Toni Adleberg

Office H&SS 8029
B.A. Philosophy, New York University (2010)
M.A. Philosophy, Neurophilosophy Track, Georgia State University (2013)

Interests: Philosophy of Mind & Cognitive Science, Moral Psychology

Craig Agule Email

Office H&SS 8037
B.A. Economics, University of Virginia
J.D. University of Virginia
M.A. Philosophy University College London

My interests include political, moral, and legal philosophy as well as aesthetics.

Amy Berg Email Web

Office: H&SS 7039
B.A. Philosophy and Government, Claremont McKenna College (2008)

I focus on political philosophy and ethics and have additional interests in the history of ethics and political philosophy, feminist philosophy, and the philosophy of law. My dissertation consists of a series of essays on ideal and non-ideal theory in political and moral philosophy.

Matthew Braich Email

Office: H&SS 8088
B.A. Philosophy and English, Lewis and Clark College
M.A. Philosohy, U.C. Riverside

I am primarily interested in foundational issues in ethics. Some questions that have been bugging me recently include: What’s going on when we make moral judgments? What are reasons for action? What’s the relationship between reasons and moral obligations? I am also interested in epistemology and normativity, more broadly. What’s the relationship between theoretical and practical reasons? What do we mean when we say we should do or believe something? Where does the force of such judgments come from? When not thinking about philosophy, I’m probably somewhere getting disappointed by an Arizona sports team.

Claudi Brink Email

Office: H&SS 7059
B.A. Philosophy and English Literature
M.A. Philosophy, University of the Witwatersrand

My primary interest is in Kant's theoretical philosophy. I also have interests in philosophy of mind and ancient philosophy.

Nanhee Byrnes Email

Office: H&SS 8088
B.A. and M.A., Philosophy, Korea University

I specialize in political philosophy, political theory, and applied ethics. My dissertation is on normative democracy, which asks how we may justify democracy. My motivating idea is that the justification must be a consequentialist one, drawing insights from Aristotle, Locke, Mill and Tocqueville. My dissertation aims to prove the claim that democracy is the most legitimate form of government because it produces the best results.
I am fond of applied ethics due to my unique background. Prior to returning to the academic environment, I was a stay-at-home mom, learning how the real world worked. Almost every thing is a moral question to me.
My life time goal is to have six-pack abs when I am 80.

Travis Chamberlain Email

Office: H&SS 8089
B.A. Philosophy & Economics, University of California, Irvine (2006)
M.A., Philosophy and Public Policy, London School of Economics (2009)

Academic interests include philosophy of science and science studies, cost-benefit analysis and market regulation (valuation), political philosophy (issues of justice), philosophy of war, and history of philosophy, especially Aristotelian ethics and politics. Further interests include logic and semantics, and foundations of deontology.

Kathleen Connelly Email

Office: H&SS 7059
B.A. Philosophy University of Tennessee - Knoxville

I have just joined UCSD after graduating from the University of Tennessee in the spring of 2014. I am primarily interested in philosophy of science (philosophy of the social sciences in particular) and I expect that to be the focus of my research. I am also fascinated by a wide a range of other philosophical topics: Kant, aesthetics, free will and moral responsibility, to name just a few. I expect I will never be able to explore all of these very different philosophical interests as thoroughly as I would like, but I look forward to spending the next few years trying my best.

Cory Davia Email

Office H&SS 7043
B.A. Claremont McKenna
M.A. University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

Philosophically, I'm primarily interested in practical reason and the foundations of ethics. What are reasons for action? What's the relation between moral demands and other practical demands, like prudence or instrumental rationality? How confident should we be in our normative beliefs? I'm also interested in the epistemology of disagreement. When we discover that smart, well-informed people disagree with us, what's the rational way to take this into account? Should we stick to our guns, or become less confident?
I also like to cook and play pool.

John Dougherty Email

Office: H&SS 8085
A.B. Physics & The History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Science and Medicine, University of Chicago (2010)

My main interests are, in order of increasing specificity, the philosophies of science, physics, quantum gravity, and the structure of spacetime therein. I am also interested in bits of computation, math, and logic. In my off time, I enjoy board games, 1920/30's weird fiction, and mathematical typesetting.

Matt Evpak Email

Office: H&SS 8085
B.A. Philosophy, California State University Sacramento

My primary interest is in metaphysics, but I'm also piqued by various metaphysically relevant problems in philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of science, and logic. My research focuses on the concepts of truth and existence, the relationship between them, and their usefulness in clarifying--or, alternatively, confounding--the notions of realism and antirealism.

Jeremy Gomer Email

I'm interested in philosophical issues relating to human excellence. As such, I am interested in virtue theory generally, and more particularly, virtue epistemology and virtue ethics. I don't think that philosophy should be restricted to the ivory-tower. Rather, I think that philosophers should use their abilities to contribute something of lasting significance to the world. At the end of the day, not many will remember what we said or what we wrote, but they will remember how we treated them. Perhaps I'm being overly optimistic, but doing philosophy should make us and those around us better human beings. At the very least, that is the goal that I aspire to.

Gil Hersch Email Web

Office: H&SS 7055
B.A. Philosophy Political Science & Economics, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel (2008)

My research focuses on issues at the intersection of ethics and philosophy of science, specifically economics. In my dissertation I examine the relationship between philosophical theories of well-being and the plethora of well-being measures available in the social sciences, and the effect this relationship can have on public policy. Beyond my dissertation I work on various aspects of general philosophy of science such as theoretical virtues and scientific models, more specific philosophy of economic issues such as the use of deception in experimental economics, and aspects of distributive justice.

Nat Jacobs Email

Office: H&SS 7054
B.A. Philosophy, UC Berkeley

Since coming to UCSD in 2006, I'm focusing on philosophy of physics and time. I've recently been studying the demarcation of presentism from eternalism. I have interests in logic, philosophy of science, and ancient philosophy. I also have woefully undeveloped interests in causation and skepticism. I suffer from a formalization fetish, but I'm in therapy for that. I relax with Latin translation, puzzle-solving, and noise music.

Kathryn Joyce Email

Office: H&SS 7054

B.A. Philosophy, University of North Dakota (2008)
M.A. Philosophy, Georgia State University (2013)

My interests include questions within political philosophy, ethics, and feminism. I also have a historical interest in these areas of philosophy. My M.A. thesis focuses on 's political philosophy and is entitled ": A Relational Egalitarian Interpretation."

Jonathan Knutzen Email

Office: H&SS 8085
B.A. Philosophy, Wheaton College (2002)
M.A. Philosophy, Brandeis University (2013)

Interests: moral and political philosophy.

Cami Koepke Email

Office: H&SS 8029
B.A. Philosophy, Northwest Nazarne University (2003)
M.Div., Emory University (2006)
M.A. Philosophy, Georgia State University (2013)

My interests include normative ethical theory, moral psychology (esp. questions about moral responsibility), political philosophy (esp. questions about the justification of state policy), and ancient ethical and political theory (esp. Plato and Epicurus).

Cole Macke Email

Office: H&SS 8085
B.A. Philosophy, B.S. Physics and Astronomy, University of Washington

I have really broad philosophical interests including philosophy of science and physics, history of philosophy, ethics, and most other areas as well. Hopefully I'll be able to refine that a little further in the near future. As for non-philosophical interests, I enjoy playing and watching sports (especially football and rugby), hiking, quoting The Simpsons, trying to make time for non-philosophy reading, and growing ridiculous facial hair (see left for evidence), among other things.

Noel Martin Email

Office: H&SS 7054
B.A. Religious Studies, Humboldt State University
M.A. Philosophy (Neurophilosophy Track), Georgia State University

My philosophical interests include mind, cognitive science, social science, and ethics. Right now I’m especially concerned with how these topics figure into debates in moral psychology. I also have a growing interest in the history of philosophy. When not doing philosophy, I’m interested in music, food, running, and the ocean.

Casey McCoy Email

B.S. Physics, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Engineering Physics, Oregon State University (2003)
M.A. Liberal Arts, St. John's College (2008)

My dissertation investigates foundational and interpretational issues in inflationary cosmology. I am also interested in explanation in science, the ontological grounds of classical physics, the quantum mechanics of black holes, and applications of Ricci flow in general relativity. In my free time I enjoy climbing mountains and skiing down them.

J. P. Messina Email

B.A. Philosophy, Wagner College (2011)
M.A. Philosophy, Georgia State University (2013)

Interests: The history of modern philosophy (esp. Kant), moral psychology, and contemporary political philosophy. 

Erik Olson Email

Office H&SS 7059
B.A. Philosophy, Sain Olaf College (2010)
M.A. Philosophy, University of Houston (2013)

My primary interest is the history of early modern philosophy with a particular focus on Spinoza.  I also have strong interests in modal logic and ethics as it pertains to "the good life."  I try to connect these two areas in interesting ways to philosophers in the 17th century.

Matthew Piper Email

Office H&SS 8037
B.A. Psychology, St. Louis University, St. Louis (1996)
M.A. Interdisciplinary Studies: Philosophy of Complexity, Sonoma State University (2008)
M.A. Philosophy, University of Missouri, St. Louis (2011)

Interests: "the mind-body problem; theories of consciousness; neural and cognitive sciences; normativity (ethical & aesthetic)."

Tomoya Sato Email Web

Office: H&SS 8089

My main research interests are in philosophy of logic, philosophy of mathematics and philosophy of language. At the moment, I am thinking about the bounds of logic and related topics. I completed my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics, and I am currently working toward my Ph.D. of philosophy. Before attending UC San Diego, I studied at Tohoku University in Japan, and at SUNY Stony Brook in New York.

Ben Sheredos Email

Office: H&SS 7039
B.A., Philosophy (Minor in Cognitive Science), Rutgers University (2006)
M.A., Philosophy (Neurophilosophy Program), Georgia State University (2009)
Ph.D. Candidate, UCSD (2013)

I'm interested in the nature of phenomenality and intentionality, which I'm stalking from three different perspectives. First, from a historical perspective, I'm interested in late 19th and early 20th century philosophical psychology, which often put intentionality and phenomenality in close relation. Second, from a philosophy of science perspective, I'm interested in what the mind must be like to make possible our explanations of natural phenomena, especially when this is mediated by conscious perception of concrete representational media (esp. diagrams in the life sciences). Third, from an empirically-informed perspective, I'm interested in the biology of cognition, and in how well we can account for the phenomena of human mindedness in naturalistic terms.

Sebastian Speitel Email

Office: H&SS 8029
B.A., hons. Philosophy, University of Canterbury, Christchurch
MSc Logic, University of Amsterdam (ILLC)

My main interests concern logic and philosophy of logic. More recently, I have developed interests in philosophy of science more general and Kant's theoretical philosophy.

Ryan Stringer Email Web

Office H&SS 8037
B.A. University of Kansas, Lawrence
M.A. Michigan State University, East Lansing

Generally speaking, my philosophical interests are in the areas of ethics, metaethics, moral psychology, the philosophy of action, the philosophy of religion, and metaphysics. In addition to my philosophical interests, I have non-philosophical interests in (1) petting, owning, and helping cats, (2) eating good food (especially Indian, Ethiopian, and Thai food), (3) trying to understand and write poetry, (4) listening to good music (e.g., the band Tool, which is, objectively speaking, the best band in the history of the universe), and (5) watching good TV shows (e.g., Dexter) and good movies (e.g., Fight Club).

Dean Tracy Email

Office H&SS 8089
B.A. University of California, San Diego (Minor in Political Science)

Interests: Ethics, Philosophy of Mind, Metaphysics, and Epistemology. Outside of philosophy, I enjoy spending time with my family and friends."

Brian Tracz Email

Office: H&SS 7055
B.S. Biology and Philosophy, Boston College

My main areas of interest are philosophy of perception and Kant. On a general level, I have a longstanding interest in the crosstalk among Husserlian phenomenology, cognitive science, and Anglophone philosophy. Aside from philosophy, I enjoy piano, Mahler's symphonies, Arrested Development, hiking, and Tuesday crosswords.

Danny Weltman Email Web

Office: H&SS 8073
B.A. Philosophy and Political Science, Washington University 

I'm interested in social and political philosophy, particularly questions of borders, authority, and territory, and in ethics, particularly anti-realistic metaethics and in various applied ethics issues. Aside from philosophy, I enjoy cooking, watching movies, and animals, especially cats.

Jason Winning Email

Office: H&SS 8037
B.S. Computer Science (Minor in Philosophy), Northern Illinois University (2003)
M.A. Philosophy, Northern Illinois University (2011) 

Before philosophy grad school I spent four years as a software developer creating medical record software in Madison, WI. My interests are mostly centered around philosophy of mind, and include questions that also fall under the headings of philosophy of science (especially of cognitive science and neuroscience, but of science in general as well), computation/information, metaphysics, and moral psychology. Aside from philosophy, I'm also big into audio production.

Andrew Wong Email Web

Office: H&SS 8037
A.B., Philosophy, Washington University in St. Louis (2009)

I am currently working on a dissertation on the nature and scope of Pyrrhonian Skepticism, as understood in the works of Sextus Empiricus. In speaking of the "scope" of Skepticism, I refer primarily to the extent to which Skeptics bear epistemic commitments. In addition to taking a broad view of Pyrrhonism and its place in philosophy, I focus on the implications of two key areas on the scope of Skepticism: the Skeptic's ethical view and the Five Modes of Agrippa.

Peter Yong Email

Office: H&SS 7059
B.A. Philosophy, Biola University
M.A. Theology, Fuller Seminary; M.A. Philosophy, CSU Los Angeles

My interests are diffuse. I've been focusing on philosophy of mind, phenomenology, and German idealism. At Biola University I focused mainly on metaphysics and epistemology. I was also part of their great books program (the Torrey Honors Institute). At Fuller Seminary I worked primarily on postmodern religious epistemology, ethics, and theology and science. At CSU Los Angeles I wrote my thesis on phenomenal accounts of mental representation. Besides studying philosophy I like to listen to opera, look at art, go to the theater, read, and write. I am also absolutely enthralled by Marcel Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu.