My Philosophical Interests
I have many varied interests. I am not claiming to be competent in all of these things, but simply interested. Anyone who has seen my golf game can attest that, in my case, interest in no way implies competence. With that caveat, here are some topics that I enjoy studying and discussing:
Metaphysics
I do claim more than simply an interest here. Otherwise, I might have to find a new dissertation topic. I'm now working on issues in the metaphysics of modalities. In particular, I'm concerned about the concept of essential properties. Does an object have properties without which it would no longer exist? If so, are any of these properties non-trivial? I find the notion of an essential property far more intuitive than any conception of possible worlds. I'm hoping to show that we can take such things as basic, and build our other intensional concepts from them.
Logic
My primary concern here, as you can guess, is modal logic. We already have a successful modal semantics, the possible worlds semantics. Unfortunately, I find its metaphysical implications a bit difficult to swallow. It is possible to keep the semantics and reject the corresponding realism, but then the semantics loses much of its explanatory attractiveness. I hope that a semantics of essences can avoid these difficulties.
I also enjoy discussing the philosophical implications of alternative logics, including relevance logics, defeasible logics, and multivalent logics.
Ancient and Medieval Philosophy
I renamed the 'My Computer' icon in Windows 95 to 'Aristotle.' If anything, that should tell you where my heart lies. If Quine were to call me an Aristotelian Essentialist, I would take it as a compliment. I suffered through a year of Ancient Greek in order to better study Aristotle.
I've always had a fascination for things medieval (except for a lack of indoor plumbing, and a few other things). Two of my interests, logic and religion, play very important roles in medieval thought. Besides, the Latin just sounds neat.
Ethics
I often wonder about the relationship between morality and self-interest. My primary interest here is in the ethical implications of certain problems in game theory.
Philosophy of Religion
Some of my deepest interests are in the Philosophy of Religion. I'm particularly fascinated by the classical arguments for the existence of God. I'm also concerned with the epistemology of religious belief, although I'm far more familiar with the metaphysical issues.