CV

Samuel Director

sdirector@fau.edu

Employment

Assistant Professor (tenure track), University of Richmond, Jepson School of Leadership Studies (starting Fall 2024)

Assistant Professor (tenure track), Florida Atlantic University, Philosophy Department (2022-2024)

Faculty Affiliate, Center for the Future Mind, Florida Atlantic University (2022-2024)

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Brown University, Center for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (2021-2022)

Education

University of Colorado, Boulder (2016- 2021). PhD, Philosophy. 

Dissertation: Between Competent, Consenting Adults: Essays on Consent and Cognitive Impairment. 

Committee: David Boonin (chair), Michael Huemer, Chris Heathwood, Iskra Fileva, and Ben Hale

Whitworth University (2011-2015). BA, Philosophy. Summa Cum Laude

Peer-Reviewed Publications

1. 'Bipolar Disorder and Consent.' (2023) Journal of Medical Ethics. 1-5.

2. 'Framing Effects Do Not Undermine Consent.' (2023) Ethical Theory and Moral Practice. 1-18.

*Winner of the 2022 Marc Sanders’ Graduate Student Prize.

3. 'Public Health Officials Should Almost Always Tell the Truth.'  (2023): Journal of Applied Philosophy. 1-16.

4. 'Informed Consent, Price Transparency, and Disclosure.' (2023):  Bioethics. 1-7.

5. Persistent Autonomy: Dementia and Concurrent Consent to Sexual Relations.’ Hastings Center Report (2023): 37-45. 

*Published with a critical commentary from Evelyn Tenenbaum and Jed Adam Grosss.

6. ‘Civil Liberties in a Lockdown: the Case of COVID-19.’ Co-authored with Christopher Freiman. (originally accepted 2021, online 2023) Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. 1-24.

7. ‘The Sheriff in Our Minds: The Morality of the Mental.’  Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy (2022): 1-19.

8. ‘Sober Thoughts on Drunken Consent: Intoxication and Consent to Sexual Relations.’ Social Theory and Practice (2022): 235-261.

9. ‘Of Blood Transfusions and Feeding Tubes: Anorexia-Nervosa and Consent.’ Public Affairs Quarterly (2021): 247-276.

10. ‘Intuitions, Biases, and Extra-Wide Reflective Equilibrium.’ Metaphilosophy (2020): 674-684.

11. ‘Speciesism, Prejudice, and Epistemic Peer Disagreement.’ Journal of Value Inquiry (2020): 1-20.

12. ‘Consent’s Dominion: Dementia and Prior Consent to Sexual Relations.’ Bioethics (2019): 1065– 1071.

13. ‘Global Public Reason, Diversity, and Consent.’ Philosophical Papers (2019): 31-57. 

14. ‘Justice in the Laws, a Restatement: Why Plato Endorses Public Reason.’ Journal of the American Philosophical Association (2018): 184- 203.

15. ‘A Dilemma for Saulish Skepticism: Either Self-Defeating or Not Even Skepticism.’ Disputatio (2018): 43-55.

16.  ‘Why the Perfect-Being Theologian Cannot Endorse the Principle of Alternative Possibilities.’ European Journal for Philosophy of Religion (2017): 113-131.

Book Reviews

Tom Dougherty. The Scope of Consent. Journal of Moral Philosophy. (Forthcoming).

James Stacey Taylor. Bloody Bioethics: Why Prohibiting Plasma Compensation Harms Patients and Wrongs Donors. Bioethics (2022): 997-998.

Christopher Freiman, Unequivocal Justice. Journal of Value Inquiry (2018): 1-7.

Revise and Resubmits

'Ross's Backward Looking Argument for Objectivism About Moral Obligation.' (Revise and Resubmit at Journal for the History of Analytic Philosophy).

Popular Publications

'After Death, It Can Get Worse: Did Amazon Harm Philip K. Dick After His Death?' in The Man in the High Castle and Philosophy. Open Court Publishing (2017).

'The Inhumanity of Cards Against Humanity.' Think 48, no. 17 (2018): 39-50.

*Featured in the Center for Values and Social Policy’s What’s Wrong blog: https://whatswrongcvsp.com/2018/02/08/whats-wrong-with-playing-card-against-humanity/

Works In Progress

Between Competent, Consenting Adults: Consent and Impairment. Book Manuscript (In Progress).

A paper on AI and consent in clinical medicine.  (Under Review at Philosophical Studies).

A paper on social sanctions of speech. (Under Review at Journal of Ethics).

'Do Adaptive Preferences Undermine Consent?' (In Progress).

'Binding Ourselves to the Mast: A Theory of Ulysses Contracts.' (In Progress).

'Free Will Denial Is Epistemically Self-Defeating.' (In Progress).

'Nudging: It's the Who, Not the What.' (In Progress).

'Allocations, Kidneys, and Markets' Co-authored with Charles Holmes (In Progress).

'Against Authenticity.' (In Progress).

'A Pluralistic Argument for Justice in Housing.' (In Progress).

'Who Should We Blame When AI Misdiagnoses?' (In Progress).

Selected Conference Presentations (* indicates invited presentation)

TBD

*Wabash College (Stephenson Institute)

TBD

*Central APA invited session on philosophy and cognitive disability.

TBD

*Georgetown Institute for the Study of Markets and Ethics

Nudging: It's Not the What, It's the Who.

*University of Richmond (2024)

Civil Liberties in a Lockdown: the Case of COVID-19.

*Oxford University, Conference on Fairness and Freedom in Public Health Policy, (Uehiro Centre and the Wellcome Centre).

Does the Use of AI in Medical Diagnosis Undermine Consent?

*Rochester Institute of Technology

Politics, Philosophy, and Economics Society (2023)

Center for Values and Social Policy at the University of Colorado, Boulder (2023)

Binding Ourselves to the Mast: A Theory of Ulysses Contracts.

Central APA Symposium (2023)

*Hampden-Sydney College (2023)

Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress (2022) 

Bipolar Disorder and Consent.

Pacific APA Colloquium (2024)

*Colloquium, University of Colorado, Boulder (2022)

*University of Maine (2022)

*Florida Atlantic University (2022)

Do Adaptive Preferences Undermine Consent?

Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress (2023) 

Wharton Business, Normative Business Ethics Workshop (2022)

Center for Values and Social Policy at the University of Colorado, Boulder (2021)

Public Health Officials Should Almost Always Tell the Truth.

Eastern APA Symposium (2023)

Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress (2021)

Framing Effects and Consent. 

Eastern APA Symposium (2022)

*St. Norbert College (2021)

Of Blood Transfusions and Feeding Tubes: Anorexia-Nervosa and Consent.

*The University of North Carolina, Wilmington (2021)

Central APA (2020)

The Center for Values and Social Policy at the University of Colorado, Boulder (2019)

Dementia and Prior Consent to Sexual Relations.

Understanding Value VIII hosted at the University of Sheffield. (accepted but could not attend).

Central APA (2019)

The Center for Values and Social Policy at the University of Colorado, Boulder (2019)

Intoxication and Consent to Sexual Relations.

The Center for Western Civilization, Thought, & Policy at the University of Colorado, Boulder (2018).

Against Global Public Reason.

Politics, Philosophy, and Economics Society (accepted but could not attend) (2018)

Speciesism, Prejudice, and Epistemic-Peer Disagreement.

Central APA (2018)

The Center for Values and Social Policy at the University of Colorado, Boulder (2018)

Selected Conference Comments

Comments on Jeff Carroll's 'Semiotic Objection or Semiotic Impossibility Theorem? On Maguire and Brown’s Critique of Markets.' 2020 GISME/CVSP Workshop on Morals, Markets, and Market-Based Societies.

Comments on Jennifer Matey's 'Sexual Consent and Lying about Oneself.' 2019 Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress.

Comments on George Sher's 'A Wild West of the Mind.' 2019 Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress.

Comments on Jason Brennan's 'Political Representation for Democratic Realists.' 2018 GISME/CVSP Workshop on Current Issues in Ethics and Economics.

Comments on Daniel Muñoz's 'Consequentialism and the Act Itself.' 2018 Rocky Mountain Philosophy Conference.

Comments on Andrew Franklin-Hall’s 'Binding the Self: The Ethics of Ulysses Contracts.' 2017 Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress.

Courses Taught or Assisted

Instructor

Independent Study: Ethical Theory (Spring 2024). Florida Atlantic University.

Philosophy of Religion (Spring 2024). Florida Atlantic University.

Research Intensive Bioethics (Fall 2023). Florida Atlantic University.

Philosophy of Sexuality (Fall 2023). Florida Atlantic University.

Introduction to Philosophy (Summer 2023, Spring 2024). Florida Atlantic University. 

Moral Problems (Spring 2023). Florida Atlantic University.

Bioethics (Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024). Florida Atlantic University.

Honors Introduction to Philosophy (Fall 2022). Florida Atlantic University.

Capitalism For and Against (Fall 2021). Brown University.

Contemporary Social Problems (Fall 2019, Spring 2021). University of Colorado, Boulder.

Intro to Medical Ethics (Spring 2020, Spring 2021). University of Colorado, Boulder.

Ethics and Sex (Spring 2021). University of Colorado, Boulder

Teaching Assistant

Philosophy and Society (Spring 2019). University of Colorado, Boulder. For Prof. David Boonin.

Introduction to Ethics (Fall 2018). University of Colorado, Boulder. For Prof. Alastair Norcross.

Contemporary Social Problems (Spring 2018). University of Colorado, Boulder. For Dr. Garrett Bredeson.

Contemporary Social Problems (Fall 2017). University of Colorado, Boulder. For Dr. Garrett Bredeson.

The Vices (2015). Whitworth University. For Prof. Keith Wyma.

Logic (2014). Whitworth University. For Prof. Forrest Baird.

Intro to Philosophy (2014). Whitworth University. For Prof. Dr. Josh Orozco. 

Teaching Awards and Certifications

Mills Award (2019). Awarded to the University of Colorado Philosophy Department’s teaching assistant of the year for AY19-20.

Certificate in College Teaching (2021). University of Colorado Center for Teaching and Learning.

Service

Faculty Working Group to Develop a Health Humanities Minor (starting fall 2023). Florida Atlantic University.

IRB Committee, (July 2022-present). Florida Atlantic University.

Committee for the Ethics, Law, and Society Certificate, (2022-present). Florida Atlantic University.

Ad Hoc Departmental Committee on the Intro to Philosophy Course, (2022-present). Florida Atlantic University.

College Curriculum Committee, (2022-present). Florida Atlantic University.

Student Member, Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (2019-2020), the University of Colorado, Boulder

Student Chapter Director, Minorities and Philosophy (fall 2019), the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Graduate Student Co-President (2019-2020), the Philosophy Department, the University of Colorado, Boulder

Organizing Committee Member (2017-2020) Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress. 

Was one of two graduate student conference assistants. Coordinated catering for two events of over 100 people, organized referee assignments, arranged hotel room blocks, etc.

Referee

Journal: Journal of Value Inquiry-2020. Erkenntnis-2020. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice-2021. Bioethics-2021. Theoria-2021. Journal of Medical Ethics-2022. Metaphilosophy-2022. Utilitas-2022. Philosophical Studies-2022. Synthese-2023. Philosophy-2023, Journal of Ethics-2023, Journal of Ethics-2023, Teaching Philosophy-2023. Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy (2023).

Book: Oxford University Press-2021, 2022, 2023.

Conference: Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023). Rocky Mountain Philosophy Conference (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020). Southern Society of Philosophy and Psyschology (2023).

Student Member (2016-2018), Advisory Board for the Center for Values and Social Policy, University of Colorado, Boulder.

Student Member (2016-2017), Philosophy Colloquium Committee, University of Colorado, Boulder

Research Assistant, University of Colorado, Boulder (Summer 2017 and Summer 2018). Worked as research assistant for Dr. David Boonin.

Research Assistant, University of Colorado, Boulder (2016-2017). Worked as research assistant for Dr. Michael Huemer.

Fellowships, Grants, and Scholarships 

Office of Undergraduate Research, Florida Atlantic University (Spring 2023). $1,250. Served on a committee which researched and developed tools to integrate undergraduate research into large lecture courses.

Office of Undergraduate Research, Florida Atlantic University (Fall 2022). $1,500. Grant to design a research intensive version of Biomedical Ethics.

Philosophy Department Dissertation Fellowship (Fall 2020), The University of Colorado, Boulder.

Summer Research Fellowship, University of Colorado, Boulder Philosophy Department.

(2017-2020) $1,000.

Second Leg Summer Fellowship, Center for Humanities and the Arts at the University of Colorado, Boulder (Summer 2018). $5,000.

American Philosophical Association Graduate Student Travel Stipend 

(2018, 2019) $300.

Awards and Honors 

Whitworth President’s Cup (2015). One of four students in my graduating class to receive this award for having earned a cumulative 4.0 GPA.

Whitworth Distinguished Collegiate Achievement Award (2015). Awarded  to the top male and female student of each graduating class by vote of Whitworth’s faculty.

Whitworth Student Commencement Speaker (2015). One of two student speakers at my university graduation. 

Language Skills

Spanish (writing/reading: fluent, speaking: fluent). Studied Spanish for 9 years.

References

Dr. David Boonin (The University of Colorado, Boulder) (adviser)

Dr. Michael Huemer (The University of Colorado, Boulder)

Dr. Chris Heathwood (The University of Colorado, Boulder)

Dr. Garrett Bredeson (The University of Colorado, Boulder) (teaching reference)