Research
My primary research area is scientific progress. Spanning multiple projects at the intersections of philosophy of science, artificial intelligence and cognitive science, public engagement with science, and history of philosophy of science, I ask questions like "what kinds of scientific change constitute cognitive scientific progress?", "how can empirical work in cognitive science inform philosophy of science?", and "how should philosophers and scientists engage the public such that scientific and social progress mutually reinforce one another?". My dissertation in philosophy of science developed a novel account of scientific progress centering engineering and constructive material practices. In artificial intelligence and cognitive science, I am currently developing an empirical research program designing and running minimal agent simulations as a method for applying recent advances in agentic coding to embodied cognition research. In public engagement with science, I investigate how science communication and outreach function as cognitively generative practices that reshape researchers’ own understanding through dialogue with diverse communities. In the history of philosophy of science, I recover underappreciated resources from figures including William Whewell and Rudolf Carnap for contemporary debates about knowledge and conceptual change.
Most recently, I've begun research in digital and computational studies, applying computational methods at the intersection of philosophical ethics and video game studies. Specifically, I am developing a phenomenological account of struggle, striving, and self-development in soulslike and competitive, online video games. My hypothesis is that the lived experience of players in these genres speaks directly to a longstanding debate between Aristotelian perfectionism and Nietzschean self-overcoming. My hope is to provide support to the idea that video games are a novel, philosophically important medium through which classic ethical and moral questions can be reframed and given new answers.
Research Areas
Scientific Progress & Engineering Epistemology
My dissertation, Engineering Progress in Science (University of Cincinnati, 2025), develops an operative account of scientific progress. Dominant accounts in the literature privilege theoretical discovery—the accumulation of true beliefs, new laws, or improved explanations. I argue instead that scientific works, including instruments, models, calibration routines, and experimental systems, constitute epistemically significant achievements comparable to theoretical contributions. On this account, scientific progress consists in the systematic expansion of both practical-operative and intellectual capacities.
This framework reconceives engineering not as applied science but as a form of inquiry that generates its own distinctive knowledge. The material construction and calibration of scientific instruments represent cognitive achievements that standard philosophies of progress have systematically overlooked.
Minimal Agent Simulations & Embodied Cognition
A second strand of my work develops an empirical research program at the intersection of artificial intelligence and embodied cognitive science. I design and run minimal agent simulations as a method for applying recent advances in agentic coding to embodied cognition research. These simulations serve as controlled environments in which to test hypotheses about how cognition emerges from the dynamic coupling of agents with their environments, rather than from internal representational processes alone.
This research draws on dual training in philosophy and robotics and intelligent autonomous systems (M.Eng., 2024) to bridge the gap between philosophical theories of embodied and enactive cognition and the practical tools now available in agentic AI systems. The aim is to use computational modeling not merely as illustration but as a genuinely experimental method for advancing cognitive science.
Science Communication as Epistemic Practice
A third line of inquiry investigates the epistemic dimensions of science communication and public engagement. In “Leveraging Participatory Sense-Making and Public Engagement with Science for AI Democratization” (with Tim Elmo Feiten, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 2025), I draw on enactive cognitive science to argue that dialogical engagement between researchers and communities is not merely an ethical obligation but a cognitively generative practice. This work motivates the development of “participatory cognitive strategies” for involving diverse stakeholders in the design of large-scale AI systems.
An ongoing collaborative project, A Guide for Academic Researchers Conducting Science Outreach (under contract with Cambridge University Press), extends this work into practical guidance for researchers seeking to integrate public engagement into their scholarly practice.
Ethics & Phenomenology of Video Games
A newer line of inquiry applies computational methods at the intersection of philosophical ethics and video game studies. I am developing a phenomenological account of struggle, striving, and self-development in soulslike and competitive online video games. The lived experience of players in these genres speaks directly to a longstanding debate between Aristotelian perfectionism and Nietzschean self-overcoming.
This work aims to provide support for the idea that video games are a novel, philosophically important medium through which classic ethical and moral questions can be reframed and given new answers. It extends my broader commitment to taking material and practical engagement seriously as a site of philosophical insight.
Whewell, Carnap, and the Architecture of Scientific Concepts
My historical research examines how past philosophers of science conceptualized the relationship between conceptual change and empirical inquiry. I focus in particular on William Whewell’s account of induction and scientific discovery and on Rudolf Carnap’s logical frameworks and their implications for conceptual engineering. This work is not antiquarian; it recovers underappreciated philosophical resources that illuminate contemporary debates in epistemology and philosophy of science.