Joseph Graly's Research Page

I am a masters student at University of Vermont, focusing on ice sheets, climate history, and ice sheet modelling. My other research interests include the tectonic assembly of Asia, the demarcation problem in philosophy of science, theories of causation, and history of Western mysticism

• Masters Project
  I am working with Paul Bierman, Tom Neumann, and Ashley Corbett on an NSF-funded project to analyze the climate history of Western Greenland through detrital cosmochronology and ice flow modeling. The field work is scheduled for summer 2008. Project Website
• Other Geology Research Interests
  I do like and follow research outside of the field of glaciology, trying to stay moderately well informed about geomorphology, sedimentology, petrology, paleoclimate, and tectonics. My thesis in college concerned volcanic dikes in Southeastern Mongolia, which display diverse petrology and orientation. Along with my collaborator, E. Molor, I identified six distinct structural orientations to the dikes, and determined relative ages by cross-cutting relationships. The principle stress fields seem to have rotated around 300 degrees during the period of dike emplacement, perhaps matching the rotation of Permian Siberia.
• Philosophy and History of Science Research Interests
  Carleton College granted me a degree in both geology and philosophy, and I still spend a good deal of time reading and thinking about philosophy. Philosophically, I oppose the tendency of philosophers of science to insist that "reality" really consists only of the tiniest particles that physicists can detect with their machines. I instead argue that marcophysical causes can have microphysical effects and oppose the ontological reduction of macrophysical phenomena. I also favor a process ontology over atomistic "states of affairs". While I have by no means written a comprehensive opus defending these views, pieces of the arguments can be gotten from various of my unpublished papers:
  The Non-Existence of Non-Occurrent Causes in Theories of Process Causation
  Is Functionalism a Physicalist Theory of Consciousness?
  I am also interested in the history of Western mysticism, particularly as it relates to history of science. What defined the transition between more mystically informed science (such as alchemy) and modern science? Does modern science in important ways still practice occultism? I also study more modern occult movements that have claimed to be scientific, particularly the 19th and early 20th century revival of theurgy and ceremonial magic.
• Curriculum Vita