creators
Sway was built by two philosophers who spent their research careers on the same question from different sides: how people reason, and what makes them reason better together. About is the story of the platform; this is the two people behind it.
co-founder · president
Simon Cullen, Ph.D.
Simon is co-founder and President of Disagree Wisely. He developed the award-winning Dangerous Ideas in Science and Society at Carnegie Mellon, a course that helps students explore diverse viewpoints on polarizing topics by teaching them the art of constructive disagreement. Sway is that course's approach, built so that instructors anywhere can give their students the same experience whatever their resources.
His research combines philosophy, cognitive science and educational technology to improve reasoning and communication across moral and political divides.
- also
- Faculty Research Fellow at Heterodox Academy's Segal Center for Academic Pluralism, New York City. Visiting Research Professor of Civil Discourse and Artificial Intelligence in the School of Civic Life and Leadership, UNC Chapel Hill.
- field
- Psychology of reasoning, reasoning pedagogy, philosophy of cognitive science.
- published in
- Science Advances · Nature Science of Learning · Cognition · Review of Philosophy and Psychology
- holds
- Ph.D., Princeton University
- online
- simoncullen.org
co-founder · cto & coo
Nicholas DiBella, Ph.D.
Nicholas is co-founder and Chief Technology and Operations Officer of Disagree Wisely, and an AI Research Scientist at Heterodox Academy. He works on methods for improving reasoning and communication in contexts involving uncertainty — which is most of the contexts a disagreement happens in.
He combines philosophy, cognitive science and artificial intelligence to improve decision-making and support constructive dialogue across diverse perspectives.
- formerly
- Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Philosophy, Carnegie Mellon University. Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Bilkent University.
- field
- Epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of probability.
- published in
- The Philosophical Review · Philosophy of Science · Synthese
- holds
- B.S. in Physics, MIT · Ph.D. in Philosophy, Stanford University
- online
- nicholasdibella.com
who runs Sway
Sway is operated by Disagree Wisely and developed with Heterodox Academy. It is funded by grants rather than by fees, which is why it is free for students and for college courses. Get in touch to use it in yours.