Nick Byrd
Nick Byrd- FSU Doctoral Student (Philosophy and Psychology) | English | Digital Narratives | August 29, 2019
Why did you choose to attend FSU to pursue a graduate degree?
Florida State offered everything I wanted: a good philosophy program, a good psychology program, and close proximity to my family.
What motivated you to pursue a graduate degree?
I wanted to understand human reasoning and disagreement with more advanced methods.
Describe the importance of your research and work? Why should anyone care about the work you are doing?
I study how our reasoning biases (or lack thereof) correlate with certain philosophical beliefs (e.g., moral, religious, political beliefs). I find, for instance, that overcoming certain reasoning biases correlates with different moral judgments than not overcoming those biases. This raises a variety of questions about whether some beliefs are more biased than others and whether we should be worried about. Nick currently works in the Social and Moral Reasoning Lab and in the Philosophy Department. His work finds that less reflective people tend towards different philosophical beliefs than more reflective people.
Briefly describe your career aspirations.
I’d like to continue researching and teaching philosophical reasoning. At FSU he has taught Introduction to Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Mind and Environmental Ethics.
Advice for anyone considering graduate school.
Consider your opportunity costs: Getting a PhD can be fantastic, but that doesn’t mean that it will give you an academic job, a non-academic job, or a solely positive experience.
Accomplishments during your graduate career that you are proud of.
Nick recently published this article https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11229-019-02128-6 and some other accomplishments of his include receiving the 2019 Graduate Student Research and Creativity Award, the 2018-2019 Graduate Student Cross-Training Fellowship and the 2018 Dissertation Research Grant. https://byrdnick.com/