Hello! My name is Chad. I'm a Teaching Professor of Philosophy at William & Mary. As a philosopher, I spend a lot of time thinking about the nature of things like possibility, truth, identity, right, and wrong.
I also suffer from intense chronic nerve pain, all day every day since 2021. (Uh-oh, this blurb just took a dark turn!) I try not to let it define me. But it has certainly re-shaped my views about purpose, well-being, and meaning in life. Feel free to ask me about it some time.
Anyway, when I'm not thinking about the secrets of life, meaning, and the universe, I like to write kid's poems. Secretly, I want to be a children's author. I originally pursued a PhD because I mistakenly believed that I needed one to become the next Dr. Seuss. I also like to write Chad Libs -- my own more complicated (and more fun and hilarious) version of Mad Libs.
Many evenings, you'll find me playing a murder mystery game (like Deadbolt), or a nerdy strategy game of some sort (like Dominion, Wingspan, or Carcassonne). One time, I got so into the game Patchwork, I even made my own expansion to it!
Other times, you'll find me walking in the forest and looking at birds, reading a book on my porch (probably about some dystopia where teens save the world), attending a show (anything from Broadway to Monster Trucks; Weird Al to Gwar), playing the ukulele, learning to make Ethiopian food, or trying to understand wine.
PS, did I mention that I'm married to a bagpiper? Heck yes! I sure did hit the jackpot!
Procreation is Immoral on Environmental Grounds - Journal of Ethics
Justifying Subsistence Emissions: An Appeal to Causal Impotence - Journal of Value Inquiry
The World is a Necessary Being - Philosophia
Causal Relevance, Permissible Omissions, and Famine Relief - Dialectica
Climate Change, Individual Emissions, and Foreseeing Harm - Journal of Moral Philosophy
Classical Theism and Modal Realism are Incompatible - Religious Studies
Modal Truthmakers, Truth Conditions, & Analyses - Acta Analytica
The Recycling Problem for Event Individuation - Erkenntnis
Dispositional Modal Truthmakers - Philosophia
Truthmaking and the Gettier Problem - Ratio
Comments from my students at CU-Boulder
Comments from my students at William & Mary
My actual dissertation (In Defense of the New Actualism)
Interview on Back to the Future and Time Travel