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• Faculty Sponsor, Ethics Bowl and Philosophers' Cafe

Contact Information

• Office: 219G Landrum
• Phone: 572-5251
• FAX: (859) 572-6086
• Email: bricer1@nku.edu
• Web Site:

Research & Teaching Interests  

Philosophy of Language, Epistemology, Ethics, Logic, and the Philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein 

Current Research  

Much of my current research looks at the intersection of Austrian philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein’s epistemic conception of certitude (as something non-propositional, non-ratiocinated, and actional), and its impact on a number of areas of thought, including epistemology, ethics, and cognitive science. I also explore parallels in Wittgenstein’s notion of certainty with a contemporary psychotherapeutic approach known as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). My latest work to emerge from this scholarship is a book entitled, Wittgenstein’s On Certainty: Insight & Method (contract with Springer Press, forthcoming). In it, I argue that Wittgenstein not only re-conceives the problem of radical skepticism as a kind of philosophical “disease” of thought, but that implicit in this approach are a number of strategies found in CBT. These strategies, along with philosophical methods and scientific practices, seek to diagnose and treat irrational thoughts and beliefs that often emerge (and re-emerge) in the discipline of philosophy.  

Academic Degrees  

•  Ph.D. Michigan State University  
• M.B.A. �鶹������Ʒ (expected 12/2021) 
• M.A. West Chester University 
• B.A. University of Houston 

 Courses  

• Philosophers, Culture, & Creativity  
• Philosophy, Individuals, & Society  
• Ethics 
• Ethics Bowl  
• Ethics & Social/Political Theory 
• Ethics & Social Responsibility 
• Professional Ethics  
• Information Ethics  
• Logic  
• Symbolic Logic  
• Aesthetics  
• Ancient Philosophy  
• History of Modern & Contemporary Philosophy 
• Philosophy of Education  
• Introduction to Analytic Philosophy  
• Philosophy of Knowledge  
• Epistemology 
• Philosophy of Religion  
• Skepticism, Knowledge, & Certitude 
• Philosophy of Language 
• The Philosophy of Star Trek 
• Seminar: Ludwig Wittgenstein  

 Academic Accolades  

• Awards: College of Humanities and Natural Sciences 2015 Excellence in Research Award Loyola University New
  Orleans 
• Professional Review of Exploring Certainty: “This brief book of Wittgenstein’s On Certainty lives up to its subtitle. The ‘fields of thought’ it covers are indeed wide; they include epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, religion, cognitive science, mathematics, psychotherapy and even Wittgenstein’s political views. Brice successfully shows the broad reach of Wittgenstein’s ideas...Brice [also] demonstrates a familiarity with an impressive range of philosophical and other topics. His book is clearly written and accessible to a wide range of scholars, not just Wittgenstein scholars, and it might even interest some scholars outside of philosophy, such as those in any of the “fields of thought” upon which it touches...[This] interpretation is worth understanding, and Brice’s book offers a concise introduction to it, as well as some interesting developments of it.” Philosophical Investigations 2016, Volume 39, Issue 1, pp. 88-92.  

 Selected Publications  

I. Books: 

• Wittgenstein’s On Certainty: Insight & Method (contract with Springer Press; forthcoming). 
• Exploring Certainty: Wittgenstein and Wide Fields of Thought. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2014. 

II. Peer-Reviewed Articles: 

• “Wittgenstein and Merleau-Ponty On The Pre-Reflective Level,” co-authored with Patrick Bourgeois, Philosophy Today, 2019, Vol. 63, Issue 2. 
• “Domestic Drone Surveillance: The Court’s Epistemic Challenge and Wittgenstein’s Actional Certitude,” co-authored with Katrina Sifferd,  invited article in Louisiana Law Review, Vol.
  77, Issue 3, 2017.  
• “‘Aesthetic Scaffolding’: Hagberg and Wittgensteinian Certitude,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, Vol.
  87, Issue 3, Summer 2013, pp. 397-409. 
• “Mistakes & Mental Disturbances: Pleasants,
  Wittgenstein, and Basic Moral Certainty,” Philosophia, Vol. 41, Issue 2, 2013, pp. 477-487.  
• “‘The Whole Hurly-Burly’: Wittgenstein and Embodied Cognition,” Journal of Consciousness Studies, Vol. 20, No. 1–2, 2013, pp.49-58. 
• “Naturalism Reconsidered: Wittgenstein and Merleau-Ponty,” co-authored with Patrick Bourgeois, Philosophy Today, 2012, Vol.
  56, Issue 1, pp. 78-83. 
• “Recognizing Targets: Wittgenstein’s Exploration of A New Kind Of Foundationalism in On Certainty,” Philosophical Investigations 2009, Vol.
• 32, Issue 1, p. 1-22. 

III. Encyclopedia Entries: 

• “Logical Empiricism,” in the New Catholic Encyclopedia Supplement 2012-13: Ethics and Philosophy. Ed. Robert L. Fastiggi. 4 vols. Detroit: Gale, Vol. 2, 453-454. 
• Falsity,” co-authored with Francis Philip O’Farrell, in the New Catholic Encyclopedia Supplement 2012-13: Ethics and Philosophy. Ed. Robert L. Fastiggi. 4 vols. Detroit: Gale, Vol. 2, 554-556.  
• “Semantics,” co-authored with Margaret Gorman, in the New Catholic Encyclopedia Supplement 2012-13: Ethics and Philosophy. Ed.
  Robert L. Fastiggi. 4 vols. Detroit: Gale, Vol. 4, 1397-1402. 

IV. Book Reviews: 

• Scott Soames, Rethinking
  Language, Mind, & Meaning, The Review of Metaphysics, Vol.
  71, No. 3, March 2018. 

V. Blog Entries: 

• “The Epistemology of Drone Strikes,” American Philosophical Association Blog, February 29, 2016. 
• “Wittgenstein: Our Guide to the Digital Age of Communication,” American Philosophical Association Blog, November 8, 2018. 

VI. Newspaper Op-ed:

• “Our Stubborn Attitude Toward The Facts,” Cincinnati Enquirer, December 2, 2018.