Yes, that guy on the mountain is me.
Here's a bit more about me. (Sorry, but it is not very exciting.)
Brief biography:
I grew up in Versailles,
Ohio, a town of about 3,000 people and 4 traffic lights. Versailles
has a very good public high
school, and I benefited from its many excellent teachers.
I did my undergraduate work at The Ohio State University, where I majored in philosophy, minored in English, and took a few business classes. In 1989 I graduated from OSU and went to the University of Illinois at Chicago to earn my Ph.D.
While working on my Ph.D., I also spent two years as managing editor for the journal Ethics. I earned my Ph.D. in 1995. That same year, I took a job as an assistant professor of philosophy at Florida International University, which is the public university at Miami. I spent the fall of 1997 as a visiting assistant professor at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia. In the fall of 1998, I moved to Central Michigan University where I became an assistant professor of philosophy. I am glad to have made that move, partly because I like the weather better up here. (This may be difficult to believe unless you have endured one of Miami's 8 month long steamy summers.)
In the summer of 2000, I was promoted to associate professor. In the Spring of 2002, I was awarded tenure. That same semester, I was also awarded CMU's Provost's Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Activity, and a CMU Research Professorship, which allowed me to spend the fall semester of 2002 doing research for a book I am writing about personal autonomy. I am grateful to the university for recognizing my work in these ways, and to my colleagues in the Philosophy and Religion Department for making CMU such a pleasant place to carry on my various projects.
In January of 2003, I married the love of my life, Sara Spencer. (Click here to follow a link to the place where I proposed.) Currently, Sara is working on a law degree at Michigan State University-Detroit College of Law.
Intellectual interests:
My main philosophical interests are in moral theory,
moral psychology, meta-ethics, applied ethics, and political theory. I
have published articles on personal autonomy, manipulative actions, moral
motivation, value theory, and neo-Kantian ethics. My articles have appeared
in American Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophical Studies, Canadian
Journal of Philosophy,
and Southern Journal of Philosophy. (To
see a list of my articles and abstracts for them, click
here.) My dissertation
was on personal autonomy, which is related to free will. The dissertation
was an attempt to formulate a psychologically plausible definition of autonomy
and to use it to help answer questions in moral theory and applied ethics.
My current research focuses on the role that claims about human nature
and the nature of persons play in moral theory. In addition, I have been
collaborating with Samantha Brennan (Associate Professor of Philosophy,
University of Western Ontario) on the topic of the moral status of children.
Finally, I have begun to dabble in applied ethics, collaborating with Dan Palmer
(Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Kent State at Trumbull) on a case study of
moral issues raised by the Ford-Firestone situation.
Besides philosophy,
I find history, astronomy (especially cosmology), and psychology interesting.
Lately I've been reading a good deal of history (especially ancient history), and occasionally I take a small telescope out into the back
yard to see what I can see.
Hobbies:
My non-intellectual interests include keeping up with my cats,
hiking
(in the mountains when
possible), and various athletic pursuits for which I never seem to
have enough time (in particular, running and weight training). Sara and I
have a two-person kayak, and in the summer we can often be seen plying the calm
waters of the Chippewa River.
