Abdul Ansari

I work across ethics, moral psychology and meta-ethics, with epistemology and social philosophy near at hand. I also do work on Islamic philosophy.

My research investigates human attitudes, particularly the ways who we are and the passage of time shape what to care about. 

Currently, I explore the idea that ongoing relations are reasons for attachment, desire, and a range of feelings; and what, given this, follows for ethics. 

This inquiry bears on fundamental questions about valuing, love, justification, contingency, historic injury, self-concern, and rationality over time. 

I also write about epistemic responses beyond belief, notably, despair, dhawq--ذوق ("ineffable grasp", in Arabic epistemology), wonder, and curiosity.

In my work, I appeal to the anthropology and history of ethics to situate normative questions in broader human contexts.