Grant Dowell’s general philosophical interests include epistemology, metaphysics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of science. His current work includes developing a conventionalist theory of justification whereby facts about justification are really just facts about the social practice of defending our beliefs against objections. He is also working on a theory and taxonomy of natural kinds. The theory recognizes different types of natural kinds that are distinguished by the different causal mechanisms that explain the similarity among the instances of the kind. He is also interested in Bayesianism and probability theory, but only insofar as they help him at the poker table. The title of Grant's M.A. thesis is "Ontology and Levels of Description."

phone: (919) 962-3329
email: dowell@unc.edu