The Author

“A self is the last thing the world cares about and the most dangerous thing of all for a person to show signs of having.” – Kierkegaard

I was raised in and love the Deep South but have avoided the accent, the teetotalism and, as much as is possible, NASCAR. I’ve been known to savor good poetry, music of most kinds, and always a novel. When I’m not reading and writing, I take a walk, work on my double windsor, or make something delicious to eat, usually involving tomatoes.

I’m a doctoral student in philosophy at the University of Chicago, where I read and write mainly on 19th century Continental philosophy and early analytic philosophy. Kant and German Idealism on the one hand, and Frege’s and Wittgenstein’s logical raptures on the other, are at once prime sources of the antinomies of current intellectual culture, and rich resources for dealing with those problems. Western philosophical history is a history we live with, like it or no, and my aim is to live with it well.

I’m being trained as a philosopher, but I continue to care very much about other disciplines within and without the university, particularly theology. I take very seriously the best of the Christian tradition, which by my lights lies mostly along the line from Augustine through the Reformation to Edwards, Mercersburg, Bavinck, and Barth. But the Cappadocian Fathers and certain Roman Catholics are important to me as well.

This blog is a commonplace book in which to leave certain things I have found in books, and occasionally in my own journals. Much of my own writing that appears here is a kind of philosophical doggerel. The fragments of essays are meant to hone a skill and not to record a conclusion. Not everything I post reflects my views, nor should anything be taken to suggest that I have a view at all on a particular topic. My aim, in a way, is just to get a sense of what the topics are.

Don’t plagiarize me. Don’t confuse me with this person.