I am PhD candidate at Harvard specializing in the Philosophy of Mind, Applied Ethics, and Metaphysics.
In my dissertation, I ask why I take this body to be mine, whether there is a fact of the matter, and whether this body’s mineness changes over time. At Harvard, I am advised by Alison Simmons, with additional help from Susanna Siegel and Ned Hall. This work is supplemented by my experimental research with amputees at MIT’s Biomechatronics Lab, supervised by Hugh Herr.
Generally, I think about what our minds are, how they relate to our bodies, and how that differs across creatures. What features of bodies and minds influence how we should treat embodied beings?
Before beginning my PhD, I earned an MPhil in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, where I wrote about brain death with Richard Holton. I was funded by the Harvard Cambridge Fellowship. Before that, I earned a BA with High Honors from Harvard in Philosophy & Mathematics, where I won the Bowdoin Prize for Best Essay in the Natural Sciences and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Junior 24.
Papers Under Review.
The Supposed Irreversibility of Death
Death is assumed to be irreversible, but what does this mean? I argue that the current literature on irreversibility misses the most important theoretical consideration: modality. I present a definition of irreversibility grounded in physical possibility.
Anesthesia, Dreams, and Organoids
Put dramatically (but simplistically), organoids are “nearly developed mini-brain[s]” (Chapman 2019). What type of brain is an organoid and therefore what type of mind does it have, if any? I argue that organoids differ drastically from adult, wakeful human brains but may still warrant ethical concern. To do this, I investigate dreamers and minds under anesthesia.
Individuality and The 14-Day Rule
The 14-Day Rule mandates that human embryos used in research be discarded within 14 days of fertilization. I present what I take to be the best argument for why the embryo gains moral status on day 14. This argument binds moral status to numerosity. Unfortunately, the argument is not sufficient to justify the 14-Day Rule.