People

James E. Faulconer

I am the father of four and the grandfather of thirteen, married happily to Janice K. Allen for more than fifty years.

In graduate school, my specialty was the work of the 19th-century philosopher Hegel as well as 20th-century European philosophy. My dissertation was on the philosophy of community. Later I spent some time writing and publishing in the philosophy of psychology. However, over the course of time my interests gradually shifted, and about 20 or 25 years ago I began to do work in the philosophy of religion and theology.

I have written or edited 17 books, with topics ranging from a textbook on logic, to a collection of essays on the philosophy of psychology, to books on Latter-day Saint scripture. I have published approximately 70 academic essays in similar areas. My most recent publications include Mosiah: A brief theological introduction and Thinking Otherwise: Theological Explorations of Joseph Smith’s Revelations.

At Brigham Young University I have been a department chair, the dean of Undergraduate Education, a holder of the Richard L. Evans Chair of Religious Understanding, the Academic Director of BYU’s London Centre, and a fellow at the Wheatley Institution as well as at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship.

Read more about my work here: https://mi.byu.edu/scholars/james-e-faulconer/

Katharina A. Paxman

I specialize in Early Modern Philosophy, particularly David Hume’s theory of the passions and moral psychology. I received my PhD in the fall of 2010, jointly awarded by the University of Western Ontario (London, Canada) and the University of Antwerp (Antwerp, Belgium). After that, I completed a post-doctoral contract with the University of Antwerp’s Centre for Ethics. I joined the Philosophy Department at Brigham Young University as an Assistant Professor in 2015. I have been published in two Hume anthologies, as well as Hume Studies, The Journal of Scottish Philosophy and Res Philosophica.

Current projects include a paper (co-written with Tarik D. LaCour) on Hume’s picture of religious belief built on skeptical foundations in his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.

While I have always had a private interest in the intersection of my philosophical work and my faith, I am new to applying my philosophical work to LDS theology in a formal way. I am interested in theories of LDS epistemology, as well as developing work in LDS moral psychology and ethical theory.

I am the mother of four fantastic kids, and when I am not doing philosophy I love exploring the world with them and my partner and husband, Andrew.

Read more about my work here: https://katharinapaxman.wordpress.com/

Taylor-Grey E. Miller

I’m an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Brigham Young University.  I specialize in metaphysics, in particular the relationships that essence, ground, and metaphysical generation bear to one another. I’m also interested in various issues in philosophy of religion and philosophical theology. My paper “Sider’s Puzzle and the Mormon Afterlife” (co-written with Derek Haderlie) was a runner up in the Diversifying the Journal of Analytic Theology prize competition. On the philosophy of religion/philosophical theology front, I’m currently working on two projects: one explores the extent to which faith is subject to epistemic norms for belief; the other attempts to develop a new way of approaching the problem of evil from a Latter-day Saint perspective.

Read more about my work here: https://www.taylor-grey.com/

Adam S. Miller

I’m a professor of philosophy at Collin College in McKinney, Texas, where I’ve taught since 2005. I earned a BA in Comparative Literature from BYU and an MA and PhD in Philosophy from Villanova University.
I specialize in philosophy of religion and contemporary Continental philosophy. I’ve published more than ten books, including academic monographs like Badiou, Marion and St Paul: Immanent GraceThe Gospel According to David Foster Wallace: Boredom and Addiction in an Age of Distraction, and Speculative Grace: Bruno Latour and Object-Oriented Theology, as well as popular audience books for Latter-day Saints like Letters to a Young MormonAn Early Resurrection, and Original Grace.
I also serve as the director of the Latter-day Saint Theology Seminar. My wife and I have three children.
Read more about my work at: www.adamsmiller.net