Jeffrey Patrick Colgan
2025-2026 Graduate Fellow, Center for Ethics
Biography
Jeffrey Colgan is a PhD candidate in the Department of Philosophy. His dissertation, The Limits of Language and Philosophy, is written under the direction of Prof. Richard Velkley. His research interests include Ethics, Philosophy of Language, Political Philosophy, Post-Kantian European Philosophy (esp. Wittgenstein & Heidegger), Ancient Philosophy, and Buddhist Philosophy.
In Spring 2024, Jeffrey was a visiting Ph.D. student at the University of Iowa. In 2023-2024, he was an RLST Gaisman Dissertation-Teaching Fellow at Tulane University. From 2022-2024, he was an Adam Smith Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
The Center for Ethics Graduate Fellowships provides support to outstanding Tulane doctoral students who have excelled in their fields of specialization, have demonstrated an interest in ethical questions that cut across disciplinary boundaries, and are likely to make significant contributions to teaching and scholarship in their respective fields.
Publications
“Language and Methodological Limits in Wittgenstein and Hayek” in Gamero, Isabel G., Amadeusz Just, and Jasmin Trächtler, eds. Feminist Philosophy — Language, Knowledge, and Politics: Proceedings of the 46th International Wittgenstein Symposium. De Gruyter, forthcoming 2026. Co-written with David Ween.
“Translating the Tractatus and Tractarian Ethics” in Passinsky, Asya, Julio De Rizzo, and Benjamin Schnieder, eds. Facets of Reality — Contemporary Debates: Proceedings of the 45th International Wittgenstein Symposium. De Gruyter, forthcoming 2025.
“Wittgenstein Plays the Pedal Steel” chapter in Heter, Joshua and Brett Coppenger, eds. Country Music and Philosophy. MacFarland and Co., forthcoming 2025.
Review of Transcending Reason: Heidegger on Rationality, Matthew Burch and Irene McMullin, eds. Gatherings: The Heidegger Circle Annual 13 (2023): 273-279.
“The Comstock Apparatus” chapter in Canaday, Margot, Nancy F. Cott, and Robert O. Self, eds. Intimate States: Gender, Sexuality, and Governance in Modern US History. University of Chicago Press, 2021. Co-written with Jeffrey Escoffier and Whitney Strub.
Education & Affiliations
- PhD Candidate in Philosophy, Tulane University
- MA Philosophy and Cultural Policy, University of Chicago
- BA Liberal Arts, St. John’s College
