Mind, Soul,
& Human Nature
Brandon Rickabaugh, PhD, is a philosopher and author specializing in the philosophy of consciousness, the soul, faith and spiritual formation. As the founder of NOVUS, he directs projects exploring the intersection of AI applications, the soul, and human flourishing in contemporary life and culture.
Philosopher | Author | Speaker | Founder of NOVUS
What My
Work Is About
​I study consciousness, the soul, and human nature because they shape how we live, connect with each other and maintain a spiritual life; how we understand the conditions of ordinary life: attention, knowledge, responsibility, love, suffering, worship, hope, and what it means to have a good life.​
Many of our most urgent public debates-including debates about God, love, artificial intelligence, politics, and justice-are downstream from a deeper confusion about the human person. ​​
When a culture loses clarity about the person, body and soul, it loses clarity about everything built on top of it: education, politics, technology, institutions, even spiritual life.
.jpg)
Philosophy of Technology & Culture
​​​​Our public dialogue is often incapable of correcting this because it reduces us to behavior, preference, output, and data points.
My work tries to being that deeper question back into view, so the oldest philosophical questions can be put to the test in live again.
Technology is always applied philosophy.
Our public dialogue is often incapable of correcting this because it reduces us to behavior, preference, output, and data points.
My work brings deeper questions back into view, so we can grasp enough of reality to live as if it really means something.
My Work
in Two Forms
Recent Popular Essays
Recent Academic Peer Review Articles
NOVUS
RESEARCH · FORMATION · PUBLIC LIFE
NOVUS is nonprofit philosophy research and formation development center. Through NOVUS, I collaborate with scholars, leaders, tech designers, and artists to recover a deep understanding and application of the human soul, and to cultivate forms of life and leadership shaped by truth, wisdom, and spiritual depth.
What We Can't Ignore
The deeper questions have not disappeared. They've become harder to ignore.​​​​
1
The Human Person: Our Nature
What are we? What is the soul? How do we remain a unified self in a fragmented world?
2
The Internal Life: Mind, Emotion, Will
What is consciousness, knowledge, imagination, and the will? What is the role of trust and faith?
3
The Social Life: Purpose & Flourishing
What kind of life leads to wholeness, and how do our habits, technology—and the rise of AI—shape our selves and our society?