Owen Phillips

I hail from Shelburne, Ontario, Canada. Before joining the department in the fall of 2018, I studied classics and anthropology at McMaster University (2009-2013; 2013-2015) and classics at Princeton University (2015-2017). The aim of my dissertation is to provide a clear statement and assessment of famous explanations of violence under anarchy. These are at the centre of the state of nature tradition, from Hobbes to Kant. More broadly, I hope in my work to integrate history, philosophy, and contemporary social science.