I'm a postdoctoral research fellow in philosophy at Northeastern University. I'm affiliated with the Interdisciplinary Ethics Institute at Northeastern.

I also lead initiatives on digital ethics and governance at the Jain Family Institute in New York City. 

I work mainly in ethics, philosophy of action, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of law.

I've previously taught philosophy at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts . I received my PhD in philosophy from MIT in 2016. I was 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.

​Email address: a.ali@northeastern.edu 
​
Office address: 314 Holmes Hall

​Mailing address:  371 Holmes Hall, 360 Huntington Avenue; Boston, MA 02115

​Click here for my curriculum vitae.

 

Research

• Manifestations of Virtue forthcoming (pending final review) 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.