Research

Research Interests 

I have two primary areas of research. The first is focused on the nature and import of practical reasons: what makes it the case that something stands in the reason relation, how reasons are related to reasoning, and how a reasons-oriented approach to the deontic interacts with traditional questions in normative ethics. The second area of research addresses ethical issues concerning artificial intelligence, especially those that arise from the use of machine learning. For a complete list of my publications and presentations, please see my full curriculum vitae.

Academic Publications

• "What We Owe to Decision-subjects: Beyond Transparency and Explanation in Automated Decision-Making" (with David Grant and John Basl), forthcoming in Philosophical Studies

• "Autonomous Vehicles and Trolleys: New Foundations for the Ethics of Machine Learning" (with John Basl), Autonomous Vehicle Ethics: Beyond the Trolley Problem (Oxford University Press, 2022), editors David Černý, Tomáš Hříbek, Ryan Jenkins

• "Appendix: Varieties of Trolley Pessimism" (with John Basl), Autonomous Vehicle Ethics: Beyond the Trolley Problem (Oxford University Press, 2022), editors David Černý, Tomáš Hříbek, Ryan Jenkins

• "Embedded EthiCS: Integrating Ethics Broadly Across Computer Science Education" (with Barbara J. Grosz, David Gray Grant, Kate Vredenburgh, Lily Hu, Alison Simmons, and Jim Waldo), Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery 62 (8), pp. 54 - 61.

• "Educating for Gender Justice? A Case for Gender-Differentiated Caregiving Education" (with Gina Schouten), Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 20 (3), pp. 551 - 565.

• "Normative Source and Extensional Adequacy," Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 10 (3), pp. 1 - 25. 

• "Probabilistic Promotion Revisited" (with Joshua DiPaolo), Philosophical Studies 173 (7), pp. 1735 - 1754.  

• "Reason to Promotion Inferences" (with Joshua DiPaolo), Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy, August 2015, pp. 1 - 10. 

• "Problems and Solutions for a Hybrid Approach to Grounding Practical Normativity," Canadian Journal of Philosophy 45 (2) 2015, pp. 159 - 178.

• "Meta-normative Realism, Evolution, and Our Reasons to Survive," Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 94 (4) 2013, pp. 486 - 502.

• “Finlay and Schroeder on Promoting a Desire” (with Joshua DiPaolo), Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy, December 2011, pp. 1 - 7.

• "A New Argument for the Multiplicity of the Good-for Relation," The Journal of Value Inquiry 45 (2) 2011, pp. 121 - 133.

White Papers

• Lead author on "Digital Public Goods: Guidance for Development, Governance, and Stewardship" (with Joshua Simons, Kevin Troy, and Harshita Gupta)

• Contributor to "Ethics of Administrative Data Sharing: Agenda-Setting Framework" (primary authors: Elizabeth Edenberg, Mark L. Hanin, Margaret Little)

Work in Progress

• I'm slowly working on a paper that examines how a popular theory about the relationship between reasons and all-things-considered deontic statuses of actions interacts with traditional ways of thinking about instrumental transmission. (in preparation)

Defunct Papers

"The Dual Grounds of Practical Normativity: Toward a Hybrid Theory of Practical Reasons"

• This paper has been cited a couple of times (including once by me). It no longer exists as a single paper, but all of the ideas that it contained can be found either in "Problems and Solutions for a Hybrid Approach to Grounding Practical Normativity," or "Normative Source and Extensional Adequacy."

Selected Presentations

• "Reason, Reasons, and Instrumental Transmission" *keynote address*

  • Gateway Graduate Conference, University of Missouri-St. Louis

• "What We Owe to Decision Subjects: Beyond Transparency and Explanation in Automated Decision Making" (with David Gray Grant and John Basl)

  • Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress (2020)

• "Ethics of Technology and Innovation"

  • Orientation guest speaker for the Technology and Public Purpose program (Harvard Kennedy School)

• "Ethics in Computing" (one of six panelists)

  • Mozilla Festival, London (2019)

• "Why Everyone Has It Wrong about the Ethics of Autonomous Vehicles" (with John Basl)

  • Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto (2019) [click link for video]

  • US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium (2019)

• "Ethics Education in Computer Science: The Embedded EthiCS Approach"

  • Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto (2019) [click link for video] 

• "Moral Machine: What is it Good For?" (with John Basl)

  • Artificial Intelligence and Experience Workshop, UMass Boston (2019)

• "Of Trolleys and Tesla: Could Trolley Cases Help Us Understand How to Program Autonomous Vehicles?" (with John Basl and Mark Lee)

  • 15th International Conference on Technology, Knowledge, and Society (2018)

  • Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress (2018)

• "Deciding on the Basis of Normative Reasons"

  • Boston University Ethics Seminar (2018)

• "Practical Reasons and Practical Reasoning"

  • Minnesota State University (2017)

  • Philosophy Desert Workshop (2017)

• "Educating for Gender Justice: A Case for Mandatory Gender-Differentiated Home Economics Classes" (with Gina Schouten)

  • Society for Applied Philosophy Conference (2016)

• "Reason to Promotion Inferences" (with Joshua DiPaolo)

  • Central States Philosophical Association (2015)

  • Mountain-Plains Philosophy Conference (2015)

• "Probabilistic Promotion Revisited" (with Joshua DiPaolo)

  • Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress (2015)

• "Practical Deliberation and Acting for a Reason: Two Arguments against Source Externalism"

  • Midsouth Philosophy Conference (2015)

  • American Philosophical Association (Central Division) (2015)

  • Wisconsin Philosophical Association (2014)

• "Problems and Solutions for a Hybrid Account of Normative Grounding"

  • St. Louis Annual Conference on Reasons and Rationality (2014)

  • Inaugural Normativity Conference (2014)

• "Moral Realism, Evolution, and Our Reasons to Survive"

  • Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress (2012)

  • Northwestern University Society for the Theory of Ethics and Politics (2012)

  • Indiana Philosophical Association (2012)

  • Wisconsin Philosophical Association (2012)

• "Parfit's All or None Argument and the Development of Meta-normative Hybridism"

  • American Philosophical Association (Eastern Division) (2012)

  • Central States Philosophical Association (2012)

  • Midsouth Philosophy Conference (2012)

• "When do the Means Promote the Ends?" (with Joshua DiPaolo)                          

  • Naturalisms in Ethics Conference (2011)