Eric Schwitzgebel to Deliver Robert W. Root ’42 Endowment Lecture at W&L The philosopher will give a talk on AI and consciousness in Stackhouse Theater on March 27.

By Brian Laubscher
March 10, 2026

Eric Schwitzgebel, distinguished professor of philosophy at the University of California, Riverside, will deliver the Robert W. Root ’42 Endowment Lecture at Washington and Lee University at 5 p.m. Friday, March 27 in Stackhouse Theater in Elrod Commons. The talk is free and open to the W&L community.

“Eric Schwitzgebel is a philosophical legend,” said Angela Sun, assistant professor of philosophy. “As a graduate student, I read his research on the relationship between philosophical reflection and real-world moral behavior, and it made me rethink the role of moral theorizing in social progress. We are thrilled that a philosopher renowned for working on big, timely questions will be sharing his research on one of the biggest and most timely issues now: artificial intelligence (AI).”

The lecture, “Will AI Soon Be Conscious, and What Should We Do If We Don’t Know,” will explore whether AI systems can possess the ability to be as meaningfully conscious as humans, including highlighting conflicting leading scientific theories.

Schwitzgebel notes that these developments will likely create “debatable personhood” — AI systems who might deserve fully humanlike rights and respect or who equally well might be no more conscious or rights-deserving than a ceiling fan. This raises a question: What should we do in the presence of such systems?

Schwitzgebel has served as a member of the UC Riverside faculty since 1997 and specializes in the philosophy of AI, philosophy of mind, experimental philosophy and moral psychology. He has authored four books, including “The Weirdness of the World,” “A Theory of Jerks and Other Philosophical Misadventures” and “Perplexities of Consciousness,” as well as “Describing Inner Experience?: Proponent Meets Skeptic,” which he co-authored with Russell Hurlburt. He has also published extensively on the introspection of conscious experience, the nature of belief and the relationship between philosophical reflection and real-world moral behavior.

Schwitzgebel holds a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley.

The Root lecture is sponsored by W&L’s Philosophy Department and the Root Lecture Fund. The Root Lecture Fund was established by Robert W. Root ’42 in 1991 to support guest speakers selected on a rotating basis by the departments of cognitive and behavioral science, philosophy and religion.