Jonathon VandenHombergh, PhD
jjacobvandenhombergh@gmail.com
View my full CV here.
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About Me
I am a postdoctoral fellow with the Clinical Center Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health. Before that, I received my PhD in philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, my MA in philosophy at the University of Houston, and my BS in psychology and philosophy at Aquinas College.
My research is about the human subject and its place in an increasingly complex world. On the "theoretical" side, this amounts to research on consciousness, perception, and other topics in the philosophy of mind. On the "practical" side, it amounts to research on euthanasia, AI therapy, and other topics in bioethics. I also have side interests in metaphysics.
For methodological reasons (which I can't explain here), I like to defend weird philosophical claims. Here are some of them:
It's safer to believe in controversial theories of consciousness (2017, 2020).
External objects get perceived by literally growing into our heads (2025).
You can't choose euthanasia for your own reasons (2025, 2026).
The friendlier AI becomes, the less we can use it for friendship (revise and resubmit).
Sticks and stones are made of things like the number three (my dissertation).
There is something rather than nothing because of something else--namely, nothing (in progress).
I also enjoy teaching and clinical ethics consultation. I have almost ten years of teaching and grading experience, across a variety of formats, class sizes, and locations. I am especially passionate about teaching logic and ethics, which I consider essential to good civic engagement. I have experience as an on-call ethics consultant at the NIH, and in a shadowing capacity at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C.
Publications
Forthcoming, w/ Scott Kim, "Assisted Dying in Unjust Conditions," Journal of Bioethical Inquiry.
2026, "A Reply to Reed on My 'Expressivist Concerns for Assisted Dying on Request'," Journal of Medical Ethics: 1-2.
2025, "Expressivist Concerns for Assisted Dying on Request," Journal of Medical Ethics: 1-5.
2025, "Hallucination as Perceptual Synecdoche," The Australasian Journal of Philosophy: 1-16.
2020, "Consciousness, Conceivability, and Intrinsic Reduction," Erkenntnis 85: 1129–51.
2017, "Inconceivable Physicalism," Analysis 77(1): 116-25.
Under Review
[Redacted while under review], revise and resubmit, AI and Ethics
In Progress
A book chapter on the use of algorithms for surrogate decision-making (w/ Annette Rid and Dave Wendler; bioethics)
A paper on how algorithms for surrogate decision-making are limited by considerations of self-authorship (w/ Dave Wendler; bioethics)
A paper on metaphysical arbitrariness--what it is and why it sometimes warrants the rejection of a hypothesis (metaphysics)
A paper on the use of types in solving the problem of the many (metaphysics)
A paper on the morality of using large language models for clinical ethics consultation (bioethics)
A paper on the role of vagueness in conceivability arguments against physicalism (philosophy of mind)
A paper on nihilistic answers to the question of why there is something rather than nothing (metaphysics)
Commentaries on My Work
Reed, Philip, forthcoming, "Autonomy-centred assisted death laws still avoid expressivism," Journal of Medical Ethics https://doi.org/10.1136/jme-2025-111434.
Marton, Peter, 2023, "Conceivability, Kripkean Identity, and S5: a Reply to Jonathon VandenHombergh," Erkenntnis https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-023-00759-3.
My Dissertation
2024, The One is the Type of the Many, University of Wisconsin-Madison, advised by Farid Masrour, Alan Sidelle, and Bruno Whittle.
Conference Presentations
2023, "The Inner Part of Chaotic Hallucination," Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Louisville, USA. Download PowerPoint here.
2018, "Conceptual Sieves," New Mexico Texas Philosophical Society, Houston, USA. Download PowerPoint here.
2017, "Conceptual Sieves," Third International Conference on Philosophy of Mind, Braga, Portugal. PowerPoint available upon request.
2016, "Phenomenal Concepts and the Disjunction Problem," Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology. PowerPoint available upon request.
2015, "The Logic of Quantified Two-Dimensional Conceivability Arguments," Masterclass Conference with David Chalmers, Stockholm, Sweden. PowerPoint available upon request.
Courses Taught
2023, Introduction to Ethics. Download syllabus and sample of groupwork assignment here.
2022, Introduction to Philosophy. Download syllabus and sample of paper prompts here.
2018-2023, Contemporary Moral Issues. Syllabus available upon request.
2018, Formal Logic. Syllabus available upon request.
Lecture Samples
2023, "Chapter 11: The Kantian Perspective: Fairness and Justice," on chapter 11 of Russ Shafer-Landau's Fundamentals of Ethics, for an online asynchronous introduction to ethics course. Download video here.
2022, "Weeks 1-2: Introduction," on the Introduction to Nigel Warburton's Philosophy: the Basics, for an introduction to philosophy course. Download PowerPoint here.
2018, "Week 3: the Syntax of Propositional Logic; Semantics and Truth Tables," on parts II and III of P.D. Magnus et. al.'s for all x: Calgary, an Introduction to Formal Logic, for a course in formal logic. Download PowerPoint here.
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