruction.

    I defend the rationalist view that our knowledge of abstract matters derives from conscious experiences that are similar to but importantly different from sensory perceptions. I call these experiences rational intuitions. Rational intuitions give us knowledge of abstract matters like numbers and shapes and universals by making us aware of their natures. In my dissertation I develop a theory of rational intuition. I aim to address questions like: How do rational intuitions justify belief? What does it consciously feel like to have a rational intuition? How can rational intuitions afford us knowledge of things like numbers, given that the process cannot work in the way that sensation does, since things like numbers are abstract and not in space and time?

    For more information about my dissertation see my dissertation abstract in my CV.

Other

    One thing that distinguishes the view I defend in my dissertation is its commitment to explaining facts about rational belief by facts about what it feels like to have certain conscious experiences, namely rational intuitions. In further research I would like to continue exploring the connection between conscious experience and rational belief. In particular I would like to explore those conscious experiences associated with imagination—which is how we learn about what is possible—memory—which is how we know about the past—and inference—which is how we form rational dependencies among our beliefs.