Patrick Hopkins

BA, University of Mississippi; MA, PhD, Washington University

“I’m a philosopher who does a lot of crossover work in areas of science, law, and business. I’m especially interested in issues of the mind, neuroscience, and moral psychology (which is the study of how people make moral decisions and where our values come from). I teach courses in neurophilosophy (which we have a major in), philosophy of mind, psychopathology, medical ethics, business ethics, sports ethics, and the neuroscience and psychology of morality. I also do a lot of projects with students on topics they want to pursue, which has led to publications, conference presentations, and honors project. Student projects just over the past few years studying the concept of trust and how it’s measured, public assistance programs that do more harm than good, questions of why people find fiction and films interesting, how college students perceive using Adderall as a kind of cheating, the history of physical fitness, and the issue of people lying about having mental illnesses to get special treatment. All of these are projects students were interested in and I helped them work on the research, arguments, and even experiments to get at answers. In particular, our neurophilosophy major is set up to give you—the student—the chance to work on your own ideas, spending less time in classrooms and more time on your own interests. I’m also a professor at the state medical school just across the street where I work with their Bioethics Center and their Psychiatry Department, giving students opportunities to go over there for internships, shadowing physicians and researchers, and summer fellowships. Would you be interested in research projects on medicine, neuroscience, psychopaths? Let me know. I also love science fiction, gaming, EDM, and weightlifting so don’t be surprised if all those come up in a class or a project.”