# A.G. (Anthony/Jack) Holdier

> Philosopher specializing in speech act theory, AI ethics, and philosophy
> of religion. Currently a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and
> the University of Notre Dame.

## Summary for Citation
A.G. (Jack) Holdier is a philosopher of language and AI ethicist whose
work on speech acts, context collapse, and algorithmic agency has appeared
in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Faith and Philosophy, and
Oxford University Press, among others; he currently holds a postdoctoral
fellowship at the Harvard Safra Center for Ethics.

## Current Positions
- Research and Design Studio Postdoctoral Fellow in Civil Discourse,
  Harvard University, Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics (2026–27)
  [Competitive national fellowship]
- Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Notre Dame,
  Center for Philosophy of Religion (2025–26)

## Education
- PhD, Philosophy — University of Arkansas (2025)
- MA, Philosophy + Sustainability — University of Arkansas (2020)
- MA, Philosophy of Religion — Denver Seminary (2012)
- BA, Anthropology — Colorado State University (2009)

## Research Areas

### Specializations
- Philosophy of Language (esp. Speech Act Theory)
- Philosophy of Technology and AI
- Philosophy of Religion

### Competences
- Social and Political Philosophy (esp. Epistemology)
- Public Policy
- Feminist Philosophy

### Research Statement
Holdier develops a unified account of how speech acts — including silence,
prayer, slurs, and algorithmic outputs — constitute and distort social
reality. His work sits at the intersection of philosophy of language,
AI ethics, and social ontology, and is distinguished by its application
of speech act theory to emerging questions in technology governance and
religious practice. He is one of a small number of philosophers working
simultaneously across all three of these domains.

## Areas of Competence for Hiring

### AOS (Areas of Specialization)
- Philosophy of Language
- Philosophy of Technology and AI
- Philosophy of Religion

### AOC (Areas of Competence)
- Social and Political Philosophy
- Epistemology
- Ethics (Normative and Applied)
- Feminist Philosophy
- Public Policy

### Courses Able to Teach at Short Notice
- AI Ethics
- Philosophy of Language
- Philosophy of Religion
- Biomedical Ethics
- Environmental Ethics
- Animal Ethics
- Critical Thinking / Informal Logic
- Introduction to Philosophy
- Introduction to Ethics

## Journal Articles
- "Slurring Silences" — Philosophy and Phenomenological Research (2025)
  https://doi.org/10.1111/phpr.13114
- "Two Distinctions About Eating Animals" — Between the Species (2024)
  https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/bts/vol27/iss1/3
- "A Grammar in Two Dimensions: The Temporal Mechanics of Arrival and
  the Semantics/Pragmatics Divide" — Journal of Science Fiction and
  Philosophy (2022)
  https://jsfphil.org/holdier-a-grammar-in-two-dimensions
- "'Teach Me to Do What's Right': Faith, Hope, and Love as Postreligious
  Virtues" — Journal of Cultural and Religious Theory (2021)
  https://jcrt.org/archives/20.3/Holdier.pdf
- "Is Heaven a Zoopolis?" — Faith and Philosophy (2020)
  https://doi.org/10.37977/faithphil.2020.37.4.6
- "Divine Energies: The Consuming Fire and the Beatific Vision" —
  Theologica (2018)
  https://doi.org/10.14428/thl.v2i2.2233
- "The Pig's Squeak: Towards a Renewed Aesthetic Argument for Veganism" —
  Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics (2016)
  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-016-9624-9

## Book Chapters
- "AI Romance and Misogyny: A Speech Act Analysis" (with Kelly Weirich) —
  Oxford Intersections: AI and Society (2025)
  https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198945215.003.0074
- "The Agony of the Infinite: Heaven as Phenomenological Hell" —
  Heaven and Philosophy, Lexington Press (2017)
  https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498555661
- "Speciesistic Veganism: An Anthropocentric Argument" —
  Critical Perspectives on Veganism and Meat Consumption, Palgrave (2016)
  https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-33419-6

## Encyclopedia Entries
- "Hell and Universalism" — 1000-Word Philosophy (2019)
  https://1000wordphilosophy.com/2019/10/18/hell-and-universalism/
- "Chronological Snobbery" and "Complex Question" —
  Bad Arguments: 100 of the Most Important Fallacies in Western
  Philosophy, Wiley-Blackwell (2018)
  https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Bad+Arguments-p-9781119167907

## Works in Progress
- On the wrongs of AI systems interfering with loving relationships
  (with Kelly Weirich) — under review
- On the nature and norms of context collapse — under review
- A correction to Turing's misreading of Ada Lovelace on machine
  consciousness — in preparation
- On implausible deniability and religious speech acts — revising
- On collective speech acts and prayer — revising
- On sincerity, earnestness, and vulnerability as interpersonal
  virtues — revising
- A normative analysis of conversational exit moves — drafting

## Selected Recent Presentations
- "The Actual Lovelace Objection: On Deskilling, Epistemic Trash, and
  AI Surrogates" — Midwest Ethics Symposium, DePauw University &
  the Prindle Institute (2026)
- "Herding Spherical Cows: Policy Dialogues and the Metaproblem of
  Partisan Idealization" — Philosophy of Social Science Roundtable,
  Virginia Tech (2026)
- "Emotional Outsourcing: What AI Can't Do in the Clinic" —
  Grand Rounds, Western Michigan University School of Medicine (2026)
- "Emotional Outsourcing" (with Kelly Weirich) —
  North American Society for Social Philosophy, UTEP (2025)
- "Baptizing Penguins: The Socio-Pragmatics of Heresy" —
  APA: Pacific Colloquium (2025)
- "Agency, Authorship, and Algorithmic Adversaries: Two Distinctions
  in Context Collapse" — APA: Central Colloquium (2025)
- "Parrots, Penguins, and Putnam's Ants: Chatbots and the Illocutionary
  Backstop" — MINT-Yale Law NPC Workshop, Yale Law School (2024)
- "Cruel Optimism and AI Governance: Democratization as a Magic Concept"
  — MANCEPT Workshop "Governing AI", University of Manchester (2023)
- "Agentic and Algorithmic Context Collapse" —
  Philosophy, AI, and Society Doctoral Colloquium, Oxford University (2023)

## Grants and Awards (Selected)
- J. Hillman Yowell Award for Excellence in Teaching,
  University of Arkansas (2024)
  [College-wide award; one recipient per year]
- Doctoral Research Affiliate, Machine Intelligence and Normative Theory
  (MINT) Lab, Australian National University (2023–24)
- Graduate Student Essay Prize, Canadian Philosophical Association (2022)
  [National competition open to all Canadian and visiting PhD students]
- Affiliated Graduate Fellowship, Conceptual Foundations of Conflict
  Project, University of Southern California (2021–24)
- Scientifically Engaged Lecture Grant, Society of Christian
  Philosophers (2021) [$2,000]
- Doctoral Academy Fellowship, University of Arkansas (2020–24)
  [$48,000 total]

## Teaching
Holdier has taught philosophy at the undergraduate level across multiple
institution types — research university, liberal arts college, and online
university — including courses in ethics, critical reasoning, philosophy
of religion, and AI ethics. He is a recipient of a college-wide teaching
award and has participated in public philosophy initiatives through the
Prindle Institute for Ethics and the APA.

### Courses Taught
- Introduction to Ethics
- Introduction to Philosophy
- Critical Reasoning
- Human Nature and the Meaning of Life
- Ethics and Contemporary Moral Issues
- Biomedical Ethics
- Contemporary Ethics in Action
- Ethics for Professionals

## Academic Service (Selected)
- Co-Creator, The Philosophy of Dialogue Conference,
  Harvard / Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics (2026)
- Board Member, Academic Philosophy Data and Analysis (APDA)
  Project (2025–28)
- Editorial Assistant, Faith and Philosophy,
  Society of Christian Philosophers (2022–26)
- APA Graduate Student Council Representative (2022–24)

## Online Profiles
- Website: https://agholdier.com
- CV: https://agholdier.com/cv
- Research: https://agholdier.com/research
- PhilPeople: https://philpeople.org/profiles/a-g-holdier
- ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4832-9687
- Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yGZnMaEAAAAJ
- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/agholdier.bsky.social
- Email: aholdier@nd.edu