What is your academic background?

I earned my PhD in philosophy from the University of Connecticut. At the time, Storrs was a remarkably good place to be studying logic and language, which happened to be my areas of interest. My dissertation was on theories of truth; I defended an idiosyncratic thesis about the gradability of the truth predicate, mostly.

Before that, I was a PhD student at Boston University. I left after two years because UConn was a better fit for my research interests, but I gained an appreciation for the history of philosophy while I was there.

And before that, I was an undergraduate at Ohio University’s Honors Tutorial College, a very strange (and wonderful) college that provides a tutorial-based education to a small number of Ohio University students.

I get a ‘religious vibe’ from you. What’s that about?

This comes up a lot — even when I’m not mentioning religion explicitly. I’m Eastern Orthodox. I converted to Orthodoxy after years as an Episcopalian; I always like to add that I still quite love Episcopalians.

Sometimes this question is followed up with a question about why I don’t make religious/Christian/Orthodox content. The answer is: I don’t think that’s best for me. I’m happy to answer questions (in person) about Orthodoxy, for instance, but I generally dislike online apologetics, virtual evangelism, debate culture, etc.

Who are your favorite writers?

To name a few: Ursula K. Le Guin, Frederick Douglass, Friedrich Nietzsche, Plotinus, Aristotle, Hilary Mantel, St. Augustine, Maximus the Confessor, John le Carré, Karl Marx, Ian M. Banks, Neal Stephenson, ane Elizabeth Anderson.