About the Author

Mark T. Holcombe is an ethicist, educator, author, and instructional designer whose work focuses on applied moral reasoning, AI literacy, and evidence-based approaches to ethics education. His work examines how empirical research, moral psychology, and ethical theory can be brought together to help people reason more carefully about difficult moral problems.

Holcombe holds advanced degrees in Philosophy and Science Education. His academic background reflects the interdisciplinary character of his work, combining philosophical analysis with an emphasis on evidence, inquiry, learning, and the practical application of ideas. He has taught across middle school, high school, college, and professional learning environments, developing curricula and instructional materials designed to make complex concepts intellectually rigorous without making them inaccessible.

He is the author of Critical Moral Reasoning: An Applied Empirical Ethics Approach, a textbook that presents ethics as a trainable cognitive skill and method of reasoning rather than simply a survey of controversial issues or competing philosophical theories. The book uses real-world cases, empirical research, moral psychology, and normative ethical theory to teach students how to distinguish factual, axiological, and normative questions, identify conflicts among moral values, evaluate competing arguments, and construct defensible moral conclusions.

That approach also informs Holcombe’s work in instructional and curriculum design. He develops case-based learning modules, assessments, ethical-analysis frameworks, and professional learning materials that require learners to investigate evidence, make judgments, defend conclusions, and reconsider those conclusions when the facts or moral assumptions change. His work emphasizes inquiry and active reasoning rather than the passive presentation of information.

A significant part of Holcombe’s recent work examines generative artificial intelligence and its implications for education, human agency, and responsible decision-making. Rather than treating AI literacy primarily as a technical skill, he approaches it as a problem of judgment: determining what people should delegate to AI, what forms of thinking should remain cognitively demanding, how AI changes the conditions under which people learn, and what responsibilities educators and organizations retain when AI systems are introduced into consequential decisions.

His work on responsible technology is part of a broader interest in ethical governance. He develops frameworks for examining organizational decisions through empirical evidence, stakeholder interests, competing values, institutional responsibilities, and the foreseeable consequences of action and inaction. These methods are intended to apply not only to artificial intelligence, but to organizational governance more broadly.

Holcombe also writes and speaks about moral reasoning, education, emerging technologies, AI literacy, and the ethical responsibilities created by technological change. Across this work, his central concern remains consistent: helping people move beyond intuition, slogans, and abstract principles toward moral judgments that can be explained, examined, challenged, and defended.

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For inquiries related to speaking, ethics education, instructional or curriculum design, AI literacy, professional learning, review copies of Critical Moral Reasoning, or other professional collaborations, please use the contact form below.