about me:

I specialize in early modern natural philosophy and mathematics. My main interests are time and the infinite, which I explore in both historical and contemporary contexts. I study the views of many of the founders of modern natural philosophy, such as Descartes, Newton, Einstein and Leibniz, as well as of subsidiary figures such as Beeckman and Robb, with an eye to implications for time and the infinite in modern physics and mathematics.

Operating out of Toronto, I am very active in my writing and research collaborations, despite having retired from McMaster University in 2018. I have just published Leibniz on the Foundations of the Differential Calculus, co-authored with David Rabouin from the Université de Paris, which demonstrates how Leibniz understood his own calculus, and includes many previously unpublished or untranslated texts by him. Also about to appear is Leibniz on the Metaphysics of the Infinite, co-authored with Osvaldo Ottaviani from Raboud, while a third, Russell on Leibniz, with Nick Griffin from McMaster, is under review with Oxford University Press. I have also just finished a complete manuscript of a new book, Elysian Dialogues on the Infinite. I also recently published Leibniz:Journal Articles on Natural Philosophy (OUP, 2023), for which I did about half the translations and wrote an introduction.

I am also active in various online forums, as well as giving talks and presentations (in Paris and Milan in March 2023, and Hanover in August 2023, and in Paris in June 2024). I was invited as Visiting Distinguished Professor at the University of Bristol for September and October 2023, where I gave a series of seminars and two lectures. View blog post! I am co-supervising a PhD student, Jeffrey Elawani, (with David Rabouin in Paris, where Jeff is completing his studies), helping supervise another (Kathrin Gardhouse at McMaster). I and am also collaborating on two articles, one with Filippo Costantini  (about to come out with BJHP), and the other with Osvaldo Ottaviani (about to appear in the Leibniz Review).

Listen to this podcast! of Prof. Sam Levey, Philosophy,  Dartmouth College, NH, interviewing me about my prize-winning book on Leibniz, Monads, Composition, and Force.

See Research Interests for more. See also latest news.