CV

For a full version of my CV click here.

EMPLOYMENT

    • Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, York University, 2020-present
    • Post-Doctoral Fellow in Ethics and Artificial Intelligence, Department of Philosophy, York University, 2019-2020.

EDUCATION

    • PhD, Philosophy, University of Toronto, 2019.
      • Dissertation: From Function to Flourishing: Neo-Aristotelian Ethics and the Science of Life
    • MS, Science and Technology Studies, Virginia Tech, 2012.
    • MA, Philosophy, Virginia Tech, 2012.
    • MS, Artificial Intelligence, Sharif University of Technology, 2007.
      • Thesis: Incorporating  Intrinsic ‘Emotional’ Dispositions in Machine Learning
    • BS, Computer Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University, 2005.
      • Thesis: An Ontology for Psychological Disorders

ARTICLES

    • “Neo-Aristotelian Naturalism as Ethical Naturalism”, Journal of Moral Philosophy, Forthcoming.
    • “Natural Goodness without Natural History”, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Forthcoming.
    • “Is the Neo-Aristotelian Concept of Organism Presupposed in Biology?”, in Aristotelian Naturalism: A Research Companion, ed. Martin Hähnel, Springer, 2020, pp. 329-342.
    • “From Biological Functions to Natural Goodness”, Philosophers’ Imprint 19 (51), 2019. (PDF)
    • “Neo-Aristotelian Naturalism and the Evolutionary Objection: Rethinking the Relevance of Empirical Science”, in Philippa Foot on Goodness and Virtue, ed. John Hacker-Wright, Palgrave, 2018, 277-307. (PDF)
    • “On the Relevance of Evolutionary Biology to Ethical Naturalism”, in The Ethics of Nature and The Nature of Ethics, ed. Gary Keogh, Lexington Books, 2017, 37-50.

PRESENTATIONS

Invited:

    • “Natural Goodness without Natural History”, Department of Philosophy, York University, March 2020.
    • “Can Artificial Intelligence Master Moral Deliberation?”, School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, Arizona State University, February 2020.
    • “Natural Goodness without Natural History”, Department of Philosophy, University of Cincinnati, January 2020.
    • “If Non-Sentient Organisms Can Have Rights, Why Can’t Robots?”, the Ethics of AI in Context Speaker Series, Centre for Ethics, Toronto, January 2020.
    • “On the Moral Psychology of Intelligent Machines”, the Cognitive Science Speaker Series, York University, Toronto, November 2019.
    • “Can Artificial Machines Have a Natural Good?”, the UQAM Workshop on Functions, the University of Quebec at Montreal, October 2019.

Peer-Reviewed:

    • “Neo-Aristotelian Naturalism as Ethical Naturalism”, Eastern APA (Colloquium), Philadelphia, January 2020.
    • “The Good of Non-Sentient Organisms and the Moral Status of Robots”, The 4TU.Ethics Conference on the ‘Ethics of Disruptive Technologies’, Eindhoven, Netherlands, November 2019.
    • “Neo-Aristotelian Naturalism as Ethical Naturalism”, Canadian Philosophical Association Congress, Vancouver, Canada, June 2019.
    • “Natural Goodness and Biological Goodness”, Eastern APA (Symposium), Savannah, USA, January 2018.
    • “Virtue, Natural Goodness, and Biological Functions”, Virtue, Skill, and Practical Reason Conference, Cape Town, South Africa, August 2017.
    • “Reconciling Neo-Aristotelian Ethical Naturalism with Biological Functions”, Canadian Philosophical Association Congress, Toronto, Canada, May 2017.
    • “On the Concept of Organism in Biology: A Step toward a Biologically-Grounded Ethical Naturalism”, Eastern APA (Symposium), Baltimore, USA, January 2017.
    • “Can the Biological Accounts of Function Be Applied to Human Morality”, The Fourth European Advanced School in the Philosophy of the Life Sciences  (EASPLS 2016): Function and Malfunction in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences, and the Social Sciences, Klosterneuburg, Austria, September 2016.
    • “Neo-Aristotelian Naturalism and the Dilemma of Natural Normativity,” Accepted for Presentation at the APA Pacific Meeting, March 2016.
    • “On the Relevance of Evolutionary Biology to Ethical Naturalism,” Canadian Philosophical Association Congress, Ottawa, Canada, May 2015.
    • “On the Relevance of Evolutionary Biology to Ethical Naturalism,”  The Ethics of Nature – The Nature of Ethics Conference, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom, May 2015.
    • “The Pragmatic Condition on Epistemic Justification,” Presented in the 72nd Annual Meeting of the Virginia Philosophical Society, Williamsburg, Virginia, October 2011.
    • “Fuzziness and Probability in Controversy: A Socio-Historical Perspective,” Presented in the 36th Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science, Cleveland, Ohio, November 2011.
    • “Outside Authority of the Abstract: A Case Study in the History of Logic and Mathematics,” The “Outside Authority” Graduate Conference, Virginia Tech, October 2011.
    • “The Problem of Technology Control in the Age of Information Technology,” The 17th International Biennial Conference of the Society for Philosophy and Technology (SPT2011), Denton, Texas, May 2011.
    • “Making Science More Social?” Accepted for Presentation in RPI/MIT/Cornel STS Conference: New Directions in Science and Technology Studies, 2010.
    • “Adaptive Hope as an Emotion for Reinforcement Learning Agents,” The IEEE International Conference on Distributed Human-Machine Systems (DHMS 2008), Athens, Greece, 2008.
    • “A ‘Doubt’ Driven Method for Adapting the Exploration Rate in XCS,” (with S.B. Shouraki), Accepted for Presentation in 9th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Soft Computing (ICAISC 2008).

AWARDS

    • 2019-2020: David Savan Dissertation Prize, University of Toronto
    • 2017, 2018, 2020: APA Graduate Student Travel Stipend
    • 2017-2018: Doctoral Completion Award (University of Toronto)
    • 2016-2017: Superior Graduate Course Instructor Teaching Award (Faculty of Arts & Sciences, University of Toronto)
    • 2016-2017: Centre for Ethics Doctoral Fellowship (Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto)
    • 2016-2017: Ontario Graduate Scholarship
    • 2015-2016: Philosophy of Science Award (Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto)
    • Spring 2013: Best student paper on Theory of Scientific Change, Institute for History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, University of Toronto.
    • 2012-2017: Jackman Junior Fellowship (Faculty of Arts & Sciences, University of Toronto)