Jacob Shaw Mills
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Jacob Shaw Mills Curriculum Vitae
Houston Community College Cell: 713-825-6913 Central College Email: [email protected] 1300 Holman St. Houston, TX 77004
EDUCATION:
Rice University, Houston, TX PhD, Philosophy, 2007-2014 Dissertation: “Leibniz on Modality” Primary Advisors: Mark Kulstad and Gregory Brown Other Advisors: Richard Grandy and Robert Sleigh
University of Houston, Houston, TX M.A., Philosophy, 2005-2007 Thesis: “Leibniz on Infinity and the Structure of Matter” Advisor: Gregory Brown
St. John’s College, Santa Fe, NM B.A., Liberal Arts, 1996-2000 Thesis: “The Philosophical Problem as a Linguistic Problem” Advisor: Caleb Thompson
Areas of Specialization:
History of Early Modern Philosophy Metaphysics
Areas of Competence:
Logic (Through Completeness, Modal Logic and Alternate Logics) Ethics (Introductory) Ancient (Introductory)
DISSERTATION ABSTRACT:
Many scholars believe that Leibniz’s modal metaphysics is inconsistent and perhaps even tends toward necessitarianism. I argue that his two accounts of modality—possible worlds and infinite analysis—are compatible and do not result in necessitarianism. Things that exist contingently are not necessary because they are dependent on God’s choice of the best. Furthermore, it is the bestness of a contingent existent that accounts for the infinity of the analysis involved. However, had God chosen otherwise no individual that now exists would exist. Thus Leibniz seems to be committed to the idea that all of an individual’s properties are essential. I show how Leibniz endorsed an error theory about an individual’s modal and counterfactual profile where modal claims are accounted for in terms of counterparts at other worlds. I connect these ideas to the work of Robert Sleigh and show that while Leibniz thought all of an individual’s properties are intrinsic, they are not all essential.
TEACHING:
Houston Community College (Central, Coleman) Intro Phil, Spring 2017 (x3) Symbolic Logic, Spring 2017 Bioethics, Spring 2016
Houston Community College (W Loop, Central) Intro Phil, Fall 2016 (x4) Symbolic Logic, Fall 2016
University of Houston Bioethics, Spring 2016
University of Houston, Honors College Human Situation, Spring 2016 Human Situation, Spring 2016
University of Houston, Honors College Human Situation, Fall 2015 Human Situation, Fall 2015
University of Houston, Honors College Human Situation, Spring 2015 Human Situation, Spring 2015 Artists and Their Regions: DiverseWorks and Houston’s Art Institutions, Spring 2015
University of Houston, Honors College Human Situation, Fall 2014 Human Situation, Fall 2014
University of Houston Symbolic Logic, Fall 2014
University of Houston Symbolic Logic, Summer 2014
University of Houston, Honors College Human Situation, Spring 2014 Human Situation, Spring 2014 University of Houston, Honors College Human Situation, Fall 2013
University of Houston Intro Ethics, Fall 2013
Rice University Symbolic Logic, Spring 2013
Houston Community College (W Loop, Spring Branch) Symbolic Logic, Intro Ethics, Summer 2012
Rice University Symbolic Logic, Spring 2012
Houston Community College (NW) Intro Ethics, Symbolic Logic, Spring 2012
Houston Community College (Spring Branch) Symbolic Logic, Fall 2011
Houston Community College (W Loop) Intro Phil, Symbolic Logic, Summer 2011
Houston Community College (W Loop) Intro Phil, Symbolic Logic, Summer 2010
Houston Community College (Central) Intro Phil, Intro Ethics, Summer 2009
Houston Community College (Central) Intro Phil, Summer 2008
Rice University T.A., Fall 2013, First-Year Writing Intensive Seminar T.A., Fall 2012, First-Year Writing Intensive Seminar T.A., 2009-2011, Mathematical Logic T.A., 2008, History of Philosophy II
University of Houston T.A., 2005-2007
St. John’s College Head of Junior Lab Program, 1999-2000 St. John’s College Lab Assistant, 1997-2000
PUBLICATION:
Review of Gregory Brown and Yual Chiek, Eds. “Leibniz on Compossibility and Possible Worlds,” in Journal of the History of Philosophy (forthcoming Oct 2017 issue)
“Explicability Arguments and the PSR” Southwest Philosophical Studies, vol. 33
CONFERENCES AND PRESENTATIONS:
Invited:
2016 International Conference on Mobile Brain-Body Imaging and the Neuroscience of Art, Innovation and Creativity, July 2016 (Participated in EEG monitoring during creative writing process. Did not present)
“The Metaphysics of Expression” De summa rerum: A Conference for Mark Kulstad, Feb 2015
“Infinite Analysis and the Guaranteed Proof Problem” Houston Circle for the Study of Early Modern Philosophy, Feb 2012
“Compossibility and the Law of the General Order” Houston Circle for the Study of Early Modern Philosophy, June 2011
“Leibniz on Infinity and the Structure of Matter” Leibniz Society of North America, Lunch Session, 2008
Peer Reviewed:
“Compossibility and the Law of the General Order” North Texas Philosophical Association, 2012
“Some Unremarked Continuities Between the Letter to Wedderkopf and the Confessio Philosophi” North Texas Philosophical Association, 2011
“Explicability Arguments and the PSR” New Mexico West Texas Philosophical Society, 2010 North Texas Philosophical Association, 2010
“Hegelian Metaphysics of Epistemology and the Ideal System” Mid-South Philosophy Conference, 2005 Pacific University Undergraduate Philosophy Conference, 2005
AWARDS/AFFILIATIONS/CONTRIBUTIONS:
HCC Philosophy Club, Fall 2016-Present
Designed and implemented a new program for the Center for Creative Work called the CW Fellows. This is a year-long mentorship program that students apply for by writing proposals and budgets for a creative project that they then execute. Fall 2015
Founded UH’s only current undergraduate Philosophy Club: Why-Phi: A Club for Philosophical Inquiry, Spring 2015-Spring 2016
Member of the Center for Creative Work, Fall 2014-Spring 2016
Summer Research Grant, Rice University, Summer 2013
Lodieska Stockbridge Vaughn Fellowship, 2012-2013
Templeton Summer Seminar on Evil and Early Modern Philosophy of Religion and Theology, 2010
Winner of the Templeton Summer Seminar on Evil and Early Modern Philosophy of Religion and Theology essay prize, 2010, for “Some Unremarked Continuities Between the Letter to Wedderkopf and the Confessio Philosophi”
Copy editing for The Philosophy of the Young Leibniz, Ed. by Mark Kulstad, Mogens Laerke, and David Snyder. Franz Steiner Verlag: Stuttgart, 2009
Member of the Houston Circle for the Study of Early Modern Philosophy, 2006-Present
Member of the APA
List of Graduate Classes:
Rice University:
Spring 2013
Gödel’s Incompleteness Proof, Richard Grandy
Spring 2011
Advanced Logic, Richard Grandy Metaphysics, Casey O’Callaghan Spring 2010
Contemporary Metaphysics and Epistemology, Casey O’Callaghan
Fall 2009
Theodicy, Mark Kulstad Pedagogy, Richard Grandy
Spring 2009
Spinoza, Mark Kulstad Contemporary Metaphysics and Epistemology, Casey O’Callaghan Ancient Ethics, Donald Morrison
Fall 2008
Philosophy of Science (Rational Practices), Melinda Fagan Early Modern Philosophy (Continental Rationalists), Mark Kulstad Continental Philosophy, Steven Crowell
Spring 2008
Moral Psychology, George Sher History of Analytic Philosophy, Richard Grandy Leibniz on Space, Mark Kulstad
Fall 2007
Spinoza and Leibniz, Mark Kulstad Perceptual Content, Nico Orlandi Mathematical Logic, Richard Grandy
University of Houston:
Spring 2007
Skepticism, Bredo Johnsen Modal Logic, James Garson Thesis, Greg Brown
Fall 2006
Leibniz’s Metaphysics, Greg Brown Causation in Early Modern Philosophy, Helen Hattab Thesis, Greg Brown
Spring 2006
Logic, James Garson Aristotle, Helen Hattab Philosophy of Logic, James Garson
Fall 2005
Metaphysics, Paul Saka Contractualism, Bill Nelson 17th Century Philosophy, Helen Hattab
REFERENCES:
Mark Kulstad Professor of Philosophy Department of Philosophy Rice University 713-348-2724 [email protected]
Gregory Brown Professor of Philosophy Department of Philosophy University of Houston 713-743-3202 [email protected]
Richard Grandy McManis Professor of Philosophy Chair Department of Philosophy Rice University 713-348-2720 [email protected]
Robert C. Sleigh Jr. Professor Emeritus Department of Philosophy University of Massachusetts Amherst 545-5803 [email protected]