Current MA Students

 

Ethan Boord

Interests: 

Education:

 

Owen Davies

He/Him

Interests: Deleuze, Philosophy of film and music

Education: BA, Lawrence University

 

Jeffery Golden

Interests: 

Education:

 

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Heidi Hildeman

She/They/Her/Them

Interests: Existentialism, Phenomenology, Ethics, and issues involving the meaning of life.

Education: B.A. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Philosophy

Dustin Jones

Dustin C. Jones

He/Him
Interests: Philosophy of Mind; Descartes and Cartesianism; Ontology; Epistemology; German Philosophy in the late 18th Century - 19th Century (Kant, Maimon, Fichte, Hegel, Schopenhauer); History and Development of German Idealism; Phenomenology and Existentialism (Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty); Women Philosophers in the History of Philosophy

Education: 
J.D., University of Minnesota Law School ('14)
Th.M, Dallas Theological Seminary ('11)
B.A. in Philosophy and Religion, Liberty University ('07)

 

Peter Keepman

Interests: 

Education:

 

Autumn Lee

Interests: East Asian Philosophy/Tibetan Buddhism

Education: BA from Fordham University in English and Philosophy

Office Hours: Thursdays from 8-10am on Teams

 

Chris McCattee

He/Him

Interests: Spinoza's political philosophy

Education: BA, Case Western

Graham Rivard

Graham Rivard

He/Him

Interests: Ethics, especailly virtue and ethics

Education:
BA, UW River Falls , TESOL and International Studies
Graduate Certificate in Leadership, 糖心vlog蜜桃

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Jordan Ruddy

Interests: Ontology and Metaphysics; Ancient Philosophy (Heraclitus, Plato, Aristotle); Scholasticism and Medieval Philosophy (Augustine, Aquinas, Bonaventure, Eckhart); German Idealism (Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer); Nietzsche and Heidegger, especially on truth, history, and the destiny of metaphysics; Political Philosophy (Plato, Aristotle, Strauss); Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence, including the ontology of artificial minds and the ethical, political, and metaphysical questions raised by AI.

Education:
B.A. in History and Philosophy, Franciscan University of Steubenville

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Bret Zagar

Interests: Modern Philosophy, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Religion, Augustine, Descartes, Kant

 
Bret V. Zagar is an MA student in History of Philosophy. He is working on an account of the cogito in terms of a hierarchical dual structure reading of the cogito: it is primarily a non-propositional intuitive act, secondarily a propositional-deductive expression, with the ranking controlled by rule three of the Regulae. This dual structure of certainty in Descartes' program is construed as the internal cognitive form of the first principle of certain knowledge itself, an architectonic move.
 
In other words, if the cogito is the first most certain principle in Descartes' epistemological program, and if certain knowledge is possible only through the ordered dualism of intuition (primary) and deduction (secondary), then the cogito itself must be structured by that same ordered dualism of intuition and deduction. The cogito is the first most certain principle in Descartes' program, and certain knowledge is possible only through the ordered dualism of intuition and deduction. Therefore: the cogito consists in the dualism of intuition and deduction. More formally:
 
If P and P, then Q
P and P
hence Q
(a form of modus ponens)
 
Another area he works on is an account of the nature and timing(s) of Augustine's "conversion" in the Confessions, construed in terms of positional justification in book 1.9 and 1.11, and experiential sanctification in 8.28 (garden scene). This account of the issue claims to maximally make sense out of the Confessions' data and posits that Augustine first became a Christian in book one (evidenced by the 1.9 and 1.11 data) (positional justification) but did not commit to spiritual advance until book eight in the garden scene (8.28) (experiential sanctification). 
 
Some Interests Expanded: 
 
Metaphysics:
 
Philosophy of Religion/Philosophical Theology:
 
Representative Writings:
 

 Education: