Speakers Damon Horowitz: Philosopher, entrepreneur

Damon Horowitz

Damon Horowitz explores what is possible at the boundaries of technology and the humanities.

Why you should listen to him:

Damon Horowitz is a philosophy professor and serial entrepreneur. He recently joined Google as In-House Philosopher / Director of Engineering, heading development of several initiatives involving social and search. He came to Google from Aardvark, the social search engine, where he was co-founder and CTO, overseeing product development and research strategy. Prior to Aardvark, Horowitz built several companies around applications of intelligent language processing. He co-founded Perspecta (acquired by Excite), was lead architect for Novation Biosciences (acquired by Agilent), and co-founded NewsDB (now Daylife).

Horowitz teaches courses in philosophy, cognitive science, and computer science at several institutions, including Stanford, NYU, University of Pennsylvania and San Quentin State Prison.

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"Damon seems to have realized in reverse order that the horse belongs in front of the carriage -- that humanity should lead technology, not vice versa."
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Quotes by Damon Horowitz

  • “Can you tell me what wrong is? No, don’t just give me an example. I want to know about wrongness itself, the idea of wrong.”

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  • “Tony learns about the ontologically promiscuous, the epistemologically anxious, the ethically dubious, the metaphysically ridiculous.”

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  • “We are here for knowledge. Our enemy is thoughtlessness. This is philosophy.”

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  • “What are you going to teach me about right and wrong? I know what is wrong. I have done wrong. I am told every day, by every face I see, every wall I face, that I am wrong.” — quoting his student Tony, a San Quentin inmate

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  • “What makes something wrong? How do we know that it’s wrong? Maybe you and I disagree. Maybe one of us is wrong about the wrong.”

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  • “What Tony sees in that moment is the project of philosophy, the project that begins in wonder — what Kant called ‘admiration and awe at the starry sky above and the moral law within.’”

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