I’m a philosopher teaching at Northeastern University and Providence College (formerly, Merrimack College). I teach courses on the ethics and epistemology of technology, the history of philosophy, and other applied philosophical topics.

My research explores the intersection between technology and classic philosophers’ questions and ideas.

In my dissertation, I developed a pragmatist answer to John Stuart Mill’s “problem of causal selection” based on case studies of technological disasters, and the sciences and engineering of safety. My article in Philosophy of Science about the Bhopal gas tragedy was the molten core of this work [open access] and presentations at the PSA and fPET explained other chapters.

Now, I research Mill’s broader empiricist epistemology, how it relates to his ideas on liberty, and how Mill’s thought may have influenced William James (who dedicates Pragmatism to Mill) and Charles Sander Peirce (who speaks quite ill of Mill). Based on my interest in Mill’s liberalism, I also research how technologies both free and constrain life. I draw inspiration from the writings of Lewis Mumford, Neil Postman, Ivan Illich, and Joseph Weizenbaum, all of whom worry about technologies authoritarian tendencies and sought for technologies more consistent with human flourishing.

Recently I began my most crucial philosophy project with my favorite collaborator: raising my son with my wife, Mariesa. So far, this project has raised a number of philosophical questions, such as “why isn’t there more work on the epistemology of parenting?” and “isn’t it weird how you are nothing for infinite time, then all of a sudden you have to learn to burp?”