Hi! You've reached the personal page of Amy Lara, assistant professor of philosophy at Kansas State. My research interests are in ethical theory and moral psychology. I'm currently working on two projects:

1) I'm exploring links between Kantian ethics and neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics, particularly on the issue of the codifiability of moral knowledge, and the role that moral principles play in practical reasoning. I have two paper drafts on this topic:

"Some Apparent Obstacles to Developing a Kantian Virtue Theory" (pdf)

"Two Views of Kantian Practical Reason" (pdf)

2) Recently, I've started working on the ethics of scientific communication. There is some debate within the scientific community about whether it is appropriate to use communication techniques such as "framing." (For a good discussion of framing, visit Matthew Nisbet's blog). Philosophers working in applied ethics have not spent much time yet discussing the ethics of communication techniques like this, so I'm looking at ways Kantian ethics might be used to provide ethical guidelines for scientific communication. Currently, I'm a member of a group of philosophers and scientists who are studying the ethical beliefs scientists have about communicating with the public. Our plan is to develop a curriculum for teaching the ethics of scientific communication to graduate students in the sciences. The group's website is here.

  
 
Here is my CV

 Here are class descriptions for my classes in Spring, 2010:

Here are some resources for teaching research ethics.


 Here are some of my favorite philosophy links:
The Garden of Forking Paths
An excellent website and blog for anyone interested in free will issues.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The best resource for any philosophical question you might have.
The Philosophical Gourmet Report
A must-see if you are considering a graduate degree in philosophy.

 
   

Kansas State Philosophy Department | Kansas State University

 

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This page last updated 11/10/09