Language and thought
I’m currently interested in how language shapes our conceptual capacities. A central idea is that these capacities are systematically interrelated, so that possessing a particular conceptual capacity involves being able to draw on its connections with others. Language enables us to recognize and make fuller use of these connections. More importantly, it also enables us to take responsibility for what we do and say, and to negotiate those responsibilities with others. My current work explores this interpersonal dimension of the relation between language and thought.
Quine and the history of analytic philosophy
Quine’s naturalism treats philosophy as continuous with science. My current work explores how this naturalism shapes his philosophical positions, including the indeterminacy of translation, his choice of a canonical notation, and his account of the attribution of mental states to others. Across these apparently different domains, I identify a guiding thread in Quine’s conception of experience as organized by laws, which I trace to his pragmatist teacher, C. I. Lewis. This also points to another strand in my work, namely the study of Quine’s philosophical development through both his published writings and his unpublished manuscripts and letters.
Work in progress
I’m writing two articles on the influence of Dummett on Gareth Evans and John McDowell, focusing on Dummett’s conception of a theory of meaning and, more specifically, on the rational character of language as crystallized in the Fregean notion of sense. I’m also investigating the philosophy of C. I. Lewis and its connection to Quine in greater depth.