Walter Sinnott-Armstrong is Chauncey Stillman Professor of Practical Ethics in the Department of Philosophy and the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. He has secondary appointments in the Law School and the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, and he is core faculty in the Duke Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, and the Duke Center for Interdisciplinary Decision Sciences. He serves as Resource Faculty in the Philosophy Department of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Partner Investigator at the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics, and Research Scientist with The Mind Research Network in New Mexico. He has visited at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan, the Macquarie Research Center for Agency, Values, and Ethics in Australia, and the National Institutes of Health in Washington. He has received fellowships from the Harvard Program in Ethics and the Professions, the Princeton Center for Human Values, the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, the Center for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the Australian National University, and the Sage Center for the Study of the Mind at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has served as co-chair of the Board of Officers of the American Philosophical Association, co-director of the MacArthur Law and Neuroscience Project, and co-PI of the project on the Neuroscience and Philosophy of Free Will and Moral Responsibility at Chapman University. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Amherst College and his doctorate from Yale University. He has published widely on ethics (theoretical and applied as well as meta-ethics), empirical moral psychology and neuroscience, philosophy of law, epistemology, philosophy of religion, and informal logic. Most recently, he is the author of  Think Again: How to Reason and Argue, Morality Without God?, and Moral Skepticisms; co-author with Robert Fogelin of Understanding Arguments, Ninth Edition, and with Jesse Summers of Clean Hands: Philosophical Lessons of Scrupulosity; and editor of Moral Psychology, volumes I-V. His numerous articles have appeared in a variety of philosophical, scientific, and popular journals and collections. He performs various experiments in moral psychology and brain science with his Moral Attitudes and Decisions (MAD) Lab. He is working on one book on moral artificial intelligence and another book that will develop a contrastivist view of freedom and responsibility. He co-directs Summer Seminars in Neuroscience and Philosophy (SSNaP) with Felipe De Brigard and teaches a popular MOOC, Think Again, on the Coursera website with Ram Neta. 

Email Address:
Web Page: https://sinnott-armstrong.com

Education:
Ph.D., Yale University, 1982
A.B., Amherst College, 1977

Teaching (Spring 2025):

• PHIL 590S.01, Special fields seminar (top) Synopsis

  West Duke 204, Tu 01:25 PM-03:55 PM

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

• Krasich, K; Woldorff, MG; De Brigard, F; Sinnott-Armstrong, W; Mudrik, L. "Prestimulus alpha phase, not only power, modulates conscious perception. Comment on "Beyond task response-Pre-stimulus activity modulates contents of consciousness" by G. Northoff, F. Zilio & J. Zhang.." Phys Life Rev 50 (September, 2024): 123-125. [doi]
• Sinnott-Armstrong, W; Soter, LK; Summers, JS. "MENTAL DISORDERS AS FAILURES OF ATTENTION." Critica-Revista Hispanoamericana de Filosofia 56.167 (August, 2024): 17-44. [doi]  [abs]
• Earp, BD; Porsdam Mann, S; Allen, J; Salloch, S; Suren, V; Jongsma, K; Braun, M; Wilkinson, D; Sinnott-Armstrong, W; Rid, A; Wendler, D; Savulescu, J. "A Personalized Patient Preference Predictor for Substituted Judgments in Healthcare: Technically Feasible and Ethically Desirable.." The American journal of bioethics : AJOB 24.7 (July, 2024): 13-26. [doi]  [abs]
• Chan, L; Sinnott-Armstrong, W; Borg, JS; Conitzer, V. "Should responsibility affect who gets a kidney?." Responsibility and Healthcare.  2024. 35-60. [doi]
• McKee, P; Kim, H-E; Tang, H; Everett, JAC; Chituc, V; Gibea, T; Marques, LM; Boggio, P; Sinnott-Armstrong, W. "Does it matter who harmed whom? A cross-cultural study of moral judgments about harm by and to insiders and outsiders.." Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) 43.9 (January, 2024): 7997-8007. [doi]  [abs]

Conferences Organized

• Referee for numerous articles and grant applications. 2010, Referee for numerous articles and grant applications, 2010 - present  
• Acting Chair of the Board of Officers of the American Philosophical Association. April 27, 2013 - May 18, 2013, Acting Chair of the Board of Officers of the American Philosophical Association, April 27, 2013 - May 18, 2013  
• Organized conference on Finding Consciousness, January 23, 2013 - January 25, 2013  
• Vice-Chair of the Board of Officers of the American Philosophical Association. 2010 - 2013, Vice-Chair of the Board of Officers of the American Philosophical Association, 2010 - 2013  
• Organizer : Organized panel at meeting of ISUS (International Society for Utilitarian Studies). August 10, 2012, Organizer : Organized panel at meeting of ISUS (International Society for Utilitarian Studies), August 10, 2012  
• Elected Member of the Executive Committee of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association. 2009 - 2012, Elected Member of the Executive Committee of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association, 2009 - 2012  
• Chair of the Hiring Committee for a new Executive Director of the American Philosophical Association. November 20, 2011, Chair of the Hiring Committee for a new Executive Director of the American Philosophical Association, November 2011  
• Organized workshop on Dale Jamieson's book manuscript on global warming. July 01, 2011, Organized workshop on Dale Jamieson's book manuscript on global warming, 2011  
• Organized meeting of the Moral Psychology Research Group. 2011, Organized meeting of the Moral Psychology Research Group, 2011  
• Experimental Epistemology. April 20, 2011, Experimental Epistemology, April 20, 2011  
• Organized Conference on Free Will and Responsibility, April 14, 2011 - April 16, 2011  
• Vice-chair of Board of Officers of American Philosophical Assoc.. December 09, 2010, Vice-chair of Board of Officers of American Philosophical Assoc., December 2010  
• Executive Committee of Eastern Division of APA. December 09, 2010, Executive Committee of Eastern Division of APA, December 2010  
• Organized conferences on: Bioprediction, Addiction and Responsibility, and Religion and Conflict, December 2010