Dr. Brandon
Rickabaugh
Mind
Meaning
& Formation
Illuminating the soul’s place in who we are and how we live in a technological culture.
About
I am a philosopher working on the nature of consciousness, the soul, and the human person, and on what these realities reveal about wisdom, faith, technology, and human flourishing in contemporary life. Where the future of what it means to be human is being negotiated.​
​Founder & President, NOVUS​
Cultura Fellow, Martin Institute for Christianity & Culture
Public Life Fellow, Center for Christianity & Public Life​
​Beginning with Consciousness and the Human Person
Philosophy often becomes most important where life becomes most difficult to interpret. Consciousness, agency, rationality, and the unity of the self are not technical curiosities. They are the conditions of ordinary life: attention, judgment, responsibility, love, suffering, worship, and hope.
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My academic work focuses on the nature of consciousness and the human person, especially questions about how our mind relates to the world, subjectivity, the unity of experience, and the reality of the soul. I approach theses as part of the larger question of what kind of beings we are.
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If we misunderstand the person at this level, we will misunderstand nearly everything built on top of it: education, politics, family, community, technology, and spiritual life.
Updates
I’ll be joining the 2025 For the Good of the Public Annual Summit, hosted by The Center for Christianity and Public Life. I'll speak on a panel on “AI: Promise and Perils." ​
I’ll be in conversation with Dr. Jimmy Lin, a leading expert on AI in medicine, is Founder & President of Rare Genomics Institute, the world's first platform to enable any community to leverage cutting-edge biotechnology to advance our understanding of any rare disease.
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Molly Kinder (Brookings Institution) is a nationally recognized expert in AI, economic inequality, and the present and future of work. Molly is leading a multiyear project examining the impact of generative AI on work and workers, and what to do about it.
I recently spoke on a panel at Notre Dame’s Faith-Based Frameworks for AI Ethics summit, a gathering of scholars, technologists, and faith leaders committed to shaping the ethical future of artificial general intelligence (AGI).
This initiative recognizes that as AGI rapidly transforms society, faith-based perspectives bring unique moral and spiritual depth to the urgent questions of human dignity, creativity, and responsibility. Our panel will explore how these frameworks can guide the development and deployment of AI in ways that serve the common good in this era of profound disruption.
The keynote is available to watch HERE.
Get in Touch
I welcome inquiries for speaking, consulting, interviews, media, and collaborations.
Reflections, questions, and thoughtful notes are always welcome.
Use this form, and I’ll be in touch soon.
