Ava Thomas Wright

Assistant Professor

Contact Information 

• Office: Bldg. 47, Rm. 34B
• Phone: TBD
• Email: avwright@calpoly.edu
• Website: avathomaswright.com

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Education

• Ph.D., Philosophy, University of Georgia
• M.S., Artificial Intelligence, University of Georgia
• M.A., Philosophy, Georgia State University
• J.D. cum laude, Georgia State University
• B.A., Philosophy, Psychology, Rice University

Courses Taught

• PHIL 323: Ethics, Science and Technology
• PHIL 333: Political Philosophy
• PHIL 334: Philosophy of Law

Fields

• Areas of Specialization: Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy, Kant's Practical Philosophy, AI and Information Ethics
• Areas of Competence: Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Law, Logic, Epistemology, Cognitive Science

Publications (Selected) 

• "Rightful Machines," in Kant and Artificial Intelligence, ed. by Hyeongjoo Kim and Dieter Schönecker (Boston: De Gruyter, 2022), 223-238. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110706611-008. 
• "Kantian Freedom as 'Purposiveness.'" Kant-Studien (forthcoming)
• "Dostoevsky's Poetics of Modern Freedom: Against Bakhtin's 'Polyphonic' Moral Truth," Labyrinth: An International Journal for Philosophy, Value Theory, and Sociocultural Hermeneutics 23, no. 1 (2021): 72-85. https://doi.org/10.25180/lj.v23i1.256. 
• "Mill's Social Epistemic Rationale for the Freedom to Dispute Scientific Knowledge: Why We Must Put Up With Flat-Earthers," Philosopher's Imprint 21, no. 14 (2021), 1-14. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.3521354.0021.014. 
• “Why Free Speech Rights for Business Corporations Cannot Be Justified,” Southwest Philosophy Review 37, no. 1 (2021): 187-198. https://philpapers.org/rec/WRIWMR 
• “A Deontic Logic for Programming Rightful Machines.” Proceedings from the 2020 AAAI/ACM Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Society (February, 2020), 392. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3375627.3375867.
• “Two Rationales for the Duty of Veracity in ‘On a Supposed Right to Lie From Philanthropy,'” Proceedings of the13th International Kant Congress (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2021), 1641-1649.
• “Rightful Machines and Dilemmas,” Proceedings from 2019 AAAI/ACM Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Society (January 2019), 3-4. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3306618.3314261.
• “Two Failures of Arthur Ripstein's Conception of Kantian Freedom as 'Purposiveness,'” Proceedings of the12th International Kant Congress (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2018), 2495-2504.

Presentations (Selected)

• “Why We Must Put Up With Flat-Earthers: Mill’s Social Epistemic Rationale for the Freedom to Dispute Scientific Knowledge,” Free Speech Research Cluster Lecture Series, Dedman College Interdisciplinary Institute, Southern Methodist University (invited), 26 January 2022 (virtual)
• "The AI Control Problem," American Bar Association, AI and Robotics National Institute panel (invited) (co-speaker) 13 October 2021 (virtual)
• “Artificial Intelligence and Robotics - Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications” Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics, Chicago Regional Conference (invited) 16 July 2021 (virtual)
• “Rule-Based Robots: Why Autonomous Machines Can and Must be Governed by Rules of Right,” Computer Ethics—Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) / International Association for Computing and Philosophy (IACAP) Joint Conference 2021: The Philosophy and Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, 5 July 2021 (virtual)
• "A Kantian Approach to Dilemmas: Solving the Trolley Problem," American Philosophical Association Central Division Meeting (colloquium paper, main program), 26 February 2020, Chicago, IL
• "A Kantian Solution to the Trolley Problem," 2020 Annual I Conference of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE) (colloquium paper, main program), 22 February, 2020, Atlanta, GA
• "A Deontic Logic for Programming Rightful Machines," AAAI/ACM 2020 Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Society (main program), 7-8 February 2020, New York, NY
• “Two Rationales for the Duty of Veracity in ‘On a Supposed Right to Lie...’”, 13th International Kant Congress (held approximately every five years) (colloquium paper), 4-6 August 2019, Oslo, Norway
• “Rightful Machines”, CEPE (Computer Ethics—Philosophical Enquiry), 2019 Biennial Conference (colloquium paper), 28–30 May 2019, Norfolk, VA
• "Assurance and Lies," American Philosophies Forum 2019 Conference (Topic: Truth), 4 April 2019, Atlanta, GA
• "Rightful Machines and Dilemmas," AAAI/ACM 2019 Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Society (main program), 27 January 2019, Honolulu, HI
• "A Duty of Veracity as a Necessary Condition of Kantian Justice," American Philosophical Association Eastern Division Meeting (colloquium paper, main program), 10 January 2019, New York, NY
• “The Duty of Veracity and the Innate Right of Freedom”, American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meeting (poster presentation), 28 March 2018, San Diego, CA
• "A Social Epistemic Rationale for the Absolute Freedom of Speech in Mill's On Liberty: Why We Must Put Up With Flat-Earthers of All Kinds," American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meeting (colloquium paper, main program), 12 April 2017, Seattle, WA
• “The Duty of Veracity and Possible Universal Consent”, Georgia Philosophical Society (colloquium paper), 8 April 2017, Young Harris, GA
• "Business Corporations Do Not Have Moral Rights of Free Expression," American Philosophical Association Central Division Meeting (colloquium paper, main program), 4 March 2016, Chicago, IL
• “Two Failures of Arthur Ripstein's Conception of Kantian Freedom as 'Purposiveness'”, 12th International Kant Congress (colloquium paper), 22 September 2015, Vienna, Austria

Professional Affiliations

• Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI)
• American Philosophical Association
• Association for Practical and Professional Ethics
• International Society for Ethics and Information Technology (INSEIT)
• North American Kant Society