William A. Bauer, Ph.D.
Hello! I am a philosophy researcher and teacher, currently serving as an Associate Teaching Professor in Philosophy at North Carolina State University (2010 - present).
My research concerns two main areas. In the metaphysics of science, I focus on the question of natural necessity or what drives fundamental physical events, with emphasis on understanding the nature of causal powers and dispositional properties; in this regard, check out my book Causal Powers and the Intentionality Continuum (see a review here). In applied ethics, I focus on the ethics of artificial intelligence but also have strong interests in bioethics.
My teaching interests are broad: applied ethics, epistemology, ethical theory, history of Western philosophy, logic, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and political philosophy. I am grateful for winning the 2020 Outstanding Lecturer Award from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at NC State.
I am a member of the interdisciplinary Center for AI in Society and Ethics (CASE) and I co-edited the Embedding AI in Society Special Issue of AI & Society.
Regarding my view on the relationship between science and philosophy, see Why Science Needs Philosophy (Life as a Human 2015).
New book (January 2024): Artificial Dispositions: Investigating Ethical and Metaphysical Issues, co-edited with with Anna Marmodoro (Bloomsbury Academic) flyer (with discount code) preview (30 pages)
Connect on LinkedIn, academia.edu, Google Scholar, or PhilPeople
My research concerns two main areas. In the metaphysics of science, I focus on the question of natural necessity or what drives fundamental physical events, with emphasis on understanding the nature of causal powers and dispositional properties; in this regard, check out my book Causal Powers and the Intentionality Continuum (see a review here). In applied ethics, I focus on the ethics of artificial intelligence but also have strong interests in bioethics.
My teaching interests are broad: applied ethics, epistemology, ethical theory, history of Western philosophy, logic, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and political philosophy. I am grateful for winning the 2020 Outstanding Lecturer Award from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at NC State.
I am a member of the interdisciplinary Center for AI in Society and Ethics (CASE) and I co-edited the Embedding AI in Society Special Issue of AI & Society.
Regarding my view on the relationship between science and philosophy, see Why Science Needs Philosophy (Life as a Human 2015).
New book (January 2024): Artificial Dispositions: Investigating Ethical and Metaphysical Issues, co-edited with with Anna Marmodoro (Bloomsbury Academic) flyer (with discount code) preview (30 pages)
Connect on LinkedIn, academia.edu, Google Scholar, or PhilPeople
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Publications
Metaphysics of Science Causal Powers and the Intentionality Continuum W. A. Bauer. Cambridge University Press (2022) (Amazon page) (Google preview) Powers and the Pantheistic Problem of Unity [Springer SharedIt] W. A. Bauer. Sophia 58: 563-580 (2018) DOI: 10.1007/s11841-018-0654-9 Physical Intentionality, Extrinsicness, and the Direction of Causation [Springer SharedIt] W. A. Bauer. Acta Analytica, 31(4): 397-417 (2016) DOI: 10.1007/s12136-016-0283-2 Dispositional Essentialism and the Nature of Powerful Properties [open access] W. A. Bauer. Disputatio: International Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 5, No. 35: 1-19 (2013) DOI: 10.2478/disp-2013-0001 Four Theories of Pure Dispositions [links to self-archive PDF*] W. A. Bauer. Properties, Powers and Structures: Issues in the Metaphysics of Realism (2012) A. Bird, B. Ellis, and H. Sankey (Eds.), Routledge An Argument for the Extrinsic Grounding of Mass [links to Springer] W. A. Bauer. Erkenntnis, 74(1): 81-99 (2011) DOI: 10.1007/s10670-010-9269-4 Ethics of Artificial Intelligence Embedding AI in society: ethics, policy, governance, and impacts [Springer SharedIt] M. Pflanzer, V. Dubljevic, W. A. Bauer, D. Orcutt, G. List, M. P. Singh. Editorial introduction to AI & Society Special Issue on Embedding AI in Society (2023). DOI: 10.1007/s00146-023-01704-2 Autonomous Vehicles and the Basic Structure of Society V. Dubljevic and W. A. Bauer. Autonomous Vehicle Ethics: The Trolley Problem and Beyond (2022). R. Jenkins, D. Černý, and T. Hribek (Eds.) Oxford University Press. Moral and social ramifications of autonomous vehicles: a qualitative study of the perceptions of professional drivers V. Dubljevic, S. Douglas, J. Milojevich, N. Ajmeri, W. A. Bauer, G. List, M. P. Singh. Behaviour & Information Technology (2022). DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2022.2070078 Toward a rational and ethical sociotechnical system of autonomous vehicles: A novel application of multi-criteria decision analysis V. Dubljevic, G. List, J. Milojevich, N. Ajmeri, W. A. Bauer, M. P. Singh, E. Bardaka, T. A. Birkland, C. H. W. Edwards, R. C. Mayer, I. Muntean, T. M. Powers, H. A. Rakha, V. A. Ricks, M. Shoaib Samandar. PLOS ONE (2021). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0256224 Expanding Nallur's Landscape of Machine Implemented Ethics [Springer SharedIt] W. A. Bauer. Science and Engineering Ethics (2020) DOI: 10.1007/s11948-020-00237-x AI Assistants and the Paradox of Internal Automaticity W. A. Bauer and V. Dubljević. Neuroethics (2019) DOI: 10.1007/s12152-019-09423-6 Virtuous vs. Utilitarian Artificial Moral Agents [Springer SharedIt] W. A. Bauer. AI & Society 35: 263-271 (2018) DOI: 10.1007/s00146-018-0871-3 Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Science, Etc. Getting It Together: Psychological Unity and Deflationary Accounts of Animal Metacognition [Springer SharedIt] G. Comstock and W. A. Bauer. Acta Analytica, 33(4): 431-451 (2018) DOI: 10.1007/s12136-018-0340-0 Against Branching Identity [Springer SharedIt] W. A. Bauer. Philosophia, 45(4): 1709-1719 (2017) DOI: 10.1007/s11406-017-9870-8 Scientific Reasoning Can Be Circular [PDF*] W. A. Bauer. The Reasoner, 8(1): 4-5 (2014) Review of The Triple Helix: The Soul of Bioethics by Lisa Bellantoni [open access] W. A. Bauer. Metapsychology Online Reviews 17(20) (2013) Attributing Knowledge of the Virtues of Contextualism [PDF*] W. A. Bauer. The Reasoner, 2(8): 6-7 (2008) Dissertation The Ontology of Pure Dispositions [Digital Commons] over 1,580 downloads W. A. Bauer. University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2010) (Adviser: Professor Jennifer McKitrick) * These PDF files are author-created versions for self-archiving purposes, in accordance with the copyrights held by the publishers. |
Recent Courses Taught
Biomedical Ethics (asynchronous), Summer 2024 Thinking Logically (asynchronous), Spring 2024 Introduction to Philosophy, Spring 2024 Research and Writing in Ethics, Spring 2023 Introduction to Research Ethics (graduate), Spring 2017 Syllabi available upon request. Philosophy Resources Critical Thinking Web Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy PhilPapers Rotman Institute of Philosophy Society for the Metaphysics of Science Some Texts from Early Modern Philosophy Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Society for the Philosophy of Information Society for Exact Philosophy Wireless Philosophy 
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Connect with me on academia.edu, Google scholar, and PhilPeople.
© Copyright William A. Bauer 2025.
Personal photo courtesy Marcy Bauer 2022.
Book cover image Tim Bird / Moment / Getty Images (permissions obtained by Cambridge University Press).
Trees photo courtesy pixabay.com.
Disclaimer and Terms of Use
© Copyright William A. Bauer 2025.
Personal photo courtesy Marcy Bauer 2022.
Book cover image Tim Bird / Moment / Getty Images (permissions obtained by Cambridge University Press).
Trees photo courtesy pixabay.com.
Disclaimer and Terms of Use