MY RESEARCH
A MODEL OF UNDERSTANDING GROUNDED IN HERMENEUTICS AND SOCIAL EPISTEMOLOGY
It is common today to conceive of knowledge as something that one can only obtain by setting aside their particular historical, social, and linguistic situations. Over the past few years, I have been developing an alternative epistemic model grounded in an analysis of the phenomenon of understanding. This model is informed by the hermeneutic philosophy of Hans-Georg and by recent developments in social epistemology. I argue that understanding requires not setting aside one's historical, social, and linguistic situation but putting them into play in a way that allows for critical revision. One of the chief advantages of this model, I argue, is that it discourages us from embracing models where knowing requires no critical self-awareness. For more on this research, see my forthcoming book, Gadamer and the Social Turn in Epistemology (SUNY Press, 2024).
A MODEL FOR UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION, AND DIALOGUE FOR HUMAN FLOURISHING
I explore the importance of various linguistic practices for human flourishing. I came to understand the role language plays in human flourishing after spending years thinking about different ways that individuals can come to feel alienated from language (e.g., in certain cases of trauma or in prolonged situations of "self-silencing") or detached from processes of deliberation and other scenes of collaborative interpretation. To make sense of these harms, I draw primarily from research in phenomenology, feminist theory, and hermeneutics and, where relevant, studies in psychology. My first book, Words Underway: Continental Philosophy of Language (Rowman and Littlefield International, 2019), explores this topic as it is developed by various thinkers within the twentieth-century Continental philosophical tradition.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE INTERPRETATION OF THE WRITINGS OF HANS-GEORG GADAMER
The careful study of primary texts is an important component of my research process. Why is this? For me, this practice is not about the worship of philosophical figures past as all-seeing prophets, nor is its justification primarily about the professional demand for specialization. I spend time carefully examining primary texts, because reading is one of the most effective -- some studies suggest the most effective way -- of critically examining beliefs and habits that have become second nature to us. Thus, we are unlikely to develop serious questions about, think critically about, or seriously consider alternatives to a number of deeply entrenched concepts and habits if we do not spend time immersing ourselves in texts (including those from the past) that articulate real alternatives. To this end, I have published a number of works over the years that aim primarily to analyze and interpret texts that I think present meaningful questions for and alternatives to contemporary habits of mind. In recent years, I have focused this interpretive scholarship on the writings of Hans-Georg Gadamer, given his centrality for my philosophical work. Representative publications in this branch of my research include a chapter in The Gadamerian Mind (Routledge, 2021) and Truth and Method: A Polyphonic Commentary (Rowman and Littlefield International, 2022).
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE RELATIONAL THEORY OF THE SELF
The relational theory of the self complicates a common way of understanding ourselves (and others) in modern liberal societies, namely, as radically independent wills. As anyone acquainted with ancient philosophical traditions knows, the idea that the self is an independent will is relatively new. While it is hard for us today to conceive of justice or ethical evaluation without the modern liberal notion of the self, ancient writings on justice, ethics, and human flourishing offer clues as to how a more relational theory of the self (and a relational approach to ethics) might be developed. Many modern thinkers have also challenged the notion of the self as radically individual. One finds this challenge, for example, made by phenomenologists, feminists, virtue ethicists, and post-structuralists who focus on the developmental dimension of the self and the role of others in the self's development. In my research, I contribute to the development of the relational theory of the self by examining its import for discussions regarding ethical responsibility, ethical self-development, critical thinking, and social critique. Notable contributions to this branch of my research include an article published in Continental Philosophy Review (2013) and another in Comparative and Continental Philosophy (2019).
APPLICATIONS IN MEDICAL HUMANITIES, PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION, AND THE ETHICS OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
Like many philosophers, I am interested in the history of philosophy and in the study of classic philosophical texts in large part because of the way that they help us to interpret and think critically about developments taking place in the world today. The philosophical traditions that I focus on (hermeneutics, phenomenology, feminist theory, philosophy of language) interest me in part because of the light that they shed on changes taking place in the twenty-first century in health care, education, and information and communication technology. I have published two pieces so far that use the hermeneutic theories of understanding, language, and relational selfhood that I have been developing to analyze problems occurring in health care today (an article published in 2016 in IJFAB: International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics and a chapter published in Existential Medicine, published with Rowman and Littlefield International in 2018) and another that draws from these theories to analyze problems with the technologization of education (a chapter in Language and Phenomenology, published with Routledge in 2020). In my most recent work, I offer an analysis of some essential differences between close reading and natural language processing by applying important concepts and theories from philosophical hermeneutics and the epistemology of education. This article is currently under review.