SARAH K. PAUL
SPECIALTY: Philosophy of Action, Philosophy of Mind, Practical Reason
AREAS OF COMPETENCE: Epistemology, Metaethics, Philosophy of Law
EMPLOYMENT
Academic
2023-present: Professor of Philosophy, NYU Abu Dhabi; Global Network Professor of Philosophy,
NYU
2019-2023: Associate Professor of Philosophy, NYU Abu Dhabi; Global Network Associate
Professor of Philosophy, NYU
2016–2019: Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin–Madison
2010–2016: Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Visiting Positions
2017 (Spring): Visiting Associate Professor of Philosophy, NYU Abu Dhabi
2015 (Fall): Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy, MIT
2009–2010: Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Bowdoin College
Administrative
2024-present: Executive Director of the NYUAD Center for Faculty Advancement
2020-2022: Associate Dean for Research and Professional Development, Arts and Humanities Division, NYU Abu Dhabi
EDUCATION
Stanford University, Stanford, California, 2003-2009
Ph.D. Philosophy, June 2009
Dissertation: How We Know What We’re Doing: An Inferential Explanation of Agential
“Knowledge Without Observation.” Supervised by Michael Bratman
Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota, 1998-2002
B.A. Philosophy, June 2002, magna cum laude with Distinction in Philosophy
PUBLICATIONS
Books
[1] Philosophy of Action: A Contemporary Introduction. Routledge University Press, 2021
- Translated into Japanese by Keiso-Shobo
Journal Articles
[19] "Ambition, Devotion, and Surrender," forthcoming in a special issue of Philosophical Psychology on
"Devotion."
[18] “Institutional Inconsistency,” forthcoming in a special issue of Law and Philosophy on Michael
Bratman’s Shared and Institutional Agency.
[17] “Rational Powers and Inaction,” Philosophical Inquiries 11(1), 2023 (“Focus” on Sergio
Tenenbaum’s Rational Powers in Action).
[16] “Plan B,” Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 2021
[15] “Grit,” with Jennifer Morton, Ethics 129(2), 2019
- Selected for the 2019 Philosophers’ Annual – 10 best philosophy articles published in 2019
[14] “II: What Should ‘Impostor Syndrome’ Be?” The Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, supplemental
volume 93(1), 2019 (symposium with Katherine Hawley)
[13] “Believing in Others,” with Jennifer Morton, Philosophical Topics 46(1), special issue on “Can
Beliefs Wrong?” 2018
[12] “Good Intentions and the Road to Hell,” Philosophical Explorations 20(2), 20th Anniversary special
issue on “The Normative Significance of Intention,” 2017
[11] “The Courage of Conviction,” Canadian Journal of Philosophy, special issue on “Belief, Action, and
Rationality Over Time,” 2015
[10] “The Transparency of Intention,” Philosophical Studies 172(6), 2015
[9] “Doxastic Self-Control,” American Philosophical Quarterly, “Best of SLACRR” issue, 52(2), 2015
[8] “Diachronic Incontinence is a Problem in Moral Philosophy,” Inquiry 57(3), special issue on
“Choice Over Time,” 2014
[7] “Embarking on a Crime,” Law and the Philosophy of Action, Enrique Villanueva V, ed. Rodopi
Press, 2014
[6] “Of Reasons and Recognition,” with Jennifer Morton, Analysis 74(2), 2014
[5] “The Conclusion of Practical Reasoning: The Shadow Between Idea and Act,” Canadian Journal
of Philosophy 43(3), 2013
[4] “How We Know What We Intend,” Philosophical Studies 161(2), 2012
[3] “Deviant Formal Causation,” Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 5(3), 2011
[2] “Intention, Belief, and Wishful Thinking: Setiya on ‘Practical Knowledge’,” Ethics 119(3), 2009
[1] “How We Know What We’re Doing,” Philosophers’ Imprint 9(11), 2009
- In the process of being translated into Spanish by Ediciones Uniandes
Survey Articles and Textbook Contributions
[4] “The Norms of Practical Deliberation,” with Jennifer Morton. The Routledge Handbook of Practical Reason, ed. Ruth Chang and Kurt Sylvan, 2020.
[3] “John Doe and Richard Roe,” in The Norton Introduction to Philosophy, 2nd edition, 2018
[2] "The Transparency of Mind," Philosophy Compass 9(5), 2014
[1] “Intention,” International Encyclopedia of Ethics, Wiley-Blackwell, 2013
Book Reviews
[4] Alex Byrne, Transparency and Self-Knowledge, The Philosophical Review 129(3), 2020
[3] Manuel Vargas and Gideon Yaffe, Rational and Social Agency: Themes from the Work of Michael Bratman (Oxford 2014), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, 2015
[2] Alan H Goldman, Reasons from Within: Desires and Values (Oxford 2010), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, 2011
[1] Richard Holton, Willing, Wanting, Waiting (Oxford 2009), Mind 120 (479), 2011
AWARDS, FELLOWSHIPS, AND GRANTS
Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Faculty Fellow at the Princeton University Center for Human Values, 2025-26
NYUAD Manuscript Workshop grant, 2024
Global Network Fellowship at NYU New York, Fall 2022
NYUAD Shukran Cultural Appreciation Award, 2021
Philosopher's Annual, 2019. "Grit" was selected as one of the "ten best philosophy articles published in 2019."
19 Washington Square North Faculty Fellowship, with Daniel Fogal, 2020-21
UW-Madison Vilas Early Career Investigator Award, 2018-20
UW-Madison Vilas Associates Award, 2016-18
Templeton Foundation Philosophy and Science of Self-Control grant, with Jennifer Morton, 2016
UW-Madison University Housing Honored Instructor Award, x3
Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation Summer Research Fellowship, 2012
Teaching Fellowship, Stanford Introduction to the Humanities Program, Fall 2008
TALKS
TBD
“Work, Life, and Leisure” conference, University of Leipzig, 2025
University of Michigan, 2025
Central APA, 2026
University of Pennsylvania, 2026
Rutgers Epistemology Conference, 2026
“Over-Efforting as Weakness of Will”
Chicago Talks on Agency, 2025
Symposium on Agency, Central APA 2024
Mind in Motion conference, University of Copenhagen, 2024
“Devotion, Striving, and Surrender”
Workshop on Devotion, Boston University, 2024 (keynote address)
“Knowledge Through the Lens of Striving Agency”
Knowledge and Action conference, University of Sydney, 2024
“Perspectives on Adversity”
Symposium on Optimism, Pessimism, and Agency, Central APA 2024
University of Geneva, 2023
6th Annual PPE Society meeting, 2022 (with Jennifer Morton)
“The Case for Commitment”
University of Glasgow, 2023
Bilkent University, 2023
University of Macau, 2023
Canadian Philosophical Association, 2023
Washington University in St. Louis, 2022
“Plan B Consistency”
Cambridge University, Moral Sciences Seminar, 2023
St. Louis Conference on Reasons and Rationality, 2021
Oxford University Practical Philosophy Seminar, 2021
University of Helsinki, workshop on Agency and Attention, 2022
Online workshop on Action, Intention and Language, 2022
“Learning What We Can Do”
Interdisciplinary Workshop on Interactive Causal Learning, Washington D.C., 2022
“Doing Enough”
University of Neuchâtel, workshop on Effort and Self-Control, 2022
Conceptual Engineering Online Seminar, 2022
“Constrained Pragmatism”
University of Helsinki, Moral and Political Philosophy Seminar, 2022
Uppsala Epistemology Workshop, 2022
“Plan B”
University of Leeds, 2020
Washington University Ethics and Epistemology Group, 2020
The Royal Ethics Conference, UT-Austin, 2020
Mt. Holyoke Summer Philosophy Conference, 2020 (canceled)
“Planning and Perseverance in the Face of Doubt”
University of Vienna, 2019
Northern Illinois University, 2019
University of Chicago Practical Ethics Workshop, 2019
“What Should ‘Impostor Syndrome’ Be?”
Joint Session of the Aristotelian Society and Mind Association, University of Durham, 2019
“Grit”
Stanford University, 2018
NYU, 2018
Yale University Moral Psychology Group, 2018
“Mechanisms of Intention” conference, University of Copenhagen, 2017
“The Philosophy and Science of Self-Control,” Florida State University, 2017
The American University of Beirut, 2017
NYU Abu Dhabi, 2017
“Normativity and Reasoning” workshop, NYU 2017
Early Career Ethics Workshop, NYU 2016
USC, 2016
UNC-Chapel Hill, 2016
Ohio State, 2016
“Time in Agency” workshop, CSMN, University of Oslo 2016
“Commitment and Uncertainty”
“The Conclusion of Practical Reasoning,” conference at Auburn University, 2018
“Rationality and Self-Blindness”
Philosophy of Mind Discussion Group, NYU, 2018
“Transparency and Apperception” conference, Ryerson University, 2018
“Varieties of Self-Knowledge” workshop, Harvard University, 2016
Invited Symposium on the Epistemology of Action, Central APA 2016
WIPHICA, Northwestern University, 2016
“Believing in Others”
University of Illinois-Chicago, 2018
APhil Annual Lecture, University of Barcelona, 2017
Northwestern University, 2017
UNC-Chapel Hill Metaethics Workshop, 2017
“Action and Its Limits”
“Agency First,” conference at Tel Aviv University, 2017
“The Courage of Conviction”
Keynote Address, “Reason, Action, and Morality” undergraduate conference, Illinois State
University, 2016
University of Vermont, 2015
MIT work-in-progress seminar, 2015
Midwest Epistemology Workshop, 2015
“Belief, Agency, and Rationality over Time,” UW-Madison, 2015
UT-Austin, 2015
“Resisting the Temptation of Willpower”
Moral Psychology Workshop, Dartmouth College, 2015
“Continent Believing,”
Symposium on Free Will and Epistemology, Pacific APA 2015
“Normativity and Self-Governance”
UC-Riverside, 2015
“Normativity and Reasoning Workshop,” NYU Abu Dhabi, 2015
“Good Intentions and the Road to Hell”
UC-Irvine, 2015
Ryerson University, 2014
University of Pittsburgh, 2014
"The Moral Significance of Intention," conference at Leeds University, 2014
“Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop”
“Philosophers Tackle Contemporary Issues” Lecture Series, Madison 2014
"Doxastic Self-Control"
Keynote Address, University of Iowa Graduate Conference, 2013
“Theoretical Agency: Issues at the Intersection of Freedom and Belief,” conference at Auburn
University, 2013
“Diachronic Incontinence is a Problem in Moral Philosophy”
Workshop on Rationality over Time, CSMN at the University of Oslo, 2013
Utrecht University, 2012
Northwestern University Philosophy and Linguistics Workshop, 2012
“The Transparency of Intention”
SPAWN conference on “Transparency of Mind,” Syracuse University, 2013
“The Force of the ‘Because’”
Invited Symposium on the Philosophy of Agency, Pacific APA, 2013
“Embarking on a Crime”
UAE University, 2019
University of Toronto, 2013
University of Auckland, 2013
“The Conclusion of Practical Reasoning: The Shadow between Idea and Act”
University of Oslo, 2012
CUNY-City College, 2011
"The Indifferent Gardener"
Practical Knowledge Workshop, Basel University, 2010
“How We Know What We’re Doing: Intention, Belief, and Knowledge Without Observation”
Workshop on “Practical Knowledge,” University of Leipzig, 2013
University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2010
Rice University, 2010
USC, 2009
Bowdoin College, 2009
Colgate College, 2009
Stanford University Social Ethics and Normative Theory Workshop, 2009
UC Berkeley, 2008
COMMENTS, WORKSHOPS, SEMINAR VISTS, AND BLOGS
Discussant, Rutgers Epistemology Conference 2022
Guest at UMSL, Eric Wiland’s graduate seminar on “Agency” 2022
Guest at UC Riverside, Luca Ferrero’s graduate seminar on “Diachronic Agency, 2022
Critic, Author Meets Critics symposium on John Brunero’s Instrumental Rationality, Eastern APA 2022
Commentator, manuscript workshop on Wayne Wu’s Human Abilities, 2021.
Critic, Author Meets Critics symposium on Sergio Tenenbaum’s Rational Powers in Action, Central APA
2021
Critic, Author Meets Critics symposium on Joshua Shepherd’s The Shape of Agency, Eastern APA 2021
Discussant, Workshop on Michael Bratman’s Shared Agency and the Construction of Organized Institutions,
Yale University, 2020
Author-meets-critics, Agnes Callard’s Aspiration, North American Association for Philosophy and
Education, 2019
Guest at Brown University, Chris Hill and Adam Pautz’s graduate seminar on “Introspection,” 2019
Comments on Ravit Dohan, “Resilience in the Face of Counter-Evidence,” Central APA 2018
Comments on Al Mele, “Are Practical Decisions Mental Actions?” Conference on “Mental Action
and the Metaphysics of Mind, Institute of Philosophy, London 2017
Comments on Berislav Marusic, "Do Reasons Expire?" Normativity and Reasoning Workshop, NYU-
Abu Dhabi, 2016
Commentator, Pea Soup symposium on John Brunero’s “Cognitivism about Practical Rationality, 2015
Featured Author, Flickers of Freedom, 2015
Comments on Kenny Walden, “Ideals,” Midsummer Philosophy Workshop, Cambridge University, 2014
Comments on Agnes Callard, “Aspiration,” NYU-Abu Dhabi workshop on Normativity and
Reasoning, 2014
Comments on Mark Schroeder, “Knowledge is Belief for Sufficient (Subjective and Objective)
Reason,” conference on “Metanormative Issues in Epistemology," UNC-Chapel Hill, 2013
Comments on Lisa Bortolotti, “Imperfect Beliefs,” Workshop on Belief, Harvard University, 2012
Discussant, “Practical Thought and Good Action,” workshop, University of Magdeburg 2012 and
University of Leipzig, 2014
Guest at Florida State University, John Schwenkler’s graduate seminar, 2014
Guest at Columbia University, Joseph Raz’s Legal Theory Seminar, 2013
Discussant, Northwest Time and Rationality Workshop, Seattle, 2012
Comments on Michael Bratman, Luca Ferrero, and Sergio Tenenbaum, symposium on "Choice over
Time,” Pacific APA 2012
Discussant, Workshop on Gideon Yaffe's Attempts, USC Law School, 2011
Comments on Luca Ferrero, "Diachronic Rational Constraints," St Louis Conference on Reasons
and Rationality, 2011
Comments on Anton Ford, "Practical Reason and Perception," at "Virtue, Action, Reason: A
Symposium for Anselm Mueller," University of Chicago, 2011
Comments on Iskra Fileva, “A Puzzle about Knowledge in Action,” Eastern APA, 2010
Comments on Joseph Ulatowski, "An Experimental Approach to Act Individuation," Southern Society
of Philosophy and Psychology Annual Meeting, 2010
SERVICE TO THE UNIVERSITY
NYU Abu Dhabi
P.I./Director, NYUAD Research Kitchens, 2020-2024
Undergraduate Research Committee, 2020-2024
Associate Dean for Research and Professional Development, A&H division, 2020-2022
University Tenure and Promotion Committee, 2020-2022
Research space liaison task force, 2021-22
Graduate TA pilot program task force, 2021
Graduate Governance and Curriculum Committee, 2019-2021
Search committee member, LitCW, 2019-20
Search committee chair, Philosophy, 2020-21, 2021-22
Research conference program committee, 2020
UW Madison
Department
Chair, Graduate Admissions Committee, 2017-‘18
Coordinator, J.D./Ph.D. program, 2016-‘18
Colloquium Committee chair x4
Search committee member x3
Prize committee member x3
University
Graduate Student Support Competition Review Committee, 2017
Winter Humanitarian Scholarship selection committee, 2016
Phi Beta Kappa selection committee, 2012-‘13
SERVICE TO THE PROFESSION
Journal editing
Co-Editor in Chief, Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy (2024-)
Area Editor, Ergo (2015-)
Associate Editor, Philosophical Explorations (2020-2023)
American Philosophical Association
Central APA Nominating Committee, 2017-18, 2019-20 (elected position)
Central APA Program Committee for 2023 meeting
External evaluator
Tenure referee x3, third-year review referee x1
External reviewer of PhD thesis for the University of Oslo, the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, and the University of Geneva
Post-doc application review for Academica Sinica
Banting post-doc referee x2
Journal, grant, and prize refereeing:
Referee for Philosophical Review, Journal of Philosophy, Ethics, Mind, Nous, Philosophers’ Imprint, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Philosophical Studies, Philosophical Quarterly, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, European Journal of Philosophy, Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy, Philosophical Psychology, Synthese, Inquiry, Theoria, Philosophia, Thought, Ergo, Erkenntnis, Topoi, Philosophical Explorations, Journal of Philosophical Research, The American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of the American Philosophical Association, Oxford University Press, MIT Press, Routledge, the SSHRC, the DFG, the Israeli Science Foundation, the European Science Foundation, the Rutgers Young Epistemologist Prize, and SLACRR
Conferences/symposiums organized:
“Belief, Action, and Rationality over Time” conference at UW-Madison (with Mike
Titelbaum), 2015
“Intention and Motivation,” invited symposium at the European Society for Philosophy and
Psychology, 2017
“Normativity and Reasoning,” conference at NYU Abu Dhabi (with Matty Silverstein), 2020,
2023, 2024
Mentorship
Mentor for MarketBoost program to support women on the philosophy job market (2014-2015)
PHD STUDENTS
Advisor: Ben Schwan (UW), Megan Fritts (UW)
Committee Member: Ben Claessens (CUNY), Camila Hernandez (UW), Merve Tapinć (Boston U.), Stephanie Sheintul (UW), Lindsey Schwartz (UW), Shannon Spaulding (UW), Mike Roche (UW), Jeff Behrends (UW), JS Hancox (Pittsburgh), Clinton Castro (UW), Jeff Pretti (UW), Duncan Schulz (UW, Music Theory)
COURSES TAUGHT
Undergraduate:
Introduction to Philosophy/Central Problems in Philosophy
The Meaning of Life
Happiness: Positive Psychology and Philosophy
Truth and Morality: One, Many, or None?
Epistemology
Philosophy of Mind
Agency and Action
Philosophy of Law
Self-Discovery, Transformation, and Aspiration
Graduate:
Agency and Practical Rationality
Self-Knowledge
Self-Control
Agency, Knowledge, and Uncertainty