This week's most underrated philosopher, Brandon Look, was a cohort ahead of me in graduate school. (So, I am not entirely unbiased in the matter.) Besides being a very nice guy, his scholarship is not merely impeccable and insightful, but covers stunning breadth. He is best known for his scholarly work on Leibniz (see here and here, for example). Now, work on Leibniz can be life consuming in its breadth, scholarly challenges, and philosophic demands it places on the interpreter. But what I have always admired about Brandon's work is that he does not shy away from bringing Leibniz into conversation with his predecessors and the many critical readers of Leibniz.
My second most favorite piece by Brandon is his work on Godel's ontological argument (in light of Spinoza and Leibniz). That shows some of his range in being able to juggle several philosophic perspectives all at once, while illuminating them all. I wish Spinoza scholars would take more note of it. But my favorite piece is the as-of-yet unpublished work on Euler, which promises to be pioneering in this too neglected major thinker!
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