Mark Fortney

Assistant Professor

photo for website

Teaching

Fall 2025
PHIL 2490
PHIL 3445/5445
CSCI 3101

Winter 2026
PHIL 2130
PHIL 2490
CSCI 3101

Office Hours


Email: mark.fortney@dal.ca
Research Topics:
  • Technology Ethics
  • Buddhist Philosophy
  • Philosophy of Mind

Education:

PhD in Philosophy (2017) University of Toronto

BA in Cognitive Science (2010) Carleton University听

Recent Presentations:

鈥淕enerative AI, De-skilling, and Our Right to Mental Integrity鈥.
Canadian Philosophical Association 鈥 2026 鈥 海角社区app University

鈥淲hat Makes Mental Integrity Possible? A Buddhist Perspective鈥.
Conference on Attention and the Virtues of Mind and Heart 鈥 2026 鈥 Princeton University.

Journal Articles:

2025. 鈥淏eyond the attention economy, towards an ecology of attending. A manifesto鈥. AI & Society. (With lead authors Tom Hannes and Gunther Bombaerts, as well as many other co-authors).

2025.听"The Attention Economy and the Right to Attention: Some Lessons from Therav膩da and Mah膩y膩na Thought".听Journal of Buddhist Ethics听32: 74-96.

2024. 鈥淟oving attention: Buddhaghosa, Katsuki Sekida, and Iris Murdoch on meditation and moral development鈥. Philosophy East and West 74(2): 212-232.

2022. 鈥淓vans on intellectual attention and memory demonstratives鈥.听 Analytic Philosophy, 63: 118-130.

2021. 鈥淏uddhaghosa, James, and Thompson on conscious flow鈥.听 Journal of the American Philosophical Association, 7(4), 569-581.

2020. 鈥淒irecting internal attention towards ongoing thought鈥. Consciousness and Cognition, 85.

2020. 鈥淯nity in the scientific study of intellectual attention鈥. Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 50(4): 444-459.

2020. 鈥淯niversal hinges and the bounds of sense鈥. Philosophia, 48: 967-979.

2019. 鈥淐onceptualizing intellectual attention鈥. Theory & Psychology, 29(6): 775-788.

2018. 鈥淭he centre and periphery of conscious thought鈥.听 Journal of Consciousness Studies, 25(3-4):112-136.

Public Writing:

2022.Simone Weil and Iris Murdoch on Insight and Attention鈥. Blog of the American Philosophical Association.