Research

My research interests tend toward the boundaries within philosophy, whether the boundaries between schools of thought, philosophical epochs, disciplines within philosophy, the various religious traditions of historical philosophers, or even historical and contemporary philosophy. I enjoy topics and thinkers at the margins, especially those who put dissonant approaches into conversation. 

For this reason, my fascination with al-Fārābī (d.950/951) is unsurprising, given that he is a figure at the intersection between both Neoplatonic and Aristotelian Greek Philosophy and Philosophy in the Lands of Islam, a Muslim thinker who learned from a Christian teacher, Abū Bishr Mattā ibn Yūnus, only to himself influence Muslim, Jewish, and Christian philosophers alike, and a philosopher whose systematic approaches to both metaphysics and politics are so integrated with one another that scholars still argue about which science is his primary focus to this day.

My current research, which you can see a synopsis of below, focuses on al-Fārābī’s justification of political deception and the role his metaphysics plays in this justification.

Dissertation

2020: Al-Fārābī, Metaphysics, and the Construction of Social Knowledge: Is Deception Warranted if it leads to Happiness? It can be found here.

Publications

2018: “The Constitution of the Intellect and the Fārābīan Doctrine of First and Second Intention” forthcoming in Phänomenologische Forschungen 2018, Volume 2, “Intention and Intentionality in Phenomenology and Medieval Philosophy.” Eds. Jörn Müller and Michela Summa.

2013: “On Bendered Knee: Futurama on Epistemic Distance as a Precondition for Soul Building” in Futurama and Philosophy. Eds. Courtland Lewis and Shaun P. Young. New York: Open Court Publishing. pp. 159-170.

Recent Presentations

2021: “Taqlīd and the Fārābīan Tradition” at the Aquinas and the ‘Arabs’ International Working Group Spring/Summer 2021 International Meeting. London, UK. (Moved to Remote Meeting)

2019: “Al-Fārābī and Political Deception” at the Aquinas and the ‘Arabs’ International Working Group Spring 2019 International Meeting. Pisa, Italy.

2019: “Abū Naṣr al-Fārābī and the Ikhwān al-Ṣafā’ on Political Imagination” at the International Congress on Medieval Studies sponsored by the Society of Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy. Kalamazoo, MI.

2018: “Plato’s and al-Fārābī’s Conceptions of Political Deception” at Universidad Panamericana. Mexico City, Mexico.

2018: “Al-Fārābī and Maimonides on the Conditions of Prophethood” at Philosophy in the Abrahamic Traditions at the University of Denver. Denver, CO.

2017: “Two Philosophical Critiques of Prophecy: Abū Bakr al-Rāzī and Abū Naṣr al-Fārābī on the Preeminence of Natural Reason” at the University of Toronto Colloquium in Medieval Philosophy 2017 at the University of Toronto. Toronto, Canada.

2017: “Translating Truth into Images in al-Fārābī’s Polis” at Translating Experience: Medieval Encounters with Nature, Self, and God at Durham University. Durham, England.

Curriculum Vitae