PhD in Philosophy and Bioethics
2021-08-01
2027-05-01
Saint Louis University
MA in Philosophy
Arizona State University
BA in Philosophy
University College London
My primary research is in bioethics, especially the moral structure of informed consent. I argue that the practices grouped under informed consent involve several distinct moral powers: consent changes permissions, while promises and related powers help explain the obligations generated by clinical and research relationships.
A developing strand of this work examines artificial intelligence in medicine. I use AI systems as philosophical test cases for separating capacities that are often treated as a package—for example, predictive accuracy from authority in surrogate decision-making, and therapeutic effectiveness from interpersonal recognition in psychotherapy.
I teach bioethics, ethics, and introductory philosophy in both in-person and asynchronous formats. My courses are designed to help students recognize philosophical questions in familiar practices, articulate disagreement precisely, and develop arguments through structured reflection, discussion, and revision.
Zhang de Re is a philosophy joke, and this site belongs to Alexander H. Zhang, the philosopher and bioethicist at Saint Louis University—not every Alex or Alexander Zhang on the internet.