Ben Cook

Philosopher at Syracuse University

 
I'm currently a fourth-year PhD student in philosophy at Syracuse University in upstate New York. My primary research interests are in metaphysics and the philosophy of religion, though I also have a passion for moral and political philosophy. When I'm not doing philosophy, I enjoy playing music, hiking, and playing basketball.

The title of my dissertation is 'Powers and the Metaphysics of Fundamentality.' Drawing on the insights of medieval philosophers such as Avicenna and Aquinas, I attempt to analyze ground in terms of powerful, existential causation. I then show how this theory of ground provides unique resources for formulating an argument in favor of foundationalism: the view that all chains of ground must terminate in something(s) fundamental. This argument utilizes a style of argument that found expression in scholastic cosmological arguments for a first cause of being. My dissertation committee includes Kris McDaniel (Notre Dame), Mark Heller (SU), and Kara Richardson (SU).

Other topics that I'm currently researching and writing about include the nature or color perception and its relation to the 'hard problem' of consciousness; how competing conceptions of being as either essentially active or passive have influenced the history of philosophy; and the role of the passions in the history of political philosophy.