Keith Begley

My philosophical research is in the following areas: philosophy of computer science and AI; philosophy of technology, including metaphysics of computation and virtual reality; the philosophy of language and linguistics, in particular the philosophy of Jerrold J. Katz; computational philology, applying computer programs to parse ancient texts; the ancient philosophy of Heraclitus, in particular the notion that his philosophy was motivated by his reaction to a naïve paratactic metaphysics; and history of analytic philosophy, in particular the early Wittgenstein. I am editor of four subcategories for PhilPapers: 'Explainability in AI' and 'Interpretability in AI' subcategories of 'Ethics of AI', and 'Pre-Socratic Philosophy' and 'Heraclitus'.

I am currently undertaking a second doctorate at the School of Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College Dublin, on the topic of designing generative AI coding assistants for learning programming.

I hold an M.A. (Dubl.) and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin (2016). I also hold a H.Dip. (2021) and an M.Sc. (2022) in computer science from University College Dublin, The National University of Ireland, Dublin. I have held positions as Senior Postdoctoral Researcher in the School of Law and Criminology, Maynooth University (2025); Teaching Fellow in Philosophy at Durham University (2023/24); Assistant Lecturer in Philosophy at Maynooth University (2022/23); Demonstrator in Computer Science at UCD (2021/22); Adjunct Assistant Professor of Philosophy at TCD (2017–2020); Research Assistant for the MAMMI study, School of Nursing and Midwifery, TCD (2015–17); and Teaching Assistant in Philosophy at TCD (2011–17) .