I am an assistant professor of philosophy at Purdue University.

I work on issues in the philosophy of science (especially cognitive science and artificial intelligence) and normative philosophy (especially epistemology and ethics). Much of my current research focuses on (a) rationality and agency in light of contemporary cognitive science, and (b) normative questions in the analytic philosophy of technology.

Prior to joining the faculty at Purdue, I held postdoctoral fellowships in the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society at Stanford (where I was also a fellow at the Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence) and in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. I completed my PhD at Princeton in 2020, where I was advised by Tom Kelly and Grace Helton.

I spend most of my free time with my wife, Kelsey Wiggs Karlan (a rockstar ADHD researcher and clinical psychologist). We have, according to several objective measures, the cutest dog.

The easiest way to reach me is by email: bkarlan [at] purdue [dot] edu