Isaac Wilhelm
isaac.wilhelm@rutgers.edu
I am a Ph.D. candidate in the philosophy department at Rutgers University. While pursuing my doctorate in philosophy, I earned an M.S. from the Rutgers mathematics department.
My research focuses on issues in metaphysics, philosophy of science, philosophy of physics, and the intersections of these fields. My dissertation is on explanation: I explore the worldly relations which back explanations, typicality explanations, and explanatory comparisons in mathematics.
Before coming to philosophy, I worked as a documentary filmmaker in Chicago: I made documentaries about people, parks, and diners. At the same time, I taught math, science, and writing to grade schoolers. These days, in addition to philosophy, I like taking pictures, watching movies, reading and writing poems, and hiking.
Current Teaching
- Human Nature and Diversity. Stephen Stitch. Spring 2021. (Rutgers, TA)
- Elementary Math Class (online). Winter 2021. (Whatcom Literacy Council, volunteer math and ESL instructor)
Publications (academic)
- The Counteridentical Account of Explanatory Identities (forthcoming). The Journal of Philosophy.
- Intrinsicality and Entanglement (forthcoming). Mind.
- Centering the Principal Principle (forthcoming). Philosophical Studies.
- Comparing Mathematical Explanations (forthcoming). The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.
- Grounding and Propositional Identity (forthcoming). Analysis.
- Explanatory Priority Monism (forthcoming). Philosophical Studies.
- Typical: A Theory of Typicality and Typicality Explanation (forthcoming). The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (archive version).
- Featured in the OUP "Best of Philosophy 2019" article collection.
- The Logic of Typicality (forthcoming). In Valia Allori, ed., Statistical Mechanics and Scientific Explanation: Determinism, Indeterminism and Laws of Nature. World Scientific. (with Harry Crane)
- A Statistical Analysis of Luck (2020). Synthese 197: 867-885.
- An Argument for Entity Grounding (2020). Analysis 80: 500-507.
- Interventionist Explanation and the Problem of Single Variable Boundary Constraints (2020). Noûs 54: 945-955.
- The Stage Theory of Groups (2020). Australasian Journal of Philosophy 98: 661-674.
- Celestial Chaos: The New Logics of Theory-Testing in Orbital Dynamics (2019). Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 65: 97-102.
- The Ontology of Mechanisms (2019). The Journal of Philosophy 116: 615-636.
- New Data on the Representation of Women in Philosophy Journals: 2004-2015 (2018). Philosophical Studies 175: 1441-1464. (with Sherri Conklin and Nicole Hassoun)
- The Representation of Belief (2018). Journal of Philosophical Logic 47: 715-732.
Publications (other)
- Why Christians should welcome face masks (2021, January/February). Messenger 170: 27.