Research
My research hangs together, in the broadest sense, around the question “what are ‘conflicting perspectives’ and what do we do about them?” This allows me to focus both on theoretical questions in social and political epistemology and philosophy of language about the nature and functionality of epistemic networks and doxastic norms, as well as on practical questions in applied ethics and public policy about how to construct just and caring societies.
My joint dissertation projects (in philosophy and public policy) comprise an empirically-grounded, humanistic investigation of AI’s developing cultural impact. In philosophy, my work explores the effects of emerging technologies on how we use words to create and navigate our social spaces, adapting familiar tools from theology and philosophy of language to better understand both on- and off-line speech; in public policy, I apply this theoretical framework via quantitative analyses of democratization narratives for AI governance to scrutinize the practical impact of our normative discourse on policy agenda-setting and implementation.
In May 2020, I defended my M.A. thesis (titled “Perceptual Characterization: On Perceptual Learning and Perspectival Sedimentation”) under the supervision of Jack Lyons, Amanda McMullen, and Eric Funkhouser.
I also have research interests in animal ethics and philosophy of religion, particularly where they consider socio-political perspectival effects.
Academic Publications
Journal Articles
- "A Grammar in Two Dimensions: The Temporal Mechanics of Arrival and the Semantics/Pragmatics Divide" in The Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy 5, no. 1. Available at: https://jsfphil.org/holdier-a-grammar-in-two-dimensions/
- ““Teach Me to Do What's Right”: Faith, Hope, and Love as Post-Religious Virtues” in The Journal of Cultural and Religious Theory 20, no. 3. Available at: https://jcrt.org/archives/20.3/Holdier.pdf
- “Kierkegaard's Three Spheres and Cinematic Fairy Tale Pedagogy in ‘Frozen,’ ‘Moana,’ and ‘Tangled’” in The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 33, no. 2: 105-119. DOI: 10.3138/jrpc.2018-0027
- “Is Heaven a Zoopolis?” in Faith and Philosophy 37, no. 4 (2020): 475–499. DOI: 10.37977/faithphil.2020.37.4.6
- “Divine Energies: The Consuming Fire and the Beatific Vision” in Theologica: An International Journal for Philosophy of Religion and Philosophical Theology 2, no. 2 (2018). DOI: 10.14428/thl.v2i2.2233
- “On Superhero Stories: The Marvel Cinematic Universe as Tolkienesque Fantasy” in Mythlore 36, no. 2 (2018). Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol36/iss2/6
- “The Pig's Squeak: Towards a Renewed Aesthetic Argument for Veganism” in The Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 29, no. 4 (2016): 631–642. DOI: 10.1007/s10806-016-9624-9
- “Meeting Mary in Myth: Pursuing Pre/Post/Modern Apologetics” in The Journal of Cultural and Religious Theory 14, no. 2 (2015). Available at: https://jcrt.org/archives/14.2/index.shtml
Edited Book Chapters
- “Dividing Lines: A Brief Taxonomy of Moral Identity” in The Supervillain Reader, eds. Robert Moses Peaslee and Robert G. Weiner (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2020).
- “The Agony of the Infinite: Heaven as Phenomenological Hell” in Heaven and Philosophy, eds. Simon Cushing (Lanham, MD: Lexington Press, 2017).
- “The Heart of the Matter: Forgiveness as an Aesthetic Process” in The Philosophy of Forgiveness, Vol. II: New Dimensions of Forgiveness, ed. Court D. Lewis (Wilmington, DE: Vernon Press, 2016).
- “Speciesistic Veganism: An Anthropocentric Argument” in Critical Perspectives on Veganism and Meat Consumption, eds. Jodey Castricano and Rasmus R. Simonsen (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).
- “Pursuing Pankalia: The Aesthetic Theodicy of St. Augustine” in The Problem of Evil: New Philosophical Directions, eds. Benjamin McCraw and Robert Arp (Lanham, MD: Lexington Press, 2016).
Encyclopedia Entries
“Hell and Universalism” at 1000-Word Philosophy: An Introductory Anthology (2019).
“Complex Question” in Bad Arguments: 100 of the Most Important Fallacies in Western Philosophy, eds. Robert Arp, Steven Barbone, and Michael Bruce (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2018).
“Chronological Snobbery” in Bad Arguments: 100 of the Most Important Fallacies in Western Philosophy, eds. Robert Arp, Steven Barbone, and Michael Bruce (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2018).
Selected Book Reviews
T.J. Kasperbauer’s Subhuman: The Moral Psychology of Human Attitudes to Animals, in The Journal of Moral Philosophy 18, no. 2: 206–209 (2021).
Christine Korsgaard’s Fellow Creatures: Our Obligations to Other Animals in Between the Species 23, no. 1 (2020).
Aaron S. Gross’ The Question of the Animal and Religion: Theoretical Stakes, Practical Implications in Between the Species 20, no. 1 (2017).