I am a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Philosophy and at the Cogut Institute for the Humanities at Brown University. 

My research focuses on the philosophical foundations of cognitive science and artificial intelligence, with particular attention to normativity, agency, and resource-bounded cognition. I am interested in questions such as how to evaluate how well cognitive systems make use of limited resources, how cognitive limitations shape epistemic norms, and how irrationality can serve as evidence for cognitive models.

My current project, Normative Commitments and the Foundations of Rational and Moral Agency in Artificial Intelligence, builds on my account of resource rationality to provide a framework for empirically investigating and engineering normative commitments in AI systems.

Prior to joining Brown, I served as the Director of the Program in Cognitive Science at Columbia University. I am also a coordinator of ALIUS, an international research group focused on the scientific investigation of consciousness, especially alternative states of consciousness.

I hold a PhD in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Pittsburgh, an M.S. in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University, and a B.A. from Tufts University with a double major in Philosophy and Cognitive & Brain Science (and a minor in religion).

CV

contact: brendan_fleig-goldstein@brown.edu

In my spare time, I enjoy learning about history and religion, exercising, yoga, wu tai chi, and foraging for chanterelles in the Catskill Mountains.