I am a postdoctoral researcher in Ethics of AI and Philosophy of Cognitive Science at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) München in the interdisciplinary research institute Munich Interactive Intelligence Initiative (MI3), member of the lab Cognition, Values, and Behaviour (CVBE).

I completed my PhD in the Philosophy of Cognitive Science at the University of Edinburgh (2022) under the supervision of Prof. Tillmann Vierkant and Dr. Dave Ward. For my PhD thesis, I developed an embodied cybernetic theory of metacognition, which you can read about here. In Aug 2022, I was examined by Prof. Andy Clark and Dr. Alistair Issac, passing the PhD viva voce without corrections (summa cum laude). I finished my MA (Research) and BA (Hons) at the Centrum für Integrative Neurowissenschaften (CIN) at Universität Tübingen under the supervision of Prof. Hong Yu Wong. Both my MA and my BA thesis were on the role of metacognition in language acquisition and comprehension. I also hold an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Keiser University in Florida, and I worked for many years in IT, most notably for Intel Corporation in Oregon.

My research focuses on both philosophical and scientific problems surrounding self-knowledge and metacognition, as well as the possibility of technology exerting an influence on metacognitive capacities, whether either by ethically enhancing them or unethically hijacking them. Sometimes this research involves conducting social science experiments to probe intuitions about trust in technology. I have published on ethical AI, metacognition, embodiment, the phenomenology of reasoning, theories of perception, the foundations of epistemic agency, as well as some vulnerabilities this agency faces in the digital age.  Currently, I am working on a two-year project examining trust in human-AI interactions, funded by the Bayerisches Forschungsinstitut für Digitale Transformation.   

I am an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and I teach and have taught a variety of courses in philosophy in Germany and in the UK, including metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, mind and cognition, logic, ethics, ethics in medicine, and ethics in AI. While completing my PhD, I was nominated three years consecutively for Teacher of the Year by the Edinburgh University Students' Association, and I was even short-listed for the award in 2021, named, out of over 2,300 teachers, one of the best three teachers university-wide.

If you are one of my students and looking for information about a course of mine you are currently taking, see Current Courses.

I enjoy writing poetry and prose in both the German and the English language. You can find excerpts of some of my published creative writing here.

You can download my CV here, and you can email me at john.dorsch@lmu.de

My pronouns in English: He/Him, They/Them.
Meine Pronomen im Deutschen: er/ihm, xier/xiem.