My current, primary goal is to further formulate and articulate my own considerations of possibility. From my dissertation, my intuition is that conceptions of possibility that either isolate and emphasize the otherness of potentiality or the status quo of actuality present certain issues. Within this, that discourse about possibility that fails to acknowledge various registers in meaning is problematic. Regarding metaphysics, I’ve been researching various voices in process philosophy, e.g., Bergson, Deleuze, Whitehead, with an interest in the manner and role of possibility in their theories. I’m also interested in how such a notion of dynamical becoming within process ontology can shape or alter questions of self-identity, and relate to the mind-body problem. Here, too, I’m interested in epistemological questions around notions of uncertainty, and relatedly, in modal logic, the status of “alternate possibilities” and potentiality in possible worlds discourse.

In ethics, in particular meta-ethics, I’m curious about the role of possibility in relation to questions about the status of agency. How might various conceptions of possibility, and the status of alternate possibilities inform different positions in the free-will debate? Along these lines, with regard to normative applications, I’m intrigued by Judith Butler when, while presenting her Adorno Prize Lecture, she asks “which social configuration of ‘life’ enters into the question, how best to live?” In a vein similar to Adorno’s “Es gibt kein richtiges Leben im falschen,” how can the capacity for moral action be affected by systems and structures that problematize the possibility for such actions? This sentiment understandably carries over into my interests in biopolitics, social and political philosophy. 

Building on prior work, I’ve been researching Hans Jonas’ response to Bloch’s conception of utopia and his emphasis upon human dignity versus Jonas’ “imperative of responsibility.” Here, too, I am further exploring my interest in technology’s relationship with society. I’m fascinated by the co-formative relationship between society and contemporary media and technology, its cultural influence and political impact, as well as its both positive and negative potentials in fostering alternative communities. Coupled with this are my ever-developing interests in environmental ethics, and the role that technology plays in the creation and potential remediation of environmental concerns. Similarly, the deep and inescapable influences of economics, as participant in technology’s relationship to society, as well as technology’s relationship to the environment, is of utmost concern and interest.

I’ve also recently begun investigating various critical responses to social, economic, political and legal structures of marginalization and oppression participant in the status quo, with preliminary research guided by questions related to issues and possibilities for self-empowerment in critical race theory and philosophy of race, feminist theory, and queer theory. Butler’s Gender Trouble, Mills’ Black Rights/White Wrongs, as well as the works of Nussbaum, Appiah, Alcoff, Freire, Sheth, and others, have been influential. Along with this are my interests in the notion of environmental justice as related to diverse communities in and outside of the global north-east.

What follows is a timeline with a list of works intended for publication, which at the moment exist in various stages of development. Items listed at the start are those that either build off of existent work that appears to some degree in my dissertation, or research for my dissertation that was eventually left out for reasons of length. Latter items listed are conceived as extensions of this work, and is to be further developed and directed towards my current interests mentioned above.

➣2022-2023

Currently I am working on a few pieces that I wish to submit as articles over the next year. These draw largely from material in my dissertation, expanding on topics and concerns, and integrating new considerations. The first builds upon a section omitted from my dissertation. The second is developed out of conversations with Dmitri Nikulin.

Aristotle’s Possibility, Contingency, and Necessity

In reading Aristotle’s Metaphysics and Physics, I’ve found numerous translations of dunaton, dunameis, and endechesthai to be seemingly problematic. Many times, across numerous translations, concepts such as potentiality, possibility, and contingency are conflated or used interchangeably in translation of these words. This is not simply an issue of semantics, but rather, considering his larger body of work, and owing to his own distinctions in the development of these concepts, such potential mistranslations can lead to a faulty understanding and problematic application of his consideration of possibility. I argue, in relation to his oeuvre, that a more effective interpretation of Aristotle’s intentions in using these concepts can be located, which entails reconsidering certain prior interpretive uses. This relies upon an assertion that Aristotle’s metaphysical discussions of possibility need to be held at a conceptual distance from his concerns when discussing possibility in relation to modal logic.

Uncertainty in the Augenblick of Bloch and Heidegger

A further developing of material in my dissertation, this is to be a comparative analysis of possibility within the different conceptions of “the moment,” or Augenblick in Heidegger and Bloch. My thoughts are that Bloch and Heidegger present divergent reads of Aristotle’s dunaton, dunameis, sterêsis, and kairos, with the latter two concepts being additionally developed in relation to prior work. Given Heidegger’s more sortal emphasis upon being and non-being, or nothingness, in contrast to Bloch’s more processual conception of an ontology of the not-yet, this results in varied ideas of what each philosopher understands as the nature of possibility, and therefore, what is possible in such interstitial moments. The question is whether agency in such moments can manifest something genuinely unique or (re)produce what is merely consistent with the status quo. 

➣2023-2024

Throughout the following year I aim to produce two pieces for publication, similarly structured around components of my dissertation and research related to it. The first looks to engage Hans Jonas utilizing aspects of my dissertation and conversations with Dmitri Nikulin. The second piece is still in the process of being fleshed out, but I wish to situate questions of personal identity, and various critical theories, in relation to a conception of possibility as self-empowerment.

Technology and Nature, Responsibility and Human Dignity

In The Imperative of Responsibility, Hans Jonas argues for the necessity and centrality of an ethics of responsibility in response to modern technology and its advances. As a part of this, he presents a critique of marxist utopianism — as problematically allied with technology — and a critical read of Ernst Bloch’s Principle of Hope. Jonas presents many invaluable and valid points, but arguably what is at issue is not so much technology itself, but the magnitude of its consequences upon nature, and within that, the need for a clearer conceptual understanding of nature itself. Arguably there is no originary state of humanity without some manner of technology. Any claim of “man’s presence in the world as an imperative” is always already laden with a history of such technology utilized to achieve that presence, and Jonas’ aversion to marxist utopianism outright overlooks some manner of utopian thinking participant in such imperatives, at least for Bloch. Within this, set within the context of contemporary environmental issues, I look to argue in defense of Bloch’s somewhat apostatical conception of utopia, and his emphasis upon an ethics formulated through human dignity and guided by hope. 

Intersecting Identities: Interpolation and Dissonance

My intention is to read the history of “identity politics” through the lens of possibility and participant metaphysical issues of personal identity. Various critical theories, from feminist and queer theories to philosophies of race, battle with a pre-existent philosophical anthropology. Inculcated in various structures and systems, cultural and societal, economic, political and legal, this anthropic theory similarly promotes an essentialist account of capacities correspondent to identities, as subsumed under a hierarchical model of humanity. These capacities speak of one’s behavior, cognition, and/or manner of labor. Intersectionality compounds and broadens these theories, nevertheless, the principle point of intersection is a question of what it means to be human. In the past, this question presumed a quantitative and sortal notion for its identifications, and inculcated in various structures and systems, cultural and societal, economic, political and legal, to promote an essentialist account of capacities that correspond to identities subsumed under a hierarchical model of humanity. It failed to acknowledge the processual nature of one’s personal identity, and how this informs a larger notion of humanity. Rather than a top-down model, the universal concept of humanity is only to be found through its individuation. I wish to explore the notion of uncertainty with regard to one’s own identity and how this informs a broader sense of humanity, that one’s identity informed by a process of negotiation of one’s own possibilities in relation to the status quo for the sake of self-empowerment.

➣2024-2025

Three to fours years out from my dissertation, I look to have completed a larger project for publication, as well as a shorter, second project. The first expands upon elements broached in my dissertation, but is eventually left to be discussed at another time. The second utilizes research material not integrated into the final draft of my dissertation, and adding to it my current research interests in process philosophy. The last seeks to interpret Ernst Bloch’s notion of utopia as developed in his Experimentum Mundi, and to locate an understanding of utopia that is open-ended despite being teleological in nature.

Toward a Substantive Modal Logic

Modal logic offers up a distinction between epistemic possibility and subjunctive possibility, i.e., what is possible in accord with known facts and what is possible under counterfactual conditions, respectively. In a subtle way this distinction between what is factually possible and counterfactually possible echoes elements of Aristotle’s actual-potential distinction in his more substantive notion of possibility. However, contrary to Aristotle’s more nature-based, substantive use of these terms, this manner of distinction would seem to be problematically grounded in a rationalist or positivistic account of possibility without an apparent gesture towards the objective, substantial nature of possibility that such an appraisal would imply, and to which it would seem to be, at some level, ontologically committed. In contrast to the modal rationalism (e.g., Hartmann, Quine and Nicholas Rescher), Cresswell’s combinatorialism, Stalnaker’s modal naturalism, and Lewis’ modal realism offer promising accounts of what is to be understood as a more intuitive, and substantive notion of possibility. 

The Status of Possibility in Process Philosophy

Utilizing prior research into the works of Hegel, Marx, and Bloch, as well as Deleuze and Bergson, I look to further my research into process theories by looking at the works of Whitehead, Peirce, Dewey, and James. I intend to argue that one, all such theorized processes rely upon particular conceptions of possibility proper; two, that all possibility is relational; three, that possibility itself is ambiguous and layered; and four, that such relations and layering is important for addressing any deficiencies or issues that can arise in these process theories. My aim is to develop a framework for arranging and categorizing these various theories in connection with these various registers of possibility, namely (as momentary placeholders) inorganic, organic, human, and rational. 

The Utopian as Open-Ended Metanarrative

At some level, Ernst Bloch presents a notion of utopia that can potentially sidestep skepticism towards totalizing meta-narratives, one that is consistent with utopia as conceptualized through a context- and agent-based approach to possibility in response to overcoming individual and communal struggles. Thus, at heart the utopian is a manner of problem solving, wherein one of the most central problems is what it means to be human. This is an idea most clearly addressed in Bloch’s Experimentum Mundi, wherein Bloch works to lay out his own utopian ontology. Building off of a read of this text, and my own work related to human dignity, the relationship between nature and technology, and identity and self-empowerment, I look to address notions of utopia participant when attempting to resolve real world issues, and clarify a conception of utopia that aligns with an open-ended approach to human endeavoring.

➣2025-2027

Synthesizing research and work from the previous four years, I’m looking to complete a larger, more comprehensive body of work for publication that could be understood as elaborating on, and widening the scope of various components in my dissertation.

A Principle of Possibility

I aim to develop a manner of process theory that centralizes possibility by first arguing for an interpretation of what possibility is, that then grounds its more abstract qualities, tethers it to issues pertinent to philosophy, and ultimately argues for its status as a principle for both becoming and being. Working within fields similar to those addressed by my dissertation, i.e., metaphysics, epistemology, practical/ethical, social and political, I wish to expand on the ideas and problems addressed with a newer framework developed in prior material presented for publication. Involved is the disambiguation of the various meanings of possibility, and a clarification of a vital distinction between a sortal and synchronistic approach to identity versus one that is processual and diachronic. These, in turn, relate to a distinction between an ontology of being versus an ontology of becoming, and looks to flesh out the relevance of such an ontology of the not-yet in relation to real world concerns.

Adorno Problems of Moral Philosophy

Agamben The Coming Community

Alcoff Visible Identities

Benhabib Critique, Norm, and Utopia 

Bloch Experimentum Mundi
Naturrecht und menschliche Würde
Das Materialismusproblem

Butler Gender Trouble

Blöser & Stahl The Moral Psychology of Hope

Collins Black Feminist Thought

Debord Society of Spectacle

Feenberg The Philosophy of Praxis
Questioning Technology

Freire Pedagogy of Hope

Kellner Critical Theory, Marxism, and Modernity

Lefebvre Critique of Everyday Life

Mills From Class to Race
The Racial Contract

Moir Ernst Bloch’s Speculative Materialism

Sheth Toward a Political Philosophy of Race

Whitehead Process and Reality

Anthologies:

Critical Race Theory

Existential Utopia

Situationist International