I grew up in a semi-cosmopolitan town in Arkansas called Little Rock. I went to college intending to study biology and chemistry for the purpose of becoming a physician, but somewhere along the way I read Kant and decided to try my hand at journalism. And then I read a lot more philosophy and traveled to Austria, Germany, and Greece, where I walked around the brilliant Parthenon and visited a nude beach on the south of Crete. On my return to college, I began taking courses in ethics and modern philosophy, and shortly thereafter I took a road trip to New Orleans, where my notebook of collected musings on various philosophers and all my clothes were promptly stolen. I decided there that philosophy must be for me.
I attended graduate school at the sunny Florida State University in Tallahassee. I studied ancient Greek philosophy with Russ Dancy and ancient Greek with Leon Golden, and I wrote my dissertation on Plato's Sophist while living in a cozy ranch house near the gulf coast. I've been at TCU since 1998.
I am currently working on a rather lengthy article about Aristotle's conception of truth and meaning in the De Interpretatione, De Anima, and Metaphysics. The project is a continuation of my work on the ancient Greek conception of truth and being which I believe has not received enough attention, especially since I believe there are interesting parallels between the Greeks' understanding of truth and more recent, deflationary accounts of truth. For the more inquisitive, my curriculum vitae is available below.
I am a music fanatic who collects vinyl albums, ranging from bebop to sixties blues to hardcore punk to renaissance choral music. In my spare time, I play the bass guitar, sing, and write songs with a local garage band and occasionally with the philosophy department band. When I'm not reading philosophy or the New York Times, you can find me perusing the pages of J.P. Donleavy, Tom McGuane, and William Gibson, or drinking a pint of Guinness with those who enjoy the craic.