Samuel Director
Employment
Assistant Professor (tenure track), University of Richmond, Jepson School of Leadership Studies (starting Fall 2024)
*Jointly appointed with the Philosophy, Politics, Economics and Law (PPEL) Program
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
'Does Black Box AI In Medicine Compromise Informed Consent?' (2025): Philosophy & Technology. 1-24.
*Direct reply: 'A short commentary on: Does Black Box AI In Medicine Compromise Informed Consent?'
'Nudging: It's Not the What, It's the Who.' (invited and forthcoming) Social Philosophy & Policy.
'Defending Manic Competence: A Reply to Kane.' (2025): Journal of Medical Ethics. 1-2.
'Rule of Law vs. Rule of Experts in Public Health Emergencies.' (invited and forthcoming) Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy.
'Bipolar Disorder and Consent.' (2023): Journal of Medical Ethics. 1-5.
*Direct reply: 'What it is like to be manic: a response to Director.'
'Framing Effects Do Not Undermine Consent.' (2023): Ethical Theory and Moral Practice. 1-18.
*Winner of the 2022 Marc Sanders’ Graduate Student Prize.
'Public Health Officials Should Almost Always Tell the Truth.' (2023): Journal of Applied Philosophy. 1-16.
'Informed Consent, Price Transparency, and Disclosure.' (2023): Bioethics. 1-7.
*See this podcast episode that covers this paper.
Persistent Autonomy: Dementia and Concurrent Consent to Sexual Relations.’ Hastings Center Report (2023): 37-45.
*Direct reply: 'Dementia, Sex, and Consent: Beyond the Uncomplicated Cases.'
‘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.
‘The Sheriff in Our Minds: The Morality of the Mental.’ Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy (2022): 1-19.
‘Sober Thoughts on Drunken Consent: Intoxication and Consent to Sexual Relations.’ Social Theory and Practice (2022): 235-261.
‘Of Blood Transfusions and Feeding Tubes: Anorexia-Nervosa and Consent.’ Public Affairs Quarterly (2021): 247-276.
‘Intuitions, Biases, and Extra-Wide Reflective Equilibrium.’ Metaphilosophy (2020): 674-684.
‘Speciesism, Prejudice, and Epistemic Peer Disagreement.’ Journal of Value Inquiry (2020): 1-20.
‘Consent’s Dominion: Dementia and Prior Consent to Sexual Relations.’ Bioethics (2019): 1065– 1071.
‘Global Public Reason, Diversity, and Consent.’ Philosophical Papers (2019): 31-57.
‘Justice in the Laws, a Restatement: Why Plato Endorses Public Reason.’ Journal of the American Philosophical Association (2018): 184- 203.
‘A Dilemma for Saulish Skepticism: Either Self-Defeating or Not Even Skepticism.’ Disputatio (2018): 43-55.
‘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. (2024): 1-4.
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
A paper on W.D. Ross' ethics (Revise and Resubmit).
A paper on social sanctions of speech. (Revise and Resubmit).
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
"The Preparation Approach." (Invited for the Oxford Handbook of Bad Leadership).
Book manuscript on consent and cognitive impairment. (Under Contract with Routledge).
"Consent and Sexual Ethics." (In preparation for the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy).
A paper on price transparency in clinical medicine (Under Review).
A paper on transportation security. (Under Review).
Book project on public health liberalism. (In Progress).
A paper on the epistemic costs of academic fame. (In Progress)
A paper on justice in driving licensure. (In Progress).
A paper on justice in housing. (In Progress).
A paper on AI misdiagnoses and liability. (In Progress).
A paper on research ethics and AI. (In Progress).
A paper on consent across domains. (In Progress).
Selected Conference Presentations (* indicates invited presentation)
Paying Patients to be Treated by Opaque Algorithms
Politics, Philosophy, and Economics Society (2025)
The Epistemic Costs of Fame
Politics, Philosophy, and Economics Society (2025)
Justice in Transportation Security
*William & Mary Normativity Workshop (2025)
Nudging In Private Firms
Pacific APA special session for the Society of Business Ethics (2025)
Social Sanctions, Criticism, and Speech
*Georgetown Institute for the Study of Markets and Ethics (2025)
The Rule of Law and The Rule of Experts in Public Health Emergencies
*Georgetown Institute for the Study of Markets & Ethics -Symposium on the Ethics of the Rule of Law (2025)
Dementia and Consent to Sex
*Central APA invited session on philosophy and cognitive disability (2025)
Public Health Liberalism
*Wabash College (Stephenson Institute) (2024)
Nudging: It's Not the What, It's the Who.
Politics, Philosophy, and Economics Society (2024)
*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?
NYU Philosophical Bioethics Workshop (2025)
Mindfest (2025)
APPE International Conference (2025)
*Rochester Institute of Technology (2024)
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
University of Richmond Ethics Working Group (2024)
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 Lucia Schwarz's 'BDSM as Play Fighting.' 2024 Workshop on Philosophy of Love and Sex at University of Pennsylvania.
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
Instructor of Record
Critical Thinking and the Methods of Inquiry (Spring 2025). University of Richmond.
Independent Study: Public Health Ethics (Fall 2024). University of Richmond.
Leadership Ethics (Fall 2024, Fall 2025). University of Richmond.
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 Prof. Garrett Bredeson.
Contemporary Social Problems (Fall 2017). University of Colorado, Boulder. For Prof. 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. 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
Cultural Affairs Committee, (2024-present). University of Richmond.
Jepson Assessment Committee, (2024-present). University of Richmond.
Dean Review Committee, (2024-present). University of Richmond.
IRB Committee, (July 2023-2024). Florida Atlantic University.
Committee for the Ethics, Law, and Society Certificate, (2022-2024). Florida Atlantic University.
Ad Hoc Departmental Committee on the Intro to Philosophy Course, (2022-2023). Florida Atlantic University.
College Curriculum Committee, (2022-2024). 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, Journal of Medical Ethics-2024, Journal of Medical Ethics-2024, Public Health Ethics-2024, Journal of Value Inquiry-2024, Journal of Social Philosophy-2024, Journal of Ethics-2025, Philosophical Psychology-2025, Philosophy & Technology-2025, Public Health Ethics-2025, Independent Review-2025, Philosophy & Public Affairs-2025, Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy-2025.
Book: Oxford University Press-2021, 2022, 2023.
Conference: Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025). Rocky Mountain Philosophy Conference (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020). Southern Society of Philosophy and Psychology (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)