Research

My research focuses on the history of modern philosophy, especially on the thought of Spinoza, Leibniz and Kant. Work on the metaphysics of Leibniz has resulted in two books: Leibniz and 'Vinculum Substantiale' and The Leibniz-Des Bosses Correspondence, the latter a critical edition and translation (with Donald Rutherford). At the moment, I am engaged in a larger project, which examines Kant's understanding of rationalist metaphysics and his reasons for rejecting Leibniz's philosophy. I am also working on a constellation of issues in contemporary metaphysics that have evident early modern roots: the nature of substance (or the nature of material constitution), the metaphysics of modality, and the nature of causation. I have additional active interests in contemporary epistemology, ancient philosophy, logic and the history and philosophy of science.

Selected Publications

• The Leibniz-Des Bosses Correspondence, edited and translated with Donald Rutherford (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007).
• Leibniz and the 'Vinculum Substantiale' (Stuttgart: Steiner, 1999 = Studia Leibnitiana Sonderheft 30).
• The Encyclopedia of Leibniz and His Times, editor, under contract with Continuum Books.
• "Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz," in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2007).
• "Leibniz's Modal Metaphysics," in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2008).
• "Essence, existence, et expression: Leibniz sur 'toutes des absurdités du dieu de Spinoza'," in Spinoza et Leibniz, eds. Pierre-François Moreau and Mogens Laerke, Paris: ENS, forthcoming.
• "Grounding the Principle of Sufficient Reason: Leibnizian Rationalism versus the Humean Challenge," in The Rationalists: Between Tradition and Revolution, eds. Justin E. H. Smith et al., Dordrecht: Springer, forthcoming.
• "Leibniz and Locke on Natural Kinds," in Branching Off: The Early Moderns in Quest for the Unity of Knowledge, ed. Vlad Alexandrescu, Bucharest: Zeta Books, forthcoming.  Preprint.
• "Perfection, Power, and the Passions in Spinoza and Leibniz," in Revue roumaine de philosophie 51:1 (2007). Preprint.
• "Some Remarks on the Ontological Arguments of Leibniz and Gödel," in Einheit in der Vielheit: Akten des VIII. Internationalen Leibniz-Kongresses, Hannover, 2006, pp. 510-17.  Preprint.
• "Blumenbach and Kant on Mechanism and Teleology in Nature: The Case of the Formative Drive," in The Problem of Animal Generation in Modern Philosophy, ed. Justin E. H. Smith, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, pp. 355-72.
• "Leibniz and the Shelf of Essence," in The Leibniz Review 15 (2005), pp. 27-47.  Prepint.
• "On Substance and Relations in Leibniz's Correspondence with Des Bosses," in Leibniz and His Correspondents, ed. Paul Lodge, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 238-61.
• "On Monadic Domination in Leibniz's Metaphysics," in British Journal for the History of Philosophy 10:3 (August 2002), pp. 379-99. pdf.
• "'Becoming Who One Is' in Spinoza and Nietzsche," in Iyyun: The Jerusalem Philosophical Quarterly 50 (July 2001), pp. 327-38. Preprint.
• "Leibniz and the Substance of the Vinculum Substantiale," in Journal of the History of Philosophy 38:2 (April 2000), pp. 203-220. pdf.