I’ve always been interested in conversations and the ways in which we can use them to achieve greater understanding. I am also interested in the reasons for why conversations often fail to have this effect or even occur in the first place. I created this site in order to explore these issues and others by sharing my thoughts in the hopes that my posts start dialogues all parties can benefit from.

Related to the issue of why conversations fail, one of my biggest concerns today is the issue of dogmatism. While I am optimistic about the decline of dogmatism in certain areas, such as religious belief, it seems likely that it is on the rise in the discussion of other topics, politics in particular. It is for this reason that a return to values that stress intellectual modesty and honesty is so important today. These values are at the core of critical rationalism, the philosophy of one of my favorite philosophers, Karl Popper. In essence, it is the scientific attitude extended to all areas of inquiry: expressing our expectations or theories about the world and then subjecting them to criticism (and in the case of scientific theories, empirical tests).

A little bit of biography for those curious about my roots. I was born and have lived in the United States my whole life except for a deployment to Afghanistan as a combat medic and studying abroad in Germany. I have been meditating for over a decade after having been introduced to Buddhism by my Aunt. My biggest passion from middle school through high school was juggling and I made a few YouTube videos which are posted here.

I served in the Army for four years as a combat medic. During that time I spent a lot of time trying to understand the sciences of nutrition and exercise. My research in these subjects and the struggle to wade through the wide variety of dubious claims made in them is part of what got me thinking about the philosophy of science.

I am now a university student studying philosophy and math. I am an avid reader and my favorite books can be found here.