Professor Decker came to Carleton in 2007 as a visiting professor of philosophy, and now teaches for the philosophy department and the cognitive science program.
He earned his BA from Grove City College in 1998 and his MA from Arizona State University in 2000. He finished his graduate work in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT, earning his PhD in 2006.
In addition to teaching regular courses in the philosophy of language; the philosophy of mind, epistemology, and logic; and cognitive science, Decker has also taught courses in the philosophy of physics, the philosophy of probability, and the epistemology and cognitive science of conspiracy theories. Decker has also joined Julia Strand (psychology) and Marty Baylor (physics) to offer an interdisciplinary team-taught course on color.
Decker has published papers on the epistemic significance of disagreement, moral testimony, the moral limits of philosophical discourse, and other topics. He recently finished writing a logic textbook and is working on another book project on the epistemology and cognitive science of conspiracy theories. Decker has chaired Carleton’s philosophy department and filled in as interim chair of cognitive science. He is currently serving on the Academic Standing Committee, and has, in the past, chaired the Carleton Responsible Investment Committee and served on the Library and Information Technologies Committee.