Plans & Projects
This page lists a sample of my current and planned research projects. I welcome feedback on any of these.
Current Projects
Intellectual Dependability: A Virtue Theory of the Epistemic and Educational Ideal (Routledge, 2020).
This research monograph focuses on a suite of neglected intellectual virtues that help make a person intellectually dependable--the sort of person on whom others can depend in their inquiries. The virtues discussed include intellectual benevolence, intellectual transparency, communicative clarity, audience sensitivity, and epistemic guidance. An abstract of the book is here, and two short articles for general audiences discussing themes in the book are here and here. Drafts of chapters will appear below as they are completed:
Introduction
1. Chapter One: The Intellectually Dependable Person
2. Chapter Two: The Virtues of Intellectual Dependability
3. Chapter Three: Educating for Intellectual Dependability
4. Chapter Four: Intellectual Benevolence [Draft is of the philosophical portion of the chapter only]
5. Chapter Five: Intellectual Transparency [Draft is of the philosophical portion of the chapter only]
6. Chapter Six: Communicative Clarity [Draft is of the philosophical portion of the chapter only]
7. Chapter Seven: Audience Sensitivity [Draft is of the philosophical portion of the chapter only]
8. Chapter Eight: Epistemic Guidance [Draft is of the philosophical portion of the chapter only]
9. Chapter Nine: Being Intellectually Dependable for Groups
"The Evidential Support Relation of Evidentialism"
This paper is a planned chapter for the Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Evidence (ed. Maria Lasonen-Aarnio and Clayton Littlejohn). It is an opinionated introduction to three approaches to accounting for the evidential support relation at the heart of evidentialist views of epistemic justification. The opinion defended is that approaches that account for this relation using psychological concepts such as epistemic dispositions and intellectual virtues are preferable to alternatives.
Development and Validation of a Scale for Measuring Others-Centeredness
This project involves developing a scale for measuring others-centeredness and evaluating the psychometric properties of the scale. Under the mentorship of Peter Hill and Keith Edwards (Psychology, Biola), I completed data collection for this project in 2019, and I am in process of analyzing the data and drafting an article reporting the findings.
Development of the Congregational Character Questionnaire
This project involves developing a new measure of twelve virtues of Christian Churches and examining the relationship between these virtues and outcomes such as congregant spiritual well-being and satisfaction with church. In 2020, under the mentorship of Peter Hill and Keith Edwards, I will collect and analyze data on this questionnaire, aiming to publish the findings in a journal of psychology of religion.
The Civic Significance of Expansive Other-Regarding Virtues
With Megan Haggard (Psychology, Francis Marion), I am engaged in a roughly two-year (2019-2021) research project focusing on the civic significance of others-centeredness, the virtues of intellectual dependability, and identification with all humanity. We will develop and validate scales for measuring the virtues of intellectual dependability, and run a series of studies examining the civic significance of all of these expansively other-regarding traits with student and adult populations.
Recovering A Role for Moral Character and Ascetic Practice in Religious Epistemology
This paper for a special issue of Res Philosophica will engage with the religious epistemology of medieval Islamic philosopher al-Ghazali and with recent developments in mainstream epistemology and virtue theory in order to identify some ways in which moral character and ascetic practice may play important yet neglected roles in religious epistemology.
Current Projects
Intellectual Dependability: A Virtue Theory of the Epistemic and Educational Ideal (Routledge, 2020).
This research monograph focuses on a suite of neglected intellectual virtues that help make a person intellectually dependable--the sort of person on whom others can depend in their inquiries. The virtues discussed include intellectual benevolence, intellectual transparency, communicative clarity, audience sensitivity, and epistemic guidance. An abstract of the book is here, and two short articles for general audiences discussing themes in the book are here and here. Drafts of chapters will appear below as they are completed:
Introduction
1. Chapter One: The Intellectually Dependable Person
2. Chapter Two: The Virtues of Intellectual Dependability
3. Chapter Three: Educating for Intellectual Dependability
4. Chapter Four: Intellectual Benevolence [Draft is of the philosophical portion of the chapter only]
5. Chapter Five: Intellectual Transparency [Draft is of the philosophical portion of the chapter only]
6. Chapter Six: Communicative Clarity [Draft is of the philosophical portion of the chapter only]
7. Chapter Seven: Audience Sensitivity [Draft is of the philosophical portion of the chapter only]
8. Chapter Eight: Epistemic Guidance [Draft is of the philosophical portion of the chapter only]
9. Chapter Nine: Being Intellectually Dependable for Groups
"The Evidential Support Relation of Evidentialism"
This paper is a planned chapter for the Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Evidence (ed. Maria Lasonen-Aarnio and Clayton Littlejohn). It is an opinionated introduction to three approaches to accounting for the evidential support relation at the heart of evidentialist views of epistemic justification. The opinion defended is that approaches that account for this relation using psychological concepts such as epistemic dispositions and intellectual virtues are preferable to alternatives.
Development and Validation of a Scale for Measuring Others-Centeredness
This project involves developing a scale for measuring others-centeredness and evaluating the psychometric properties of the scale. Under the mentorship of Peter Hill and Keith Edwards (Psychology, Biola), I completed data collection for this project in 2019, and I am in process of analyzing the data and drafting an article reporting the findings.
Development of the Congregational Character Questionnaire
This project involves developing a new measure of twelve virtues of Christian Churches and examining the relationship between these virtues and outcomes such as congregant spiritual well-being and satisfaction with church. In 2020, under the mentorship of Peter Hill and Keith Edwards, I will collect and analyze data on this questionnaire, aiming to publish the findings in a journal of psychology of religion.
The Civic Significance of Expansive Other-Regarding Virtues
With Megan Haggard (Psychology, Francis Marion), I am engaged in a roughly two-year (2019-2021) research project focusing on the civic significance of others-centeredness, the virtues of intellectual dependability, and identification with all humanity. We will develop and validate scales for measuring the virtues of intellectual dependability, and run a series of studies examining the civic significance of all of these expansively other-regarding traits with student and adult populations.
Recovering A Role for Moral Character and Ascetic Practice in Religious Epistemology
This paper for a special issue of Res Philosophica will engage with the religious epistemology of medieval Islamic philosopher al-Ghazali and with recent developments in mainstream epistemology and virtue theory in order to identify some ways in which moral character and ascetic practice may play important yet neglected roles in religious epistemology.
