\documentclass[10pt]{article}

\usepackage{fullpage}
\usepackage{CJKutf8} 
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{setspace}
\usepackage{parskip}
\usepackage{titlesec}
\usepackage[section]{placeins}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{breakcites}
\usepackage{lineno}
\usepackage{hyphenat}





\PassOptionsToPackage{hyphens}{url}
\usepackage[colorlinks = true,
            linkcolor = blue,
            urlcolor  = blue,
            citecolor = blue,
            anchorcolor = blue]{hyperref}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\makeatletter
\patchcmd\@combinedblfloats{\box\@outputbox}{\unvbox\@outputbox}{}{%
  \errmessage{\noexpand\@combinedblfloats could not be patched}%
}%
\makeatother


\usepackage{natbib}




\renewenvironment{abstract}
  {{\bfseries\noindent{\abstractname}\par\nobreak}\footnotesize}
  {\bigskip}

\titlespacing{\section}{0pt}{*3}{*1}
\titlespacing{\subsection}{0pt}{*2}{*0.5}
\titlespacing{\subsubsection}{0pt}{*1.5}{0pt}


\usepackage{authblk}


\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage[space]{grffile}
\usepackage{latexsym}
\usepackage{textcomp}
\usepackage{longtable}
\usepackage{tabulary}
\usepackage{booktabs,array,multirow}
\usepackage{amsfonts,amsmath,amssymb}
\providecommand\citet{\cite}
\providecommand\citep{\cite}
\providecommand\citealt{\cite}
% You can conditionalize code for latexml or normal latex using this.
\newif\iflatexml\latexmlfalse
\providecommand{\tightlist}{\setlength{\itemsep}{0pt}\setlength{\parskip}{0pt}}%

\AtBeginDocument{\DeclareGraphicsExtensions{.pdf,.PDF,.eps,.EPS,.png,.PNG,.tif,.TIF,.jpg,.JPG,.jpeg,.JPEG}}

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}



\usepackage{float}








\begin{document}
\begin{CJK}{UTF8}{gbsn}

\title{AMA Announcement: Wednesday 4/5 11AM EST - L.A. Paul (UNC Chapel Hill)
on transformative experiences, rationality and authenticity}



\author[1]{ADefiniteDescription }%
\author[1]{r/Science AMAs}%
\affil[1]{Affiliation not available}%


\vspace{-1em}



  
  \date{April 24, 2026}


\begingroup
\let\center\flushleft
\let\endcenter\endflushleft
\maketitle
\endgroup





\selectlanguage{english}
\begin{abstract}
As previously announced, /r/philosophy is hosting an AMA series this
Spring semester which will host AMAs by a number of world class academic
philosophers working in a variety of different areas of contemporary
philosophy. Check out our series announcement post to see blurbs for all
the AMAs lined up this semester. You can also check out last semester's
series announcement post to see all the AMAs from Fall 2016. So far this
semester we've had AMAs by Amie L. Thomasson on metaphysics, philosophy
of mind and philosophy of art, available here, Samantha Brennan on
normative and feminist ethics, available here, Chris W. Surprenant on
moral/political philosophy, available here, S. Matthew Liao on ethics,
bioethics and neuroethics, available here, David Chalmers on
consciousness, technology and various areas of philosophy, available
here, Lisa Bortolotti on irrationality and the philosophy of mind,
available here and Shannon Vallor on philosophy of technology and
science, available here. We continue our Spring 2017 Series this
upcoming Wednesday with an AMA by L.A. Paul (UNC - Chapel Hill). Hear it
from her: L.A. Paul I'm a philosopher at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill whose main interests are in metaphysics,
phenomenology, and cognitive science. If you want to know more about me,
here's my website, an interview about my research interests with 3am
magazine, and an interview with more personal sorts of questions at
NewAPPS. Much of my recent work focuses on the nature of experience and
its role in constructing the self. I'm especially interested in
exploring the way that some experiences can be transformative.
Transformative experiences are momentous, life-changing experiences that
shape who we are and what we care about. Going to war, winning the
lottery, having a baby, losing your faith, or being spiritually reborn
are all experiences that transform us epistemically, and through the
epistemic transformations they bring, such experiences change us
personally. Massive epistemic change can restructure who you are and
what you care about. When you have a transformative experience,
something new is revealed to you---what's like to be in that situation
or what it's like to have that experience. Once you discover this, you
discover how you'll respond, and in particular, who you'll become as the
result of the transformation. In this sense, an exploration of
transformative experience is also an exploration of the self, since we
are exploring the way that experience allows us to discover who we are
and what we care about. We discover new features of reality through
experience, and this discovery turns us back into a new understanding of
our own selves. I prefer to work on these philosophical questions using
somewhat technical and formal tools from contemporary philosophy drawn
from metaphysics, epistemology, decision theory, and the philosophy of
mind. I'm also interested in empirical work in cognitive science,
statistics, and psychology, and I try to bring relevant empirical
research to bear on my conceptual work. I see myself as a defender of
the importance of phenomenology and lived experience, but within a
context that emphasizes the use of formal tools and empirically informed
research combined with analytical metaphysics to frame and tackle
philosophical problems. I've done a lot of work in the past on the
nature of time and the metaphysics of causation and counterfactuals, and
that work also informs the project of transformative experience in some
obvious and some not-so-obvious ways. Recent Links: There have been a
number of good discussions in the media of transformative experience.
Here are a few, and there are more links on my website. In the New
Yorker, Joshua Rothman discusses impossible decisions and the
transformative experience of seeing color for the first time In the Wall
Street Journal, Alison Gopnik discusses my original argument about the
transformative nature of becoming a parent here In The New York Times,
David Brooks discusses my book The Philosopher's Zone has a fun podcast
about transformative experience here OUP Book Thanks to OUP, you can
save 30\% Professor L.A. Paul's new book by using promocode AAFLYG6 on
the oup.com site, while the series is ongoing: Transformative Experience
AMA Professor Paul will join us Wednesday for a live Q\&A on 4/5 at 11AM
EST. Please feel free to post questions for her here. She will look at
this thread before she starts and begin with some questions from here
while the initial questions in the new thread come in. Please join me in
welcoming Professor Paul our community!%
\end{abstract}%



\sloppy




\selectlanguage{english}
\FloatBarrier
\end{CJK}\end{document}

