Research

My current research interests are (roughly) the following:

The Ethics of Belief: How, if at all, are beliefs subject to normative appraisal? Should the ethics of belief give us prescriptive guidance as to what we should believe/how we should conduct our lives qua believers? Is the ethics of belief a subset of Ethics? Of Epistemology? Is Clifford’s Evidentialism (as opposed to James’ Pragmatism) true?

Epistemology: Fallibilism; Epistemic Permissibility; The Gettier Problem-problem; Epistemic Justification; Externalism vs. Internalism; Epistemic Normativity; the Basing Relation; Epistemic Conservatism; the Nature of Curiosity, Understanding; Knowledge-wh; Epistemic Luck; Epistemic Value.

Philosophy of Mind: The Nature of Belief, “Alief”, Suspended Judgement, wh-attitudes, Intention, Self-Deception; Doxastic Voluntarism; Degrees of Belief; Doxastic Compatibilism; the Phenomenology of Belief; Proprioception; Intuitions.

Ethics: Normativity, Reasons, Rationality; Parfit’s State-Given/Object-Given Reasons distinction; the All-Things-Considered/Pro Tanto Reasons, Oughts, and Duties distinction; “’Ought’Implies ‘Can’”; Blameworthiness, Blame, Responsibility, Obligation (and the relation between them); Rights; Permissibility; the Error-Theory.

Applied Philosophy: Freedom of Speech & Expression; Financial Ethics; Informed Consent. 

I also have an interest in Islamic Philosophy, having spent much of 1990 - 1995 in Syria.