Contact
Simon Cullen. Dietrich College Dean's Office. Carnegie Mellon University. 5000 Forbes Avenue. Pittsburgh, PA. 15213-3890
<my initials at simoncullen dot org>
Appointments
Dietrich College Artificial Intelligence and Education Fellow
Assistant Teaching Professor. Department of Philosophy, Carnegie Mellon University
Associated faculty:
Postdoctoral Research Associate. Princeton Neuroscience Institute
Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Department of Philosophy, Princeton University
Degrees
Doctor of Philosophy (Princeton University)
Bachelor of Arts
Dual First-Class Honors in Philosophy and in History and Philosophy of Science; majors in Logic, Philosophy, and Philosophy of Science (The University of Melbourne)
Research and teaching
For an overview of my work, see Projects. I share tools for helping students improve at analytical reading and reasoning, as well as materials for instructors interested in incorporating argument visualization into their classes, on my website Philosophy Mapped
My work has been covered by Inside Higher Ed, Higher Ed Dive, Futurity, Heterodox Academy, Dietrich College, and Princeton Alumni Weekly
Areas of Specialization
Psychology of reasoning. Philosophy of psychology. Ethics, especially moral psychology and metaethics, Improving reasoning and communication
Areas of Competence
Applied Ethics. Philosophy of Language. Philosophy of Mind. General philosophy of science. Metaphysics & epistemology. Logic, especially philosophical logic
Published
Choosing to Learn: The Importance of Student Autonomy in Higher Education. Cullen, S. & Oppenheimer, D. Science Advances. (Covered by Inside Higher Ed, Times Higher Education, Daily Nous, Carnegie Mellon)
Current Controversies in Philosophy of Cognitive Science. Lerner, A., Cullen, S., & Leslie, S (eds). Routledge
When do circumstances excuse? Moral prejudices and beliefs about the true self drive preferences for agency-minimizing explanations. S. Cullen. Cognition. (Covered by Denise Valenti)
Improving analytical reasoning and argument understanding: a quasi-experimental field study of argument visualization. Cullen, S., Fan, J., van der Brugge, E., & Elga, A. npj Science of Learning. (Covered by The Conversation and blogged at Daily Nous)
The true self and the situation. The International Cognition and Culture Institute
Survey-driven romanticism. Review of Philosophy and Psychology
In progress
Cullen, S., Oppenheimer, D. Campaign in Poetry, Govern in Prose, Persuade in Pictures: Visual argument presentation reduces partisan bias but only when arguments appeal to shared moral values
Cullen, S. Automated discussion markets improve group problem solving and decision making
Cullen, S., Chapkovski, P., Byrd, N., & Thomason, T. Measuring reasoning and eliciting concepts using multiplayer discussion-based games
Cullen, S., Byrd, N., & Dasgupta, S. Do nations have essences? Attribution and responsibility for national actions
Unpublished
Cullen, S., & Sharma, V. Short report on an empirical study of argument presentation and political polarization
Selected invited presentations
2024
Beyond civility: Honing reason to create safe spaces for dangerous ideas. Carleton College. Inaugural 'Engaging Across Viewpoints Lecture'. Hosted by the Office of the President and the Division of Inclusion, Equity, and Community
Harnessing AI to support constructive disagreement on campus: A practical tool for educators. HxA Member Workshop
Teaching dangerous ideas in dangerous times: Empirical results and hands-on lessons from Carnegie Mellon. Heterodox Academy
AI discussion facilitation to enhance group deliberation and debate. Open Forum for AI Launch
2023
Defeating Hank McBort, Or how to curb self-censorship, increase inclusivity, promote resilience, and have productive discussions in public policy classrooms. McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University
Structured reasoning techniques to improve intelligence products and interagency communication. Audiences (with Nicholas DiBella): NSA Deputy Director of Research, IARPA Director of the Office of Analysis, CIA Director of Artificial Intelligence, U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Staff.
What's up with Gen Z? Exploring the link between social media and mental illness Carnegie Mellon University Family Weekend Lecture
Visual strategies to improve group reasoning, policymaking, and understanding across the aisle. Bipartisan Policy Center (with Nicholas DiBella)
2022
Thinking alone and together: Crowdsourcing discussions to investigate reasoning and persuasion. The Reasoning Lab @ U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
Visualization and the language of value: Visual argument presentation and appeal to shared values improves argument evaluation among partisans. Center for Informed Democracy & Social-cybersecurit
What's the point of liberal arts education? Carnegie Mellon University Family Weekend Lecture
Earlier
Measuring the development of students' reasoning abilities: Causal inference from non-experimental data. ThinkerAnalytix/Harvard
Are we hearing the best ideas at the table? TEDx Princeton
Honors and awards
2024
Arthur Vining Davis Foundations research grant (with Nicholas DiBella)
Omidyar/Open Forum for AI research grant (with Nicholas DiBella)
Heterodox Academy Open Inquiry Award for Teaching Excellence
Dietrich College Dean's Innovation Scholar
U.S. Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Academic Advisor
2023
Dietrich College Seed Grant (with Danny Oppenheimer)
U.S. Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Academic Advisor
Earlier
Falk Research Grant for Research in the Humanities
Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Advisor
Princeton University Council on Science and Technology Research Grant (with Judith Fan)
Program in Cognitive Science Grant (with Judith Fan)
Princeton University Center for Human Values Grant
Princeton Graduate School Award for Excellence in Teaching
250th Anniversary Fund for Innovation in Undergraduate Education (with Adam Elga)
Cotsen-Graduate Fellow in Philosophy
Dwight Final Examination Prize for “The highest score in the final assessment of the degree of Bachelor of Arts degree with Honors”
Dwight Prize in History and Philosophy of Science for “The highest final score in History and Philosophy of Science Honors Degree"
Teaching
Carnegie Mellon University
Ethics and Reinforcement Learning
Ethical Theories: Expressivism and Nihilism
Psychology/Philosophy Research Training
Philosophy, Science Fiction, War (with Mara Harrell)
Visual Intro to Philosophy & Visual Intro to Ethics
Princeton University
"Philosophical Analysis using Argument Maps." Freshman seminar on various topics. Sole instructor, 2015-17, Peter T. Joseph ‘72 Freshman Seminar in Human Values; with Shamik Dasgupta, 2014; with Adam Elga in 2013
Grad/Undergrad advising
Dan Connolly, "Improving public understanding of economic policies"
Parker Felterman, "The Spectrum of Free Will and its Impact on the Individual"
Claire Wang, "Implementing Automated Discussion Moderation"
Vidushi Sharma, “Doubt Yourself! A case for partisan political rationality"
Postdoctoral advising
US Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Advisor. Project: "Reducing Belief-Driven Thinking (ICPD 2020-22)". Office of the Director of National Intelligence
US Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Advisor. Project: "Visualization of Complex Arguments to Resolve Analytic Disagreements (ICPD-2022-08)". Office of the Director of National Intelligence
Research training
Arnav Paliwal, "Argument understanding and polarization"
Eric Shau, "Increasing the efficiency of Socrates: Matching participants using maximum a posteriori likelihood estimation"
Aditi Narasimhan, "Stimuli for depolarization experiments"
Ammu Anil, "Chat transcript coding for group reasoning"
Peter Lu, "Discussion markets to improve group reasoning"
Tiger Ruo (Independent study)
Anna Li (Independent study)
SURF/SURA: Kyle McClain, Lily Hazam, Ava Allard, Brandon Zhou, Jehyo Park
Service
Carnegie Mellon University Heterodox Academy Community founding co-chair. 2024
Departmental Generative AI Liaison. 2023–24
Academic Freedom/Freedom of Expression Implementation Committee. 2023–24
Departmental Disabilities Liaison. 2021–24
Speech climate survey. 2022–2023
Dietrich College General Education Reasoning Assessment Program. (Principal Investigator for a college-wide study of the development of students' analytical reasoning abilities, with Dean Joanna Dickert as Co-I ). 2021–2023
Dietrich College Undergraduate Special Admissions Committee. 2023
Philosophy Department AI/Ethics (Teaching) Hiring Committee. 2022
ThinkerAnalytix Advisory Board Member. 2018–
Philosophy Graduate Admissions Committee. 2021
Reviewer for Journal of Cognitive Psychology, Frontiers in Psychology, Journal of Educational Psychology, Journal of Cognitive Development, Routledge, Review of Philosophy and Psychology, Ethical Theory and Practice, Decision, HackPrinceton.
Co-organizer (with David Danks), Models of Morality, Morality of Models. CMU. 2020. Recent years have seen an explosion of research into the empirical bases of human moral judgment along with a corresponding interest in formal and computational models of human morality. At the same time, AI and robotics researchers aim to develop systems that are themselves capable of moral judgment, and so require some model of morality. With this workshop, we hope to spur new and generative collaborations between researchers pursuing these two parallel lines of inquiry.
Co-organizer, Cognitive, Philosophical, and Neural Bases of Responsible Action. Department of Psychology & Princeton Neuroscience Institute. 2017. This conference is motivated by two complementary convictions: first, that the neuroscience of cognitive control should inform philosophical theorizing about agency and responsibility; and second, that such philosophical theorizing may help to guide psychological and neuroscientific inquiry and to interpret discoveries concerning the mechanisms underlying cognitive control. Thus, we aim to bring together psychologists, philosophers, and neuroscientists to explore how the science of cognitive and self-control might inform our understanding of ourselves as morally and legally responsible agents.