Adam Safron

I am currently finishing my PhD at Northwestern University, where I have pursued three main lines of interest: 1) Exploring biological bases of desire and motivation, focusing on sexual orientation; 2) Studying unification frameworks for understanding minds; and 3) Investigating mental training as a potential means of enhancing cognitive and affective control. My ultimate ambition is a thoroughgoing multi-level understanding of goal-directedness, characterized in terms of mechanism, evolution, development, and experience. Part of my motivation for these academic pursuits is a belief that much of the world is in a state of spiritual crisis. More specifically, I believe that individuals and communities are suffering from an absence of intrapersonal and interpersonal connection, and that this lack of presence divorces people from a felt sense of the richness of existence, with far-reaching consequences. It is my hope that a combination of science and philosophy can help move humanity towards sustainable flourishing.