Meica Danielle Magnani

I am an Assistant Teaching Professor in Philosophy and Computer Science at Northeastern University. Before coming to Northeastern, I was a postdoctoral fellow with Embedded EthiCS @ Harvard, a team of philosophers and computer scientists integrating ethical reasoning into the computer science curriculum at Harvard University. I received my PhD in Philosophy from Stanford University in 2019.

My main line of research spans the areas of moral, social and political, and feminist philosophy. In particular, I am concerned with the relationship between rational agency, autonomy, and the social and technological structures that organize human activity. I take as a given that we, as human agents, are embedded: our desires, ends, and reasons are shaped by the particular contexts and relations in which we live our lives. The question arises, then: how do we understand and realize the value of autonomy, or self-governance, when human agency is inescapably intertwined with the social and technological terrain in which it is located? In my work, I use Kantian practical philosophy, informed by feminist, political, and social thought, to pursue this question and to examine moral and political problems, such as social injustice and oppression, that arise from our embedded nature.

Two current projects I am working on: a Kantian defense of something I call moral stewardship (the responsibility we have for the upkeep of social norms such that they support the moral equality of persons); and the ethics of persuasion (as it pertains to persuasive technologies and practices like attention hacking).

AOS: Ethics of Technology, Moral Philosophy, Kant's Practical Philosophy, Social and Political Philosophy

AOC: Feminist Philosophy, Kant's Theoretical Philosophy, Environmental Ethics

You can reach me at: m.magnani [at] northeastern [dot] edu