EDUCATION
Ph.D, Philosophy, Florida State University, 2020
GradCert, Preparing Future Faculty, Florida State University, 2020
GradCert, Preparing Future Professionals, Florida State University, 2020
M.A., Philosophy, University of Colorado Boulder, 2014
GradCert, Cognitive Science, University of Colorado, 2013
B.A., Philosophy, Palm Beach Atlantic University, 2009
EMPLOYMENT
2018 – Present | Graduate Student Cross-training Fellow. Society of Christian Philosophers.
2016 – Present | Website Manager. Philosophy Department. Florida State University.
2014 – 2018 | Teaching Assistant. Philosophy Department. Florida State University.
2016 | Prospective Student Coordinator. Philosophy Department. Florida State University.
2015 (Summer) | Assistant. The Philosophy & Science of Self-control
2013 – 2014 | Teaching Assistant. Philosophy Department. University of Colorado, Boulder.
2013 – 2014 | Assistant. The Committee For The History & Philosophy Of Science.
2013 | Research Assistant. Michael Tooley, Carol Cleland.
2013 | Genius Bar Specialist. Apple.
2012 | Back of House Specialist. Apple.
2011 | Sales Specialist. Apple.
2009 – 2011 | Resident Director. Residence Life. Mount Vernon Nazarene University.
2008 – 2009 | Assistant Resident Director. Palm Beach Atlantic University.
2006 – 2008 | Resident Assistant. Palm Beach Atlantic University.
2007 – 2008 | Chapel Assistant. Palm Beach Atlantic University.
2002 – 2008 | Carpenter, Landscaper, Machine operator, etc. Cape Signature Homes
SPECIALIZATION & COMPETENCE
Specialization | Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Science, Cognitive Science
Competence | Metaphysics, Modern Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, Ethics
OTHER SKILLS
Code | R, Python, Unix, HTML, CSS, PHP, grep
Apps | Qualtrics, mTurk, RStudio, XKWIC, WordPress, Drupal, MailChimp
Equipment | light and heavy machines for land grading, various hand- and powertools for rough and trim carpentry
PUBLICATIONS
2014 | “Intuitive and Reflective Responses in Philosophy”. University of Colorado. [PDF] [gScholar] [PhilPapers] [SSRN] [RG] [PhilSci] [Academia]
COMPETITIVE AWARDS & FUNDING
2018 – 2019 | Graduate Student Cross-training Fellowship ($32,000)
2018 | Dissertation Research Grant, Florida State University Graduate School ($1000)
2013 | Travel Award, Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado Boulder ($300)
2009 | Outstanding Graduate of Philosophy Award, Palm Beach Atlantic University
OTHER FUNDING
2017 | Travel Grants, Philosophy Department, Florida State University ($600)
2017| Conference Grant, Congress of Graduate Students, Florida State University ($200)
2016| Presentation Grant, Congress of Graduate Students, Florida State University ($500)
2016 | Travel Grant, Philosophy Department, Florida State University ($300)
2015 | Travel Stipend, Abraham Kuyper Center for Science and Religion, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (€200)
2015 | Travel Bursary, Institut De Recherches Cliniques De Montreal ($350)
2015 | Presentation Grants, Congress of Graduate Students, Florida State University ($600)
2015 | Travel Grants, Philosophy Department, Florida State University ($600)
2015 | Travel Grants, Werkmeister Fund, Philosophy, Florida State University ($650)
2015 | Travel Grant, Werkmeister Fund, History & Philosophy of Science, Florida State University ($200)
2014 | Travel Grant, Department of Philosophy, Florida State University ($160)
2014 | Travel Grant, Department of Philosophy, University of Colorado Boulder ($1000)
2013 | Travel Grant, Department of Philosophy, University of Colorado Boulder ($250)
INVITED TALKS
2018 | “Partisan Reasoning: What Is It And What Can We Do About It?”. The Fellows Forum on “Fact or Fallacy: The Creation, Distribution, and Interpretation of Knowledge.” Florida State University. March 6th.
REFEREED PRESENTATIONS
“Implicit Bias: Dissociating Multiple Factors”
2019 | Eastern APA. New York City.
2017 | 63rd Annual Meeting of the Florida Philosophical Society. Ocala.
2017 | 109th Meeting of the Southern Society for Philosophy & Psychology. Savannah.
“A Causal Network Account Of Ill-Being” [RG] [Academia.edu]
2018 | Society for Philosophy and Psychology. Ann Arbor. (Unable to attend)
2016 | Society for the Metaphysics of Science Conference. Geneva.
“Reflection, Philosophical Training, and Theism” [RG] [Academia.edu]
2018 | International Association for the Cognitive Science of Religion Conference. Boston.
2015 | Workshop: Explaining Religion. Cognitive Science of Religion and Naturalism. Amsterdam.
“Cognitive Styles in Philosophy” [RG] [Academia.edu]
2015 | Buffalo Experimental Philosophy Conference. Buffalo.
2013 | 4th Annual Workshop on Experimental Philosophy. Bristol.
“A Causal Network Account of Willpower” [RG] [Academia.edu]
2015 | Montreal Neuroethics Conference for Young Researchers. Montreal.
2015 | Mississippi Academy of Science, Division of History and Philosophy of Science Conference. Hattiesburg.
“Has Associationism (About Implicit Bias) Been Defeated?” [RG] [Academia.edu]
2015 | 107th Meeting of the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology. New Orleans.
2015 | Midsouth Philosophy Conference. Memphis.
“What Can the Selfish Goal Model Do for The Belief-Desire-Intention Model?” [RG] [Academia.edu]
2013 | Consciousness and Experiential Psychology Conference. Bristol.
“Philosophers’ Brains: What Can Neuroscience Tell Us About Philosophical Judgment?” [RG] [Academia.edu]
2012 | InterMountain Philosophy Conference. University of Utah. Salt Lake City.
2012 | Towards a Science of Consciousness Conference. Tuscon.
CAMPUS TALKS
2017 | “The Why & How of Personal Websites & Academic Social Media Profiles“. Philosophy Department. Florida State University.
2016 | “Reflection & Moral Reasoning”. Moral and Social Processing Lab. Florida State University.
2016 | “Reflection, Philosophical Training, & Theism”. Moral and Social Processing Lab. Florida State University.
2014 | “Human Experimentation Is The New Conceptual Analysis: A Dummy’s Guide To The IRB Process at CU Boulder”. Graduate Teacher Workshop. University of Colorado, Boulder.
COMMENTARIES
2017 | “Can Domain-familiarity Account for Puzzling Responses on the Cognitive Reflection Test?” Comment on Shea and Frith’s ‘Type 0 Cognition…’“. Brains Blog Roundtable
2017 | “Associative and non-associative changes in implicit bias” Comments on “Lai et al’s ‘Meta-Analysis of Change In Implicit Bias“. Brains Blog Roundtable
2015 | “Synchronic vs. Diachronic Belief Formation: Comments on Moon and Boyce’s ‘Proper Functionalism…’” Midsouth Philosophy Conference. Rhodes College, Memphis
2013 | “Are theists intuitions faulty?” Comments on Church and Barrett’s “Can CSR Give Atheists Epistemic Assurance?” SCP’s Mountain-Pacific Region Conference: Faith and Reason. University of Colorado, Boulder
INVITED WORKSHOP PARTICIPATION
2018 | Social Science: Epistemological Foundations and Methodological Debates, Florida State University
2018 | TAPMI-Mam Planck-Soton Winter School on Bounded Rationality, T. A. Pai Management Institute. (Unable to attend due to Winter Storm Grayson)
2017 | Philosophy & Physical Computing, Virginia Tech
2015 | Explaining Religion: Cognitive Science of Religion and Naturalism, Vrije Universiteit
WORKING PAPERS
“Justifying The Inference From Predictive Success To Realism: A Growing Burden” [RG] [Academia.edu]
“Apparent Intuitions About Coin Tosses: A Reply To Maher and Lange” [RG] [Academia.edu]
“Debiasing: Associative and Non-associative Factors” [RG] [Academia.edu]
“A Causal Network Account of Willpower” [RG] [Academia.edu]
“Cognitive Styles in Philosophy” [RG] [Academia.edu]
“Do Philosophers Appeal To Intuition? A Computational Corpus Linguistics Approach” [RG] [Academia.edu]
“Convergence Without Reasoning: Making Sense of Sidgwickian ‘Reflective Persons'” [RG] [Academia.edu]
“Cartesian Embodied Conation”
“Aristotle’s Prohairesis In Action”
“Incorporating Neuroscience Into The Network Theory Of Well-being”
“The Roles of Extrinsic & Constitutive Reasons In Cognitive Therapy”
“Different Never To Have Been: Existence And Non-Existence Are Incommensurable”
“Can A Four-Dimensionalist Evade The Non-identity Problem?”
“The Imperative of Integrating US Regions and Households” [RG] [Academia.edu]
“Why Rawls Should Be A Cosmopolitan Egalitarian”
“If Vantage Points Are Properties of Persons”
Western Philosophy: An eReader
WEBSITE APPEARANCES
2017 | APA Member Interview: Nick Byrd (March 17, 2017).
2016 | “So You’re A Philosopher, Eh? What Do Philosophers Do?” The APA Blog.
2016 | “ACI Interview with Scholarly Blogger & PhD Candidate Nick Byrd“. (April 27). ACI Scholarly Blog Index. Interviewer: Traci Hector.
2015 | “The Future of Online Conferences in Philosophy” (with Cameron Buckner and John Schwenkler), DailyNous
2015 | “Researchers Wrestle with Co-Authorship.” Nature 528(7580): 11–11. By Dalmeet Singh Chawla.
PODCAST APPEARANCES
2017 | It’s just a social construct, guys (July 29). I Can’t Believe it’s Not News Podcast
2017 | More Thoughtful – Atheists or Theists? (June 24, 2017). Veracity Hill with Kurt Jaros et al.
2016 | Is Voting for a Third Party a Wasted Vote? (Oct 1, 2016). Veracity Hill with Kurt Jaros et al.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
SU 2018 | Instructor: Introduction to Philosophy
FA 16, 17, SP 18 | Assistant: Reasoning & Critical Thinking
SU 2017 | Co-instructor: Python Coding Workshop – Grades 3-8
SP 2017 | Assistant: Free Will & Science
SP 2015, 2016 | Assistant: Environmental Ethics
FA 2015 | Assistant: Social Justice & Diversity
FA 2014 | Assistant: Introduction to Philosophy
SP 2014, May 2014 | Assistant: Philosophy & The Sciences
SP 2014 | Assistant: History of Science: Newton to Einstein
FA 2013 | Recitation Instructor: Philosophy & The Sciences (2/week)
GUEST LECTURES
2017 | “Causal Claims & Arguments From Samples”, Reasoning & Critical Thinking, Florida State University
2017 | “Diagnostic Reasoning Under Uncertainty”, Reasoning & Critical Thinking, Florida State University
2017 | “The Illusion of Will”, Free Will & Science, Florida State University
2016 | “Philosophical Thinking: Fast & Slow”, Reasoning and Critical Thinking, Florida State University
2016 | “On Intrinsic and Instrumental Value”, Environmental Ethics, Florida State University
2015, 2016 | “On The Institution of Property”, Environmental Ethics, Florida State University
2014 | “On Abortion”, Introduction to Philosophy, Florida State University
2013 | “Against Metaphysics”, Philosophy & The Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder
2013 | “The Hypothetico-Deductive Method”, Philosophy & The Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE AND SERVICE
2016 – present | Contributing Editor at The Brains Blog
2015 – present | Co-organzizer of the Minds Online Conference
2015 – present | Reviewer: Strategic Global Development Curriculum, Palm Beach Atlantic University
2015 – present | Referee: Philosophical Psychology; PLOS One, Review of Philosophy and Psychology; Synthese
2015 – present | Webmaster: Free Will, Moral Responsibility, and Agency Conference
2013 | Co-organizer: 29th Annual Boulder Conference on the History and Philosophy of Science, Boulder
AFFILIATIONS
2015 – present | Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Associate Member
2012 – present | American Philosophical Association, Graduate Student Member
2014 – 2015 | Minorities and Philosophy, Member
2014 – 2015 | Mississippi Academy of Sciences
2012 – 2014 | Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado Boulder, Member
VOLUNTEER WORK
2015 – Present | Website Manager: Free Will, Moral Responsibility, & Agency Conference
2015 | Judge: National Undergraduate Bioethics Conference, Florida State University
2011 |Construction Volunteer, Front Step, Inc., Philadelphia
2010 |Repair Volunteer, One Heart Many Hands, Orange Blossom Trail
2009 |Trail Maintenance Trip Leader, Georgia Appalachian Trail Club, Dahlonega
2008 |Trail Maintenance Volunteer, Georgia Appalachian Trail Club, Dahlonega
2008, 2009 |Construction Volunteer, Habitat For Humanity, West Palm Beach
2007 |Volunteer, South Florida Science Museum, West Palm Beach
2007 |Volunteer, Quantaum House, West Palm Beach
2004, 2005 |Home-building Volunteer, Baja Ministries, Tecate
REFERENCES
John Schwenkler | Philosophy – Florida State University
Michael Bishop | Philosophy – Florida State University
James “Jack” Justus | Philosophy – Florida State University
Paul Conway | Psychology – Florida State University
K. Anders Ericsson | Psychology – Florida State University
Carol Cleland | Philosophy, Committee for the History and Philosophy of Science, Astrobiology – University of Colorado Boulder
Michael Tooley | Philosophy – University Colorado Boulder
Robert Rupert | Philosophy, Institute of Cognitive Science – University of Colorado Boulder; Philosophy – University of Edinburgh
Michael Mozer | Computer Science, Institute of Cognitive Science – University of Colorado Boulder
Craig Hanson | Philosophy, Humanities, Pharmacy, Strategic Global Development – Palm Beach Atlantic University
PRAISE
“When I think of the people who have positively influenced my time here at FSU, [Nick is] at the top of the list. [Nick] has taught me so much and I am so thankful for all [his] feedback on my work and [his] guidance in general.” (Senior, Florida State University)
“Nick’s lecture was excellent. […] He began with a light-hearted but stimulating anecdote […]. He then invited students to critique an intuitive moral principle, by which he immediately elicited student participation and dialogue […]. Nick fielded questions and comments with competency and charity, capably guiding the conversation toward the lesson while affirming students’ insights along the way. The PowerPoint presentation was first-rate, serving as a useful road map for students but never overloading them with too much information. Nick’s tone was relaxed but engaging, and he was able to maintain students’ attention throughout. Nick’s lecture demonstrated both competency with the subject matter and careful preparation.” (Dan Miller, Florida State University)
“Nick consistently demonstrated enthusiasm for the class and course material, as well as concern for the students…. his grades were consistently submitted in advance of their deadlines. His response time to email inquiries was immediate. Nick was always prepared. I could always count on him. In short, he was the dream teaching assistant.” (Carmen Marcous, Florida State University)
“[Nick] did an excellent job.” (Alfred Mele, Florida State University, Philosophy & Science of Self-control)
“Consummate professionalism…supportive attitude towards students; detailed feedback for students…” (Jack Justus, Florida State University)
“[Nick is] impossibly responsible.” (John Schwenkler, Florida State University)
“…I was especially impressed with the way [Nick] conducted himself with the students. I was able to witness a number of [Nick’s] interactions with students and his conduct was not only professional but he also communicated to the students a real eagerness to help them….I also know that he can handle himself well when confronted with a hostile student.” (John Roberts, Florida State University)
“[Nick is] the best TA ever! I became a philosophy major after taking [a class in which Nick was the TA]….” (Sophomore, Florida State University)
“[Nick] is the best administrative assistant that I have worked with in the past ten years of chairing [The Committee For The History & Philosophy Of Science].” (Carol Cleland, University of Colorado Boulder)
“Nick is incredible. Definitely fully committed to helping students learn. Thank you.” (Student Evaluation, University of Colorado Boulder)
“Nick did a really nice job of explaining the readings and coming up with questions for discussion. He was always well-prepared and led the discussions effectively. I always felt more prepared going into the lectures, writing papers, and taking quizzes after going to [Nick’s recitation].” (Student Evaluation, University of Colorado Boulder)
“I cannot emphasize enough about how professional and responsible Nick has been…in my nine years on this campus I have not had a staff member excel in both of these areas as well as Nick.” (Ryan Schmitz, Mount Vernon Nazarene University)
“I characterize [Nick] as both intellectually fearless and intellectually tenacious. [Nick] is also one of the finest philosophical writers that I have ever had the pleasure to work with.” (Craig Hanson, Palm Beach Atlantic University)