L.A. Paul

Laurie Ann Paul (born 1966) is an American philosopher who is a professor of philosophy and cognitive science at Yale University. She previously taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Arizona. She is best known for her research on the counterfactual analysis of causation and the concept of "transformative experience."

Biography and career Born November 10, 1966, Paul graduated from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, in 1990 with a BA in chemistry. Before going to graduate school, Paul corresponded with a number of philosophers about their work, including Nancy Cartwright and Lynne Rudder Baker. In 1999, Paul graduated from Princeton University with a PhD in philosophy, where she wrote a dissertation titled Essays on Causation under the supervision of David Lewis. Her article "What You Can't Expect When You're Expecting" develops the notion of transformative experience and explores its consequences for the possibility of rational decision-making.

She is the editor of Causation and Counterfactuals, co-author of Causation: A User's Guide, and author of Transformative Experience.

Awards The Australian National University's Institute for Advanced Study Research awarded Paul a fellowship for the period 2001-06.

In 2011, Paul was awarded a fellowship from the National Humanities Center for her work. In 2014, Paul received a grant from the John Templeton Foundation to study religious and transformative experience, and a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation.

Personal life Paul has two children with Irish sociologist Kieran Healy, from whom she is divorced.

Selected works