BRIAN SCOTT BALLARD
I'm an assistant professor of philosophy at Concordia University in Irvine. This Fall, I'm a visiting scholar at Princeton.
I specialize in mind, ethics, and epistemology.
At Princeton this fall, I am thinking about hope as an aspect of solidarity with sufferers.
I'm writing a book on the meaning of life and the spiritual dimensions of engaging with nature
(The World as Relic, Routledge, 2025).
Beyond this, my research is in four areas:
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Emotional experience: its epistemic value and representational content
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Extrinsic final value (especially relics)
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Moral status (human and AI)
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The ways God's existence would or would not make our lives go better
I earned my PhD from the University of Pittsburgh under Edouard Machery, John McDowell, Karl Schafer, Jim Woodward, and Crispin Wright. Before that, I earned my MA from NYU under David Velleman.