I grew up in Tennessee, went to college in Oregon, studied abroad in Nanjing, went to graduate school in Nebraska, and I currently live in North Carolina where I work as a High School teacher.


My current research interests lie in the areas of metaphysics, philosophy of language, and logic. In particular, I am working on a number of papers with Zachariah Wrublewski on impossible worlds and their uses. I am also continuing development on parts of my dissertation on vagueness in the hopes of publishing a number of the ideas that appear therein. Finally, I have been working on papers related to artificial intelligence.




Vagueness and the Logic of the World



Impossible Worlds and the Safety of Philosophical Beliefs - 2022 (Coauthored with Zachariah Wrublewski)

Logical Constants and the Sorites Paradox - 2023

Explaining Go: Challenges in Achieving Explainability in AI Go Programs - 2023

Achilles To-Do List - 2024

Beyond Impossibility - 2025 (Coauthored with Zachariah Wrublewski)



An Explanation of Complete Colocation of Indiscernibles - 2013



I taught at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln for seven years as I was working towards my Ph.D. During that time I taught as both a teaching assistant and as the primary instructor. I am currently teaching logic and philosophy classes at Excelsior Classical Academy in Durham, North Carolina.



Philosophy 101: Introduction to Philosophy

This class was a survey of the history of philosophy through paradoxes. We discussed everything from Zeno's paradoxes to problems in decision theory like Newcomb's paradox

Philosophy 106: Philosophy and Current Events

I had students explore the interactions of governments with their citizens by reading important texts from Hobbes, Rousseau, Locke, Rawls, and Nozick, among other important figures in the field of social and political philosophy.

Philosophy 110: Logic and Critical Thinking

This class covered Aristotelian Categorical Logic and Sentential Logic. Students were expected to master techniques like Venn diagrams, truth-tables, and natural deduction.

Philosophy 211: Introduction to Modern Logic

As the name would indicate, this logic course focused on Sentential and Predicate logics. Students were expected to master truth-tables, the tree method, and natural deduction.




Logic

This is a year long course during which students learn Aristotelian Categorical Logic, Sentential Logic, the basics of probability, and various forms of non-deductive reasoning.

Honors Logic

In the honors logic course students learn Sentential Logic, Predicate Logic, a more advanced introduction to probability, as well as various forms of non-deductive reasoning.

Philosophy

In this High School philosophy class, I cover a standard survey of the areas of Western philosophy, both analytic and continental. During the first semester we focus on questions from metaphysics, epistemology, and the philosophy of mind. In the second semester, I teach normative ethics and existentialism.

Computer Science

This course is a survey of topics in computer science. I cover the hardware of the computer from the individual transistors up to the fully functional computer. I also cover important topics in the future of computing including AI and quantum computing.

Conversational Japanese

This course is an introduction to Japanese that focuses on the baseline skills needed to understand and communicate in everyday contexts.


I recently had a two part article about philosophy and the ancient Chinese board game Go published in the European Go Journal. In the article, I explore the analogy between the differences between Chess and Go on the one hand and the differences between Western and East Asian philosophy on the other.

See the July and August Editions for the article.
European Go Journal

I have chapters appearing in two upcoming books Back to the Future and Philosophy: Essays on Traveling Through the Space-Time Continuum and Country Music and Philosophy: Honky Tonk Meditations

zackgarrett127@gmail.com