Adam Lerner Home Address 35 University Place, #32, Princeton, NJ 08540 Campus Address Philosophy Department, 1879 Hall,, Princeton, NJ 08544 Cell (804) 252-2987 Email adamjl@princeton.edu EDUCATION, Princeton, NJ PhD, Philosophy, entered September 2012, expected January 2018 Dissertation: Empathic Concern, Moral Epistemology, and Moral Progress Advisors: Mark Johnston and Sarah-Jane Leslie The College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA Bachelor of Arts, Philosophy and Psychology, May 2012 GPA 3.99/4.00, Dean s List (Fall 2008 - Spring 2012) Phi Beta Kappa INTERESTS Areas of Specialization: Ethics, Metaethics, Moral Psychology Areas of Competence: Epistemology, Logic (introductory to intermediate), Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Mind, Political Philosophy HONORS AND AWARDS Dean s Completion Fellowship, The Graduate School,, Fall 2017 Awarded tuition, stipend, and Dissertation Completion Enrollment fee Porter Ogden Jacobus Fellow, The Graduate School,, 2016-2017 Princeton's top honor for graduate students Reserved for four students who, in the judgment of the University faculty, demonstrate the highest scholarly excellence Graduate Prize Fellow, University Center for Human Values,, 2015-2016 One of 10 fellows Cognitive Science Graduate Research Funding Recipient, Cognitive Science Program, Princeton University, 2016-2017 One of five projects funded Awarded $4,507 to conduct project entitled Investigating the Role of Perspective-Taking in Moral Judgment with Virtual Reality Will investigate the potential of virtual reality technology to increase empathy for farm animals and reduce consumption of animal products in campus dining halls Will be conducted during academic year 2017-2018 1
Cognitive Science Graduate Research Funding Recipient, Cognitive Science Program, Princeton University, 2015-2016 One of six projects funded Awarded $5,000 to conduct project entitled Somatosensory Simulation and Moral Judgment Will use transcranial magnetic stimulation to study the role of empathy in moral judgment Currently in planning stages due to the need to complete a preliminary survey study during academic year 2016-2017 on the safety of transcranial magnetic stimulation Cognitive Science Graduate Fellow, Cognitive Science Program,, 2015-2016 One of five fellows Awarded $1,000 Crucial Considerations for the Future of Humanity Thesis Prize, Honorary Mention, Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford University, 2015 Awarded 200 Bioethics Boot Camp, Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, 6/8/14-6/27/14 One of seven participants Awarded $5,000 PUBLICATIONS The Puzzle of Pure Moral Motivation, (forthcoming), Oxford Studies in Metaethics, Vol. 13. Generics, (2016; with Sarah-Jane Leslie), in A Companion to Experimental Philosophy (edited by Justin Sytsma and Wesley Buckwalter). Generic Generalizations, (2016; with Sarah-Jane Leslie), in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (edited by Edward N. Zalta), http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/generics/. Self-Ownership and Disgust: Why Compulsory Body Part Redistribution Gets Under Our Skin, (2015; with Christopher Freiman), Philosophical Studies, 172 (12), 3167-3190. Generics, Generalism, and Reflective Equilibrium: Implications for Moral Theorizing from the Study of Language, (2013; with Sarah-Jane Leslie), Philosophical Perspectives, 27, 366-403. PAPERS IN PROGRESS Adam Smith on the Corruption and Correction of the Moral Sentiments Cold-Blooded Liberalism: Why Egalitarians and Libertarians Disagree and Why It Matters (with Christopher Freiman) Empathy and the Problem of Utility Assessments for Health States Empathy and Understanding: Knowing How It Feels 2
Fine-Tuning Evolutionary Debunking Arguments Leveled Down Worlds: The Illusory Value of Equality (with Christopher Freiman) No Identity, No Problem: Empathy and Person-Affecting Views in Population Ethics Speciesism and Acceptable Lives (with Johann Frick) The Least of Our Problems? Why Person-Affecting Views in Population Ethics May Imply that Reversing Climate Change is Less Important than Ending Factory Farming and Eradicating Extreme Poverty Wrongful Birth, Procreation, and the Afterlife (with Dustin Crummett) PRESENTATIONS AND COMMENTS Putting Empathic Concern in its Place, 2017 Princeton-Michigan Graduate Metaethics Workshop, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 8/27/17 Phenomenal Empathy and Understanding, Pt. 1: Knowing How It Feels, Dissertation Seminar,, Princeton, NJ, 4/7/17 The Least of Our Problems? Why Person-Affecting Views in Population Ethics Imply that Reversing Climate Change is Less Important than Ending Factory Farming and Eradicating Extreme Poverty, Dissertation Seminar,, Princeton, NJ, 10/14/16 The Puzzle of Pure Moral Motivation, Chapel Hill Metaethics Workshop, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 9/916 The Puzzle of Pure Moral Motivation, Humboldt-Princeton Graduate Workshop, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 9/7/16 The Puzzle of Pure Moral Motivation, Dissertation Seminar,, Princeton, NJ, 2/16/16 Simulation and Representation of Phenomenal Properties, Cognitive Science Lunchtime Talk,, Princeton, NJ, 10/15/15 Simulation and Representation of Phenomenal Properties, Dissertation Seminar, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 10/14/15 No Identity, No Problem, Dissertation Seminar,, Princeton, NJ, 9/30/15 An Argument for a Phenomenal Moral Metaphysics, 2015 Princeton-Michigan Graduate Metaethics Workshop,, Princeton, NJ, 9/11/15 3
Comments on Ernest Sosa s Knowledge in Action, Conference in Honor of Alan Goldman, The College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA, 9/5/15 I Know How You Feel: Why Empathy Matters for Moral Theorizing/An Argument for a Phenomenal Moral Metaphysics, Central European University Summer School on Moral Phenomenology, Central European University, Budapest, HU, 7/3/15 The Problem of Utility Assessments for Health States: A Case Study in Applied Social Epistemology, 2015 Penn-Rutgers-Princeton Social Epistemology Workshop, Princeton, NJ, 4/25/15 I Know How You Feel: Why Empathy Matters for Moral Theorizing, Dissertation Seminar,, Princeton, NJ, 3/3/15 Lessons for Moral Reasoning from Recent Work in Cognitive Science, 2014 Eastern Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, American Association for the Philosophic Study of Society Group Session, Philadelphia, PA, 12/27/14 Empathy and Moral Epistemology, 2014 Princeton-Michigan Graduate Metaethics Workshop,, Princeton, NJ, 8/30/14 Prudence, Perdurance, and the Separateness of Persons, 2014 Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, 8/9/14 How to Make A Peer Disappear, Penn-Rutgers-Princeton Social Epistemology Workshop, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 4/12/14 Fine-Tuning Evolutionary Debunking Arguments, Oxford Hedonism Conference, Oxford University, UK, 3/6/14 Against Generic Intuitionism, 2013 Princeton-Michigan Graduate Metaethics Workshop, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI, 9/7/13 Generics, Generalism, and Reflective Equilibrium, Cooperative Research Network in Analytic Philosophy Graduate Student Workshop, Oxford University, UK, 6/16/13 TEACHING Assistant in Instruction,, Spring 2015 PHI307/CHV311: Systematic Ethics, with Gilbert Harman Two sections Delivered a guest lecture on Peter Singer s Famine, Affluence, and Morality and Richard W. Miller s Beneficence, Duty, and Distance Delivered a guest lecture on George Sher s Subsidized Abortion: Moral Rights and Moral Compromise and Judith Jarvis Thomson s A Defense of Abortion 4
Assistant in Instruction,, Fall 2013 PHI202/CHV202: Introduction to Moral Philosophy, with Professor Michael Smith Two sections Delivered a guest lecture on Peter Singer s Famine, Affluence, and Morality PROFESSIONAL SERVICE Organizer of the Penn-Rutgers-Princeton Workshop in Social Epistemology,, 2015 Co-organizer of the Princeton Workshop in Normative Philosophy,, 13-14, 14-15 Graduate Student Representative, Philosophy Department,, 13-14 Journal Referee for Philosophical Psychology, Dialectica REFERENCES Johann Frick Assistant Professor of Philosophy jdfrick@princeton.edu Mark Johnston Henry Putnam University Professor of Philosophy johno@princeton.edu Sarah-Jane Leslie Class of 1943 Professor of Philosophy sjleslie@princeton.edu Peter Singer Ira W. Decamp Professor of Bioethics psinger@princeton.edu Michael Smith (teaching) McCosh Professor of Philosophy msmith@princeton.edu 5