philosophy department

Duncan Purves

Associate Professor

Dr. Purves is an Associate Professor of Philosophy as well as a UF Research Foundation Professor. He specializes in ethics, especially ethical issues concerning artificial intelligence and the treatment of non-human animals. His past work was on ethical issues related to so-called ‘autonomous weapons systems,’ weapons which can target enemies without human oversight. He now has an NSF grant to investigate the ethical dimensions of predictive policing algorithms, which are being used to identify places and people at highest risk of crime. Some of the ethical concerns he is looking at include discriminatory impacts and community distrust. He also has significant work on theoretical issues related to the nature and normative significance of harm.