Ismail Kurun

Graduate Student

I work on issues at the intersection of social and political philosophy (particularly “PPE”), Islamic and medieval philosophy, and the philosophy of AI. My research investigates how societies sustain or develop liberal democratic institutions and character traits, particularly epistemically. I am also a fellow at VALIANT, Vanderbilt’s interdisciplinary AI lab, where I focus on how those institutions can be renewed for the age of AI. Much of my work is interdisciplinary: it brings social scientific methods and evidence to bear on philosophical questions about liberal democracy.

My dissertation is on the epistemology of liberalism and the liberalization of nonliberal societies. Critics argue that liberalism has a sectarian epistemology. My dissertation develops a nonsectarian account of liberal epistemology and uses it to propose a novel model of liberalization which I call “doctrinal liberalization.” I then apply the model to Islam and Turkey as case studies.

For more, please visit www.ismailkurun.com