I'm a PhD student at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. My research focuses on reparative justice, racial apathy, the normative significance of benefitting from injustice, and a bit o' complaining about effective altruism and U.S. welfare reform. 

For me, philosophy has formative value. At the individual level: inviting us to sojourn down pathways of care and love, away from apathy. At the societal level: inviting us to sojourn toward systems and narratives worthy of the people around us. I think Bertrand Russell was mostly wrong about philosophy. Philosophy "for the sake of the questions themselves" is not really the point. Nor is the point to undo dogma by traveling "into the region of liberating doubt," tho there is something to that. The real value of philosophy is its ability to help us carve new pathways and to encourage us to be sojourners on these pathways. Toward justice. Toward peace. Toward truth. Toward reconciliation. Toward repair. Toward flourishing. Philosophy provides analytical tools and reflective experiences well suited for these endeavors.