He received his Bachelor's from the University of Missouri at St. Louis and his PhD from the University of Wisconsin. he taught for a few years at Dartmouth and Wellesley Colleges before moving to Florida International U, in Miami, where his wife is also a faculty member. He studies early modern philosophy, focusing on issues of mind and metaphysics in the seventeenth Century. His published work concerns Baruch Spinoza, mostly, though he is now working on English philosopher Margaret Cavendish as well. He teaches classes in early modern philosophy, metaphysics, and, his favorite, Introduction to Philosophy.