I completed a BBA with a specialisation in economics at York University (2014) and worked briefly in foreign exchange. An interest in persistent moral disagreements brought me back to academia. I completed an MA in philosophy at York University (2016) and a PhD in philosophy at the University of Arizona (2023). Initially, I prepared a dissertation on semantic approaches to moral realism, which individuate moral facts as the representational targets of our moral judgments.
However, my interests in moral judgment and representation led me to pursue doctoral minor in neuroscience. I noticed that neuroscience is replete with normative categories like success vs. error, optimality vs. suboptimality, rationality vs. irrationality, and functionality vs. dysfunctionality. Since then, my work has been interested in the roles that various normative categories both do and should play in neuroscience, psychology, and AI. Eventually, I hope to bridge philosophy of science and metanormative theory by arguing that a moderate form of scientific realism (one that is realist about normativity’s roles in cognitive science) implies a surprisingly robust form of normative realism.
Outside of academic life, I like to cook Desi food, bake vegan desserts, do road trips, hike, climb, weightlift, and go to music festivals. I’ve lived in the USA, Canada, Germany, and Singapore. I visit Pakistan or India about every year or two.