Email: Babbmw [at] usc [dot] edu

Hello! I'm a doctoral student in philosophy at the University of Southern California. I have a wide variety of interests, including topics in language, mind, action, metaphysics, logic, and ethics, among others. But my main interest concerns practical language, thought, and knowledge. This is the sort of language and thought that has a fairly direct connection to action: when someone accepts a practical sentence or otherwise makes a decision about what to do, they are moved to act accordingly. My dissertation is on one of the most familiar types of practical language: imperative sentences. My main question is how we are to analyze the meanings of these sentences. In answering this question I also discuss the syntax of these sentences, as well as their pragmatics. Much of what happens in my dissertation informs and serves as a foundation for my other work.

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