Current Research Projects
1. Philosophical issues in Aristotle's Meteorology 4
Currently, I am working on a series of papers (in various stages of completion) that try to investigate - and resolve - a variety of philosophical issues in Book 4 of Aristotle's Meteorology.
This text - which has been largely neglected, perhaps in part due to 20th century questions about its authenticity - is of interest not only due to its implications for Aristotle's biology, but also because it provides one of a few places in which Aristotle investigates inanimate compounds in their own right.
Some of the issues that I am working on include Aristotle's conceptions of moisture, dryness, and dispositional qualities; his accounts of solidification and melting (and their distinction from processes such as mixing), and the extent of teleological explanation involved in non-biological processes.
2. Domestication and teleology
So I like animals - and domestic animals are fascinating, because some of them (like cats!) have no business living with people, yet they do. Domestic animals (and plants) also present an interesting philosophical puzzle if one accepts natural teleology, along with a strict distinction between natural and artificial (as Aristotle seems to do).
The plan for this project is to identify how (and where) domestic animals and plants fit into Aristotle's natural teleology, and thus where they fall in the natural-artificial divide. This will require a closer look at how people in Aristotle's time actually thought about domestic animals and their functions, as well as the historical processes of domestication.
While I have absolutely zero interest in philosophy of AI, this project may have implications there, as well. It would not be that odd, given that I once said I would never write on Aristotle's Meteorology 4 or biological works, and both of those things seem to have happened.
3. Other projects, some ongoing for years now:
Incomplete and indeterminate quantity in Aristotle
Aristotle's geometrical objects
Philoponus on matter and extension in De Aeternitate Mundi Contra Proclum 11