
I am an Assistant Professor at U. C. San Diego. I recently received my Ph.D. from the philosophy department at Yale, studying under Michael Della Rocca, and was an exchange scholar for two years at U.C. Berkeley, studying under Shamik Dasgupta.
My teaching primarily addresses ethical issues in society and critical reasoning. My research lies at the intersection of logic and foundational metaphysics. Many of my projects rely upon the theoretical resources of truth-maker semantics. In particular, I argue that it provides the tools to account for philosophical analysis, epistemic closure, question-begging arguments, physicalism and the levels of scientific disciplines. I also have projects on the essence of knowledge, counterfactual logic and real definition that are unrelated to truth-maker semantics.
Other than studying philosophy, I enjoy hiking, cooking, traveling and listening to classical music. My email address is elgin.samuel@gmail.com. I always appreciate comments and feedback on my work.