Phenomenology

Ethics

Personalism

Obligation and Values

Philosophy of Religion

Medieval Epistemology

Contemplation

Abstraction

My research focuses on two major areas in the history of philosophy: phenomenology and medieval thought. My area of specialization is classic and contemporary phenomenological approaches to ethics, especially in the tradition of personalism (which includes such figures as Edmund Husserl, Edith Stein, Dietrich von Hildebrand, Max Scheler, and Pope John Paul II). My dissertation research shows how Edmund Husserl's phenomenology of vocation is foundational for ethics. I am also interested in both phenomenological accounts of religious experience and philosophy of religion.

My area of competence is medieval epistemology and medieval philosophy of religion, especially in the work of St. Thomas Aquinas. I am particularly interested in the intellectual act of contemplation and problems concerning abstraction.