Research

PhD Thesis

The topic of my thesis is the relation between freedom and normative authority, and particularly how we are to do justice both to our autonomy as self-determining agents and the fact that we are answerable to reasons whose authority we do not fully determine. I provide a sympathetic critique of various forms of constructivism about norms but ultimately argue for a broadly realist approach. In doing so, I seek to preserve the insights of the tradition arising from Kant’s thought about freedom without embracing the metanormative framework that many modern philosophers pair it with. Instead, my aim is to show how a form of realism about norms can accommodate many of the ambitious claims made on behalf of human autonomy. So too, understanding this autonomy can help us get a better grip on what a plausible form of realism amounts to.

Other major interests

– Kant and German Idealism (especially Hegel)

– The nature of normativity

Additional interests

– Contemporary post-Kantianism

– Metaethics  (especially virtue ethics and neo-Kantian constructivism)

– Wittgenstein

– Marxism and Critical Theory

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