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Ted Poston is an American philosopher specializing in epistemology, medical epistemology, and the philosophy of religion. He is Professor of Philosophy and the Inaugural Director the McCollough Institute of Pre-Medical Scholars at the University of Alabama. Poston is known for his work on inference to the best explanation, explanatory coherentism, Bayesian epistemology, and the epistemology of religious belief.

Education

Poston earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Missouri in 2006, with a dissertation titled The Sellarsian Dilemma. He also holds an M.A. in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, an M.A. in philosophy of religion from Trinity International University, and a B.A. in theology from the Baptist University of Florida. He pursued graduate studies in mathematics at the University of South Alabama.

Career

Poston began his academic career at the University of South Alabama, where he progressed from Assistant Professor to Professor. In 2018, he joined the University of Alabama as Professor of Philosophy and the inaugural director for the McCollough Institute for Premedical Scholars. Under his leadership, the program developed a 100% medical school acceptance rate for graduating cohorts.

He has held visiting scholar appointments at Rutgers University and Northeastern University.

Research

Poston's research focuses on epistemology, particularly explanatory reasoning, confirmation theory, skepticism, and the epistemology of religion. He is the author of Reason and Explanation: A Defense of Explanatory Coherentism and co-author of A Critical Introduction to Knowledge How. He has co-edited volumes including Best Explanations: New Essays on Inference to the Best Explanation and The Mystery of Skepticism. His work has appeared in journals such as Philosophy of Science, Nous, Philosophers' Imprint, Philosophical Studies, and Faith and Philosophy.

His recent publications address topics such as hyperintensional evidence, Bayesian coherence, explanatory informativeness, and the prior probability of grand explanatory theories.

Professional Activities

Poston has organized numerous conferences, including the Orange Beach Epistemology Workshops, with themes ranging from social epistemology to medical epistemology and AI. He has also served as President of the Alabama Philosophical Society, Epistemology Area Editor for the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and as a reviewer for leading philosophy journals and academic presses.

Selected Honors and Awards

• Younger Scholars Prize in Philosophical Theology
• Multiple teaching and professional development awards
• Funded participant in national seminars on faith and fine-tuning arguments

Selected Publications

• Reason and Explanation: A Defense of Explanatory Coherentism (Palgrave, 2014)
• A Critical Introduction to Knowledge How (Bloomsbury, 2018, with J. Adam Carter)
• Best Explanations: New Essays on Inference to the Best Explanation (Oxford University Press, 2018, co-edited)
• Over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters

Selected Presentations

Poston has delivered invited lectures and conference presentations at institutions including Rutgers University, MIT, Northwestern University, Vanderbilt University, the University of Notre Dame, and the American Philosophical Association.

Teaching

At the University of Alabama and the University of South Alabama, Poston has taught courses in epistemology, logic, philosophy of science, philosophy of medicine, ancient philosophy, and game theory.

See also

• Epistemology
• Inference to the best explanation
• Philosophy of religion
• Bayesian epistemology