B.A. Philosophy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2017
M.A. Philosophy, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 2019
My primary philosophical interests are in metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of mathematics. I also have budding secondary interests in philosophy of language, philosophy of science, and political philosophy, but I enjoy discussing and learning about all areas. I also enjoy listening to music of all kinds, and trying out craft beers (especially sours).
Nathan Dowell
B.A. Missions, Clear Creek College, 2011
M.A. Philosophical Studies, Liberty University, 2016
M.A. Philosophy of Religion, Yale Divinity School, 2019
I most enjoy metaphysics, epistemology and modern philosophy. In metaphysics, I love almost anything concerning modality, especially investigations into the grounds for modal truths. For epistemology, my interests involve the nature and scope of a priori knowledge, and I am also drawn to the epistemology of disagreement. In modern philosophy, I have explored modal grounding and other modal concepts in Descartes, Leibniz and Kant. Also, I have worked on a priori knowledge in modern thinkers and have recently become more interested in Thomas Reid’s epistemology.
Beyond my philosophical pursuits, I love spending time with my wife and daughter and reading literature, poetry and miscellaneous books (usually about creativity or productivity).
B.A. Philosophy, University of Washington, 2015
M.A. Philosophy, Simon Fraser University, 2019
When I am not reading and writing, I enjoy skiing, hiking, traveling, and generally being outdoors. I am mostly interested in early modern philosophy, especially Leibniz and Kant, ethics, and the philosophy of religion. I also enjoy classical Chinese philosophy, especially Confucius, and I have a small but growing interest in political philosophy. For my MA project, I defended an interpretation of Leibniz's later work which declared that although God is morally bound to the creation of the best world, he is nonetheless in a certain sense free to have done otherwise. I argued this was in fact the best way for Leibniz to secure the much coveted root of contingency. At OSU, I would like to continue developing my research in the early modern period and to continue cultivating my teaching competency in ethics, philosophy of religion, and classical Chinese philosophy.
Vaughn Papenhausen
B.A. Philosophy, Haverford College, 2018
My philosophical interests lie primarily in metaethics, normative ethics, and moral psychology, with some interest in political philosophy and epistemology, but my interest in metaethics leads me to be instrumentally interested in most areas of philosophy to some degree, insofar as metaethics touches pretty much everything (e.g. metaphysics, philosophy of language, epistemology). But to say that I'm interested in these particular subfields doesn't really explain much; it's much more informative to say why I'm interested in them. Most of my interests stem from one of two main projects. The first is investigating the question "what to do about moral and political disagreement": this underlies my interests in moral uncertainty, moral epistemology, and moral psychology, among others. The second is determining how to do the most good, impartially construed (the project of "Effective Altruism"): this underlies my interests in moral uncertainty, population ethics, artificial intelligence (relatedly: philosophy of mind, metaethics broadly) and normative ethics, among others. Outside philosophy, I enjoy reading (especially sci-fi and fantasy, philosophy obviously, psychology, and I'm trying to get into Chinese and Roman history), movies, the show The Good Place (if one can have a spirit show, this would be mine), learning languages (especially German and Japanese), and occasionally watching anime.
B.A. Philosophy, John Carroll University, 2019
My primary interests are in ethics and social and political thought (with an eye towards queer and feminist work). My undergraduate thesis addresses gendered concerns around consent, and utilizes larger political frameworks to aid in understanding interpersonal dynamics.
Outside of philosophy, I'm interested in literature (especially utopian work), and pop-cultural studies. I also dabble in song-writing and occasional attempts at poetry.
Donald Soles
B.S. Criminal Justice, Regent University, 2014
J.D. Law, Regent University, 2017
M.A. Philosophy, Texas Tech University, 2019
My areas of interest mainly involve epistemology, metaethics, and philosophy of law. Currently, I am most interested in questions regarding (i) the metaphysics of reasons and (ii) the source of epistemic normativity. Outside of philosophy, I enjoys tasting and brewing pourover coffee.