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Henry Potter

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies

Henry Potter, a young man with wavy reddish-brown hair, light beard, gold glasses, and a light tan corduroy shirt smiling.
Office
3130C Jenkins And Nanovic Halls
Email
hpotter@nd.edu

Henry Potter is an interdisciplinary philosopher of science whose work sits at the intersection of metaphysics, theoretical biology, and the philosophy of mind and action. His research focuses on developing realist accounts of agency, subjectivity, and (libertarian) free will from a biological perspective. He is also interested in exploring the implications of this work for questions of moral responsibility and human flourishing.

Potter holds a doctorate in genetics from Trinity College Dublin. His doctoral research project explored how to reconcile the "naturalistic" picture of the world given to us by the natural sciences — physics, biology, and neuroscience — with our image of ourselves as free and responsible causal agents capable of choosing and controlling our own actions. His thesis integrated evidence from theoretical physics, information theory, systems biology, the neuroscience of decision-making, and the philosophy of causation to develop a novel framework for thinking about living systems and their behavior. He then argued that this framework provides a scientifically grounded account of agency, free will, and related notions such as choice, meaning, and macroscopic control.

Potter’s research has been published in leading journals, including the European Journal of Neuroscience, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Entropy, and Synthese. He has also published a chapter in the Routledge edited volume, "The Riddle of Organismal Agency: New Historical and Philosophical Reflections," and his research has recently received coverage in the online publication The Transmitter.

Potter’s current work explores the problem of "ultimate responsibility," a common source of free will skepticism captured by the thought that "a person may be able to do what they will, but they cannot will what they will." This research project draws on insights from theories of biological organization and the neurobiology of belief formation and goal acquisition to explore whether humans really do exercise control over their own character formation, and to identify the conditions under which such control may be strengthened or undermined.

In addition, Potter is working on applying biological theories of agency to emerging topics in applied ethics, especially in relation to the development and adoption of artificial intelligence (AI). Grounded in a virtue ethical approach to moral philosophy, this research project aims to explore the potentially harmful consequences that adopting AI decision-making tools could have for moral character development and therefore our ability to live well and flourish as human beings. He is also working on developing empirical indicators for detecting agency in artificial systems, with a view to forestalling the sorts of ethical dilemmas that might arise from the development of artificial agency.

Potter holds a master's in philosophy and cognitive science from the University of Edinburgh, where his dissertation explored the spatialized nature of our sense of self. He also received a bachelor's in linguistics from University College London. Outside of academia, he has worked as an AI ethics consultant and as a cybersecurity researcher.

Recent Publications