Matthew Madruga

About

I am a philosopher who is interested in ethics, philosophy of law, philosophy of education, philosophy of artificial intelligence, and Chinese philosophy. I approach philosophy as a broadly dialogical practice—one that treats argument, interpretation, and inquiry as shared intellectual activities rather than purely adversarial exercises. Across both research and teaching, I am interested in how normative reasoning operates within institutions, and in how moral responsibility is shaped by epistemic risk, uncertainty, and power. My research in philosophy of law focuses on punishment, moral responsibility, and the ethical significance of uncertainty in legal and institutional decision-making. I am particularly interested in questions about when the imposition of risk is morally permissible, how evidentiary standards shape responsibility, and how punishment can be justified under conditions of imperfect knowledge. These concerns also inform my work in applied ethics and political philosophy, especially where legal norms intersect with emerging technologies. I also work in the philosophy of artificial intelligence, where I examine issues of responsibility, authority, bias, and justification in algorithmic and automated decision-making systems used in domains such as criminal justice, education, and public governance. Rather than treating AI ethics as a purely technical problem, I approach it as a normative and institutional question about how reasons, decisions, and accountability are distributed. My work in philosophy of education and Chinese philosophy informs both my research and pedagogy. Engagement with early Confucian and Daoist thought has shaped my understanding of moral cultivation, relational agency, and the role of dialogue in ethical life, while my work in philosophy of education emphasizes teaching as a practice aimed at cultivating intellectual agency: the ability to reason carefully, articulate commitments clearly, and revise one’s views in light of argument and evidence. Across these areas, my work is unified by a central question: how should we reason—and teach others to reason—under conditions of disagreement, uncertainty, and institutional constraint?

Research

My research centers on punishment, moral responsibility, and the ethics of epistemic risk, especially in legal and institutional decision-making. I work primarily in philosophy of law, applied ethics, philosophy of education, and political philosophy, with additional research on artificial intelligence and algorithmic governance. I am particularly interested in how uncertainty, evidence, and risk assessment shape the moral justification of punishment and sentencing, as well as how emerging technologies complicate traditional accounts of responsibility and authority.

Teaching

My approach to teaching philosophy is grounded in the conviction that philosophical education is not primarily the transmission of doctrines, but the cultivation of intellectual agency. To study philosophy is to learn how to reason carefully under conditions of uncertainty, disagreement, and incomplete information—conditions that characterize not only academic inquiry, but civic life, professional decision-making, and everyday moral judgment. My teaching therefore emphasizes philosophy as a dialogical practice: one that develops students’ ability to articulate reasons, assess evidence, engage disagreement respectfully, and revise their views in light of argument. This pedagogical orientation shapes both the content and structure of my courses. Across classes in critical thinking, logic, ethics, philosophy of law, philosophy of technology, and contemporary moral problems, I organize material around central questions rather than isolated theories. Students are invited to ask not only what a philosopher argues, but why those arguments matter, how they function, and where they succeed or fail when applied to real institutional contexts such as law, education, or emerging technologies. This approach helps students see philosophy as a living practice with stakes, rather than as a collection of historical positions to be memorized. Because many of my students are first-generation college students, working students, or students returning to education after time away, I design my courses to be both intellectually rigorous and structurally transparent. I use clear learning objectives, scaffolded assignments, and explicit grading rubrics so that expectations are visible rather than implicit. Low-stakes writing, structured discussion prompts, and iterative feedback allow students to practice philosophical skills—argument reconstruction, conceptual analysis, and critical evaluation—before being assessed at a higher level. This scaffolding is not remedial; it is a principled response to the fact that philosophical reasoning is a learned skill, not a natural aptitude. My teaching in logic and critical thinking reflects the same commitments. I present formal and informal reasoning not as abstract technical exercises, but as tools for navigating real epistemic environments shaped by misinformation, cognitive bias, and institutional power. Students learn to identify valid forms of reasoning, common fallacies, and probabilistic inference while applying these tools to contemporary cases drawn from social media, public policy, legal reasoning, and scientific communication. By connecting formal structure to lived examples, I help students understand rationality as something they actively practice, not merely study. Ethics courses provide a particularly important site for dialogical pedagogy. In classes such as Introduction to Ethics, Contemporary Moral Problems, and Philosophy of Criminal Law, I emphasize charitable interpretation, principled disagreement, and reason-giving as norms of ethical inquiry. Students are encouraged to take positions, defend them with arguments, and then critically engage opposing views—including views they initially find uncomfortable. My role is not to adjudicate moral conclusions, but to help students clarify commitments, recognize trade-offs, and understand how moral reasoning operates in pluralistic contexts. My work in philosophy of education and Chinese philosophy further informs my teaching practice. Engagement with Confucian and Daoist traditions has shaped my understanding of moral cultivation, relational agency, and the role of dialogue in learning. These perspectives reinforce my commitment to teaching as a relational activity that takes place within institutional constraints but aims at intellectual growth and self-understanding. They also allow me to present philosophy as a genuinely global enterprise, one that benefits from multiple traditions of inquiry rather than a single canonical lineage. Finally, I view teaching as an ongoing reflective practice. I regularly revise course materials in response to student feedback, assessment outcomes, and changing institutional contexts. I integrate zero-cost course materials to reduce financial barriers, make extensive use of accessible digital tools through Canvas, and adapt instruction across in-person, hybrid, and online modalities. Through service roles such as faculty mentoring, outreach programs, and academic support initiatives, I remain attentive to the structural challenges students face and to the ways institutions can better support their success. At its core, my teaching philosophy is guided by a simple but demanding aim: to help students become more careful thinkers, more responsible reasoners, and more confident participants in intellectual and civic life. Philosophy, taught well, equips students not only with analytic skills, but with habits of inquiry that endure beyond the classroom.

I have taught courses in critical thinking, logic (including symbolic logic), ethics, philosophy of law, philosophy of technology, and contemporary moral problems across community college and university contexts.

CV

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