L.A. Paul appointed Millstone Family Professor of Philosophy

L.A. Paul, whose research examines metaphysics, cognitive science, and the philosophy of the mind, has been appointed the Millstone Family Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Cognitive Science. Her appointment was effective Feb. 20.

A member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Paul explores questions about the nature of the self, decision-making, temporal experience, philosophical methodology, causation, causal experience, time and time’s arrow, perception, mereology, constitution, and essence. 

She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors throughout her career, including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Humanities Center, and the Australian National University. She is also the author of three books, including “Causation: A User’s Guide” (Oxford University Press, 2013), which was awarded the American Philosophical Association Sanders Book Prize. In 2020 she received the Dr. Martin R. Lebowitz and Eve Lewellis Lebowitz Prize for Philosophical Achievement and Contribution from the American Philosophical Association and Phi Beta Kappa Society.

A graduate of Antioch College, Paul earned an M.A. in philosophy from Antioch University and Princeton University in 1996 before receiving her Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton in 1999. She began her career as an assistant professor of philosophy at Yale until 2001, when she joined the faculty at the University of Arizona. In 2008 she was recruited by the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where in 2016 she was named the Eugene Falk Distinguished Professor of Philosophy.

In 2018, Paul returned to Yale as a professor of philosophy and cognitive science.