I received my masters in philosophy from Tufts University in 2021 and my bachelors in philosophy and mathematics from Rutgers University in 2018. Currently, I work as an adjunct for the Philosophy Department at Rutgers University.

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My philosophical interests are extremely wide-ranging, but my focus these days is primarily taken up with issues in Buddhist philosophy, metaphysics, metaethics, and philosophical methodology. In fact, if I had to briefly describe my philosophical project as a whole, I'd say that it constitutes an attempt to draw out the metaphysical, (meta)ethical, and methodological implications of the Mahāyāna worldview, especially as exemplified in Madhyamaka and Huáyán schools. In my work, I suggest that these implications include the following: a process-relational ontology, according to which reality is constituted by profoundly interdependent processes and events; a constructivist metaethics, according to which moral truths are neither fully “objective” nor fully “subjective” but are instead constructed on the basis of facts about the nature of suffering and the kinds of beings that we are; and a philosophical methodology that takes argumentation seriously, but which places a special emphasis on the notion of “grasping” or “realization” in the pursuit of philosophical knowledge and wisdom. Recently I’ve been considering how some of these suggestions tie into environmental and ecological philosophy, primarily through the work of Arne Næss, and I’ve also been thinking a bit about what a “process phenomenology” might look like.

 

On this site you’ll find tidbits about my current research and the classes I’m teaching (I’m planning to upload papers/paper drafts and syllabi in the near future). You’ll also find the occasional blogpost, though they’re admittedly infrequent (something I’m hoping to change), and some of my photography as well. (Note that the website is much better viewed on desktop: the mobile version of the site is somewhat a mess.) If you’d like to reach me, feel free to send me an email at maurer.nicholasj@gmail.com.

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