Howard Nye

Howard Nye is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Alberta. He works primarily in the areas of practical ethics, normative ethics, and metaethics, and has related interests in political philosophy, the philosophy of mind, and decision theory.

One line of Howard’s current research concerns the ethics of collective action, including why individuals should contribute to projects that may do a great deal of good if enough others also contribute, and what contributions to potentially beneficial projects are most important to make. Much of his current research in this line investigates the desirability and feasibility of a just transition to a predominantly plant-based food system in Canada.

Another line of Howard's research investigates challenges to the common assumption that life is less of a morally important benefit to sentient beings who lack the intellectual abilities of typical human adults.

A third line of Howard's research investigates what it takes for an entity to have representations and goals in a sense that admits of genuine, underivative error and unfulfillment, with applications to the sentience and mental lives of various non-human animals, intellectually less able humans, and possible future artificial intelligence systems.