L.A. Paulla.paul@yale.edu

Appointments
2021–. Millstone Family Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Cognitive Science,
Yale University.
2021–. Leader of the Self and Society Initiative, Wu Tsai Institute for Human Cognition,
Yale University.
2020–. Professor of Psychology (secondary appointment), Yale University.
2018–2020. Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science, Yale University.
2014–2018. Professorial Fellow, Arché Philosophical Research Centre, University of St
Andrews.
2016–2018. Eugene Falk Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill.
2012–2016. Professor of Philosophy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
2008–2012. Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
2007–2008. Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Arizona.
2001–2007. Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Arizona.
2001–2005. Institute for Advanced Studies Research Fellow, Philosophy, Research Schoolof Social Sciences, Australian National University.
1999–2001. Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Yale University.

Education
Ph.D., 1999, Philosophy, Princeton University.
M.A., 1996, Philosophy, Princeton University.
M.A., 1993, Philosophy, Antioch University.
B.A., 1990, Biology and Chemistry, Antioch College.
Areas of Specialization: Metaphysics, Philosophy of Mind, Cognitive Science,
Epistemology, Philosophy of Science.

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Publications
Books
In Progress. Replacing yourself (provisional title) Under contract with Farrar, Straus andGiroux.
2020. Was können wir wissen, bevor wir uns entscheiden?, German translation of “What you
can’t expect when you’re expecting”, with an Afterword by Sascha Benjamin Fink.
Reclam Verlag.
2014. Transformative Experience. Oxford University Press. Translated into French, Japanese,
Arabic.
Reviews: Marcus Arvan, Australasian Journal of Philosophy; Krister Bykvist, NDPR;
Krister Bykvist and H. Orri Steffánson, Economics and Philosophy, Irena Cronin,
Dialogue; Rachel McKinnon, Philosopher’s Magazine; Richard Pettigrew, Mind
(Extended Review); Philosophy and Phenomenological Research Symposium, with
contributions from Elizabeth Barnes, John Campbell, and Richard Pettigrew;
John Schwenkler, Commonweal; William Talbott, Analysis (Critical Notice); Amia
Srinvasan, Times Literary Supplement.
2013. Causation: A User’s Guide. (With Ned Hall.) Oxford University Press.
Winner of the American Philosophical Association's Sanders Book Prize for2014.
Reviews: Raffaella Campaner, International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Max
Kistler, Metascience, Tim Maudlin, Philosophy of Science, Georgie Statham,
Australasian Journal of Philosophy.

Articles and Book Chapters
2024. (forthcoming) Das, N. and Paul, L.A. “Transformative Experience” Oxford
Bibliographies in Philosophy, ed. Dana Bricken.
2024. Yildirim, I. and Paul, L.A. “From task structures to world models: What do LLMs
know?” Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
2024. Zoh, Y., Paul, L.A., and Crockett, M. “How the evaluability bias shapes
transformative decisions,” Synthese.
2023. De Freitas J, Uğuralp AK, Oğuz-Uğuralp Z, Paul LA, Tenenbaum J, Ullman TD.
“Self-orienting in human and machine learning,” Nature Human Behavior.
2022. Crockett, M.J. and Paul, L.A., “Distinguishing self-involving from self-serving
choices in framing effects,” Brain and Behavioral Sciences.
2022. Bloom, P., & Paul, L.A. “Uncomfortable Decisions,” Experimental Philosophy of
Identity and the Self, eds. Chen, Tobia, and Urmansky. Bloomsbury, 157-167.
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2022. “Richard Pettigrew’s Choosing for Changing Selves,” The Philosophical Review 131, 230235.
2022. Cushman & Paul, L.A. “Transformative Experience and Moral Psychology”, Oxford
Handbook of Moral Psychology, eds. John Doris and Manual Vargas, Oxford University Press(UK), 733-742.
2021. Chituc, V., Paul, L.A., & Crockett, M.J. "Evaluating transformative decisions."
Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.
2021. Ongchoco, JDK, Inchingolo, M., & Paul, L.A. “The lure of the self: How wemisattribute our lesser likes to the "other" in perspective-taking and decision-making.”
Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.
2021. “The paradox of empathy”, Episteme 18(3), 347-366.
2021. “Small experience”, Texte zur Kunst.
2021. “The first time as tragedy, the second as farce”. Response to Barbara Montero's"What Experience Doesn’t Teach: Pain-Amnesia and a New Paradigm for Memory
Research” for the Journal of Consciousness Studies 27 (11-12), 145–53.
2021. “Aspiring to be rational”, comment for book symposium on Agnes Callard’s
Aspiration, in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 102 (2): 481-485.
2020. Paul, L.A., and Quiggin, J. “Transformative Education” for a special issue ontransformation in Educational Theory 70(5), 561-79.
2020. “Who will I become?”, in Becoming Someone New: Essays on Transformative Experience,
Choice, and Change, eds. John Schwenkler and Enoch Lambert, Oxford Univ. Press., 16-36.
2020. “Whose Preferences?” American Journal of Bioethics 20(8), 65-66, comment on a target
article by Emily Walsh, “Cognitive Transformation, Dementia, and the Moral Weight ofAdvance Directives.”
2020. Précis and Replies to Paul Bloom, Krister Bykvist, Jenann Ismael, John McCoy, andTomer Ullman, Symposium on Transformative Experience, eds. Sara Dellantonio andAchille Varzi, Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia, 313-67.
2020. “Transformative Choice and the Non-Identity Problem” (with Nilanjan Das), in
Derek Parfit's Reasons and Persons: An Introduction and Critical Inquiry, ed. Andrea Sauchelli,
Routledge, 187-208.
2019. Kryven, M., Niemi, L., Paul, L.A. , & Tenenbaum, JB. “Choosing the unimaginable:
Social psychological factors in seeking transformative experiences.” Proceedings of the 41st
Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.
2019. “As Judged by Themselves: Transformative Experiences and Endogenous
Preferences” (with Cass R. Sunstein). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract = 3455421.

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2019. “Modal Prospection” (with Tomer Ullman and John McCoy), Metaphysics andCognitive Science, eds. Alvin Goldman and Brian McLaughlin. Oxford University Press (US),235-267.
2019. “Effective Altruism and Transformative Values” (with Jeff Sebo), in Effective
Altruism: Philosophical Issues, eds. Hilary Greaves and Theron Pummer, Oxford Univ. Press(UK), 53-68.
2018. “Real World Problems” (with John Quiggin), Episteme 15(3): 363-382.
2018. “De Se Preferences and Empathy for Future Selves”, Philosophical Perspectives:
Philosophy of Mind, eds. John Hawthorne and Jason Turner, 7-39.
2018. “Transformative Treatments” (With Kieran Healy), Noûs 52, 320-335.
2017. “Phenomenal Feel as Process” Philosophical Issues (Metaphysics) eds. Jonathan
Schaffer and Ernest Sosa, 204-222.
2017. “Objective and Subjective Perspectives.” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society A, 180,
Part 4, 51-2.
2017. “The Subjectively Enduring Self”, Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Temporal
Experience, ed. Ian Phillips, Routledge, 262-71.
2016. “Who am I? The immersed first personal view”, In Power and Limits of Artificial
Intelligence (Mattro, A. M., & Dehaene, S., eds), Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 106–13.
2016. “A One Category Ontology.” (with a reply by Peter van Inwagen) In Freedom,
Metaphysics, and Method: Themes from van Inwagen, edited by John A. Keller. Oxford
University Press (UK).
2016. “First personal modes of presentation and the structure of empathy.” Inquiry. 60(3):189-207. Special Issue on the First Person. With a reply by Josh Dever and Herman
Cappelen in the same issue.
2016. “Experience, Metaphysics, and Cognitive Science.” Companion to Experimental
Philosophy, edited by Justin Sytsma and Wesley Buckwalter. Blackwell (John Wiley andsons), 419-433.
2015. Précis of Transformative Experience and reply to symposiasts Elizabeth Barnes,
John Campbell, and Richard Pettigrew. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 760-813.
2015. “Transformative Choice: Discussion and Replies.” Res Philosophica 92: 473-545.
2015. “What you Can’t Expect when you’re Expecting.” Res Philosophica 92: 149-170.
2014. “Experience and the Arrow.” In Chance and Temporal Asymmetry, edited by Alistair
Wilson. Oxford University Press, 174–193.
2013. (With Ned Hall.) “Metaphysically Reductive Causation.” Erkenntnis 78 (1): 9–41.

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2013. “Categorical Priority and Categorical Collapse.” Aristotelian Society Supplementary
Volume 87: 89–113.
2013. “Realism about Structure and Kinds.” In The Metaphysics of Science, edited by Stephen
Mumford and Matthew Tugby. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 203–221.
2012. “Building the World from its Fundamental Constituents.” Philosophical Studies 158:
221–256.
2012. “Metaphysics as Modeling: The Handmaiden’s Tale” Philosophical Studies, 160: 1–29.
2011. “The Counterfactual Analysis of Causation.” In The Oxford Handbook on Causation,edited by Helen Beebee, Christopher Hitchcock and Peter Menzies. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
2010. “Temporal Experience.” Journal of Philosophy cvii (7): 333–359. Reprinted in The
Future of the Philosophy of Time, edited by Adrian Bardon. New York: Routledge (2012).
2010. “Mereological Bundle Theory.” In The Handbook of Mereology, edited by Hans
Burkhardt, Johanna Seibt and Guido Imaguire. Munich: Philosophia Verlag.
2010. “The Puzzles of Material Constitution.” Philosophy Compass 5: 579–590.
2010. “A New Role for Experimental Work in Metaphysics.” European Review on Philosophy
and Psychology special issue, edited by Joshua Knobe, Tania Lombrozo and Edouard
Machery.
2007. “Constitutive Overdetermination.” In Topics in Contemporary Philosophy vol. 4:
Causation and Explanation, edited by Joseph Keim Campbell and Michael O’Rourke.
Cambridge: MIT Press.
2006. “In Defense of Essentialism.” Philosophical Perspectives: Metaphysics, 333-372, edited byJohn Hawthorne.
2006. “Coincidence as Overlap.” Noûs 40: 623-659.
2004. “The Context of Essence.” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 82 (1), 170-184.
Reprinted in Lewisian Themes, edited by Frank Jackson and Graham Priest, Oxford
University Press 2004.
2003. “Causation and Preemption.” (With Ned Hall.) In Philosophy of Science Today, 100130, edited by Peter Clark and Katherine Hawley, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2002. “Logical Parts.” Noûs 36 (4), 578-596. Reprinted in Metaphysics Volume v, edited byMichael Rea, Routledge 2008.
2002. “Limited Realism: Cartwright on Natures and Laws.” Philosophical Books 43, 244-253.
2001. “Comments on Mellor’s Real Time II,” Essays on Time and Related Topics, edited by L.
Nathan Oaklander, Kluwer Academic Publishers.

52000. “Aspect Causation.” Journal of Philosophy xcvii (4), 235-256. Reprinted in Collins etal., Causation and Counterfactuals, MIT Press 2004.
1998. “Keeping Track of the Time: an emended counterfactual analysis of causation.”
Analysis 58 (3), 191-198.
1998. “Problems with Late Preemption.” Analysis 58 (1), 48–53. 1997.
1998. “The Worm at the Root of the Passions: poetry and sympathy in Mill’sutilitarianism.” Utilitas 10, 83–104.
1997. “Truth Conditions of Tensed Sentence Types.” Synthese 111, 53–71. Reprinted in L.
Nathan Oaklander (ed.), Philosophy of Time: Critical Concepts in Philosophy, Routledge 2008.
1994. (with S. C. Bernstein, S.K. Abrams and K. Leckrone) “TP-E14
Chloroisothiocynatoquinolines as Fluorogenic HPLC Derivatizing Agents for Primaryand Secondary Amines.” Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis 11: (1) 61-69.

Edited Volumes
2005. The Monist 88 (4), Advisory Editor, issue on Ordinary Objects.
2004. Causation and Counterfactuals. Co-edited with Ned Hall and John Collins, with acoauthored Introduction. MIT Press.
2002. Philosophy for the 21st Century: A Comprehensive Reader. Associate Editor, New York:
Oxford University Press.

Work in Progress
Replacing yourself (provisional title) Under contract with Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
“As Judged by Themselves” with Cass Sunstein.
“Reverse engineering a self” with Tomer Ullman, Julian de Freitas, and Joshua B.
Tenenbaum.
“Value by Acquaintance”“’Unlearning’ across epistemically transformative events.” Ongchoco, J.D.K., JaraEttinger, J., & Paul, L.A. (in prep).

Workshops, Conferences, and Events framed on my research
May 2023. Workshop on Transformative Experience and Risk, Stirling, UK.
November 2022. Artissima, a contemporary art fair in Turin themed around Transformative
Experience.
6August 2021. Conference on Intentional Transformative Experiences, University ofBern, Switzerland.
October 2019. Conference on Transformative Experiences: Theoretical and Applied
Challenges. Stirling, UK.
June 2018. Workshop on themes related to Transformative Experience, Oslo, Norway.
June 2018. Workshop on Transformative Experience, Gothenburg, Sweden.
May 2018, Workshop on the Categories of Experience, Helsinki, Finland.
May 2017. Workshop on Modal Imagination, Antwerp, Belgium.
April 2017. Pacific APA Pre-conference on Transformative Experience, Seattle,
Washington.
November 2016. Analytic Existentialism and Transformative Experience, Istanbul,
Turkey.
Fall 2016. LMU Munich workshop on transformative experience, Center of Advanced
Studies, Munich.
June 2016. Decision Making and Transformative Experience, St Andrews, Scotland.
June 2016. Society for Philosophy and Psychology Preconference on Transformative
Experience and the Self, Austin, TX.
September 2015. Workshop on Preference Capture and Transformative Experience, withresponses from Dan Haybron and Julia Staffel, Washington St Louis.
July 2015. Temporal and Causal Experience, Cologne, Germany.
October 2014. Analytic Existentialism and Transformative Experience, Ghent, Belgium.
September 2014. Transformative Experience, Annual Res Philosophica Conference, Dept.
of Philosophy, Saint Louis University, Missouri.

Selected Honors and Grants
2022. Research Award, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (€65,000) for academic
achievement, sponsored by Philosophy, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.
2020. Dr. Martin R. Lebowitz and Eve Lewellis Lebowitz Prize for philosophicalachievement and contribution (with Agnes Callard). Awarded annually by the Phi Beta
Kappa Society and the American Philosophical Association.
2018. Distinguished Philosopher in Residence, Philosophy, NYU Abu Dhabi.

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2016-2017. Australian Research Council Discovery Project grant (AUD $475,000) for
work on epistemically feasible choice procedures, 2016-2017. Co-Investigator with John
Quiggin.
2014. American Philosophical Association Sanders Book Prize, for Causation: A User’s
Guide (with Ned Hall).
2014-2015. Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.
2014-2017. John Templeton Foundation Grant, “The Experience Project,” $4.8 million.
Co-Principal Investigator with Michael Rea and Samuel Newlands.
2014, March. Distinguished Faculty Visitor, Philosophy, Purdue University.
2011-2012. Fellowship, National Humanities Center.
2011. Visiting Fellowship, Australian National University.
2008. SBS Professorship, University of Arizona. (Declined.)
2005. SBS Professorship, University of Arizona.

Named Lectures and Notable Events
October 2024. Presidential Special Lecture, Society for Neuroscience, Chicago, Illinois.
June 2024. Keynote. 50th Annual Meeting of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology,
Purdue University, Indiana.
November 2023. Roy Wood Sellars Lecture at Bucknell University, Lewisburg,
Pennsylvania.
March 2023. Humboldt invited lecture, International symposium for research award
winners in Bamberg, Germany.
March 2022. Alexander Richman M.D. Lecture, The Academy for Medicine and the
Humanities, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City.
April 2021. Commencement Address to the Department of Philosophy’s graduating class(philosophy majors), University of Michigan.
September 2020. Harvard Review of Philosophy, Annual Lecture, Harvard University.
January 2020. Edna Ullmann-Margalit Memorial Lecture, Federmann Center for the Studyof Rationality, Hebrew University.
October 2019. McManis Lecture, Wheaton College.
May 2019. Barry Taylor and David Lewis Annual Philosophy Lecture, Melbourne
University.
April 2018. Distinguished Philosopher-in-Residence Lecture, NYU Abu Dhabi.
8September 2017. Killeen Chair Lecture, St Norbert College.
May 2017. Marc Jeannerod Lecture, University of Antwerp.
December 2016. “Who am I? Artificial Intelligence and the Self.” The Power and Limitsof Artificial Intelligence, presented to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, The Vatican.
October 2016. Henry and Augusta Sievert Lecture, University of Iowa.
June 2016. Philosophy Public Lecture, University of Aberdeen.
June 2016. Bristol Institute for Research in the Humanities and Arts (BIRTHA) Annual
Lecture, Bristol University.
April 2016. Dowd Lecture, Skidmore College.
November 2015. Bar Hillel Lectures, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
March 2014. Distinguished Faculty Lecture, Purdue University.

Selected Media
July 2023, Making Sense (episode 327). “Transformative Experiences: A Conversation
with L.A. Paul,” with Sam Harris.
October 2022, Philosophy Bites, discussion of transformative experience, with Nigel
Warburton.
August 2020, Interview about transformative experience (discussion with Agnes Callard),
Die Zeit, by Elisabeth von Thadden.
May 2020, “L.A. Paul on Vampires, Life Choices, and Transformation”, EconTalk by Russ
Roberts.
January 2020, “Transformative Experiences and our Future Selves”, Mindscape (no. 85), by
Sean Carroll.
November 2019, interview on Transformative Experience, New Philosopher (vol. 26), by
Zan Boag.
January 2019, “The Art of Decision-Making”, The New Yorker, by Joshua Rothman.
Spring 2018. “The Vampire Problem: A Brilliant Thought Experiment Illustrating theParadox of Transformative Experience”, Brainpickings, by Maria Popova.
Summer 2017. “Transformative suffering”, LA Review of Books, Emmanuel Ordóñez
Angulo. (August 11, 2017.)
Summer 2017. “A philosopher who studies life changes says our biggest decisions cannever be rational.” Quartz (August 13, 2017), by Olivia Goldhill.

9Spring 2017. “L. A. Paul on ‘Transformative Experiences’,” Rationally Speaking with Julia
Galef.
Spring 2017. Reddit Philosophy “Ask me anything”, forum on transformative experience.
(April 5th, 2017.)
Spring 2017. The Missing Shade of You. A dance and spoken word performance by the
Logos Dance Collective, New York City, March 4th and 5th, 2017.
Fall 2016. The Digital Human, BBC Radio 4, on empathy for future selves.
Spring 2015. “Transformative Experience”, New Books in Philosophy, Robert Talisse.
Spring 2015. The Philosopher’s Zone, ABC Radio National (Australian Broadcasting
Corporation) on transformative experience.
November 2014. Philosophy Talk (NPR). Hour-long segment on Transformative
Experience.
2014. Cass Sunstein discusses five new books: “Prophets, Psychics and Phools: The Yearin Behavioral Science” in Bloomberg View.
2014. “The Big Decisions.” New York Times op-ed, David Brooks.
2014. Joshua Rothman explores TE and changes in sensory abilities in “Seeing andHearing for the First Time, on YouTube” at The New Yorker.
“All the Same.” Review of Transformative Experience by Amia Srinivasan in the Times
Literary Supplement.
“How Should We Make the Most Important Decisions of Our Lives?” I debate
transformative experience with Paul Bloom in Slate.
Oliver Burkeman in The Guardian: “Your friends know more about your life than you
do, including when you might die.”“Is it Possible to Reason about having a Child?” Alison Gopnik in The Wall Street
Journal.
“The Impossible Decision.” Joshua Rothman at The New Yorker.
“This Column will Change your Life.” Oliver Burkeman in The Guardian.
“Metaphysical.” Interview by Richard Marshall at 3am Magazine.
“Is it Rational to Have a Child? Can Psychology Tell Us?” Tania Lombrozo at Psychology
Today.

Conferences Organized2019. Workshop on Understanding (Spring 2019).
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2013–. Ranch M&E Workshop. (Annually.)
2009–2013. Carolina Metaphysics Workshop. (Annually.)
2004–2008. Arizona Ontology Conference. (Annually.)

Other Professional Activity
Yale Taskforce on Artificial Intelligence (YTAI), focused on determining the impact ofAI on Yale's research, scholarship and operations and defining a strategic vision for AI at
Yale.
Editorial Board, Open Mind (Ed. Samuel Gershman).
Delegate of the Press, Philosophy, Oxford University Press (USA), 2022-.
Advisory Board Member, Routledge New Problems in Philosophy book series.
Executive Committee, Society for Philosophy and Psychology, 2017-2021.
External committee member for Tyler Brooke-Wilson (MIT).
External committee member for Daniel Villiger (University of Zürich).
External committee member for Marco Inchingolo (Institut Jean-Nicod). PhD awarded
2021.
External committee member for Maria Doulatova (Washington University, St. Louis).
PhD awarded 2021.
External committee member for Rebecca Chan (University of Notre Dame), PhD
awarded 2017.
External committee member for David Rose (Rutgers University), PhD awarded 2017.
External committee member for Tobias Wilsch (Rutgers University), PhD awarded 2015.
External examiner, Departments of Philosophy at the University of Tasmania, Monash
University, and the University of Sydney.
Selection Committee for the Sanders Prize in Metaphysics: 2011, 2014, 2017.
Served as a mentor at the 2015 mentoring workshop at the Society for Women in
Philosophy in the UK in York, England.
Editorial Board, Australian Philosophical Review.
Editorial Board, Philosophy and the Mind Sciences.
Grant and fellowship proposals reviewed for the Australian Research Council, European
Science Council, NSF, National Humanities Center, MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.
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Member, College of Reviewers, Canada Research Chairs Program (2012–).
Chair, Program Committee, American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division(2012).
Program Committee, American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division (2011–2013).
Program Committee, American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division (2009–2011).

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