My main research interest is agency and responsibility. My current work aims to address what Paul Russell (2022) has called "existential-metaphysical" problems about human agency: how to make sense of the significance of human agency within the bounds of the natural world, within our local social-moral context, and given our actual limitations and psychologies.

 

​​In metaphysics and action theory, my research has focused on two themes: reductionism about agency and the metaphysics of abilities. How do agents relate to their agentive abilities? And how do these abilities themselves relate to possibilities, dispositions, causation, and counterfactuals? I am especially concerned with how these issues pertain to the free will debate.

 

​My research in ethics and moral psychology focuses on the ethics of praise and blame, whether the aptness of certain moral emotions requires free will, and how emotions shape our agency. I have written about disgust, moral elevation, anger, gratitude, and fear.​​​

 

My work often connects with or directly addresses issues in the philosophy of mind, philosophy of religion, and social philosophy, e.g., what's the relationship between an agent and her mind? Can I appropriately blame God? How do our blaming practices interact with moral and political disagreement? 

 

For a complete list of publications, please see my CV. ​

 

I enjoy co-authoring - let me know if you're interested in working together on a project!

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