I am an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy and director of the Ethics and Public Policy Program at Clark University. I work mainly in ethics, philosophy of action, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of law.

I'm also the project lead for digital ethics and governance at the Jain Family Institute, an applied research organization in New York City. 

Previously, I was a postdoctoral research fellow in philosophy at Northeastern University and a visiting lecturer in philosophy at Mount Holyoke College. 

​I completed my PhD in philosophy at MIT in 2016. I studied political science and philosophy as an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh. 

​I'm Indo-Caribbean-American.  I was born and raised in Queens, New York, by parents from the island of Trinidad, where my great grandparents were brought as indentured servants from the Indian subcontinent.

My primary email address is arali@clarku.edu. 

 

Research

• Manifestations of Virtue forthcoming in Oxford Studies in Normative Ethics 
  ...argues that praiseworthy acts ought to be understood in virtue-theoretic terms even though fully praiseworthy action needn't issue from virtue.


• Virtue and Excuse (draft; undergoing revise and resubmit)
  ...explains why wrongdoings performed under duress are excused: these wrongdoings are compatible with virtue in a special sense.
  
  
• ​On Comedy and Character (down for revision)
  ​...proposes that jokes can be morally-instructive.

 

 

Teaching

• Environmental Ethics (Fall 2018) 
  ...explores the ethical issues arising from our relationship to the natural environment; topics include: moral status, the value of biodiversity, intergenerational justice, individual and collective responsibilities regarding climate change, radical environmental activism, and the cost-benefit approach to environmental policy-making.
  
  
• Mind and Action (Spring 2017) 
  ...investigates the relationship between our minds, bodies, and behavior; topics include: dualism, mind-brain identity theory, behaviourism, functionalism, the causal theory of action, and practical knowledge.  
  
  
• Medical Ethics (Spring 2017)
  ...explores ethical and conceptual issues arising from the practice of medicine; topics include: the permissibility of abortion and physician-assisted suicide, theories of disability, the ethics of human enhancement, the allocation of medical resources, medical paternalism, informed consent, and conscientious refusal by physicians.
  
  
• Logical Thought (Fall 2016)
  ...serves as a comprehensive and non-formal introduction to constructing and evaluating arguments; topics include: reconstructing deductive arguments charitably, assessing the acceptability of premises, evaluating validity, and critiquing appeals to testimony and expertise.​
  
  
• Ethics (Fall 2016)
  ...introduces metaethics and normative ethics; topics include: metaethical realism and emotivism, metaethical relativism, theories of well-being, utilitarianism, the doctrine of double effect, Kantian ethics, moral luck, and praiseworthiness.