#  Alison Simmons 

 



   ![Photo of Alison Simmons](/sites/g/files/omnuum4406/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2025-01/AI1PQsimmons.jpg?itok=HrguClQm) 

 

Photo credit: Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer## **Alison Simmons**

I am the Samuel H. Wolcott Professor of [Philosophy at Harvard University,](http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~phildept/) where I have taught since 1994. I received my Ph.D. in [Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania](https://philosophy.sas.upenn.edu/) in 1994. I was a grad student in Psychology for one year at Cornell University (1987-88). I received my B.A. in [Psychology at Bucknell University](https://www.bucknell.edu/academics/college-arts-sciences/academic-departments-programs/psychology) in 1987 as a first-gen college student.

My intellectual interests circle around the mind and our attempts to understand it, from antiquity to today. Questions I lose sleep over include: What makes something count as a mental phenomenon? What is consciousness? What’s the relationship between mind and body and between mind and world? Does unconscious mental life make any sense (and, if it does, what’s its relation to conscious mental life)? What’s the relationship between sensory experience and other mental activities? Do the senses show us what the world is really like or do we perceive it through a distinctive human lens (and if the latter, what follows from that)? Where is the line between subject and object (e.g., is your own body the subject or object of perception?) For details see my [Research Page](/research "Research") and [Teaching and Advising Page.](/teaching "Teaching and Advising")

In addition to my research and teaching, I am co-founder and faculty co-director of [Embedded EthiCS,](https://embeddedethics.seas.harvard.edu/) a pedagogical program that aims to help Computer Science students develop the habit of designing not only efficient but also socially responsible computing technology.