Publications

My research has generated over seventy technical and scholarly publications. These are some of the key ones

Books

Insight to Heal

What does healing mean for Christians and others in an age of science? Human suffering demands that theology and science mutually inform each other in a shared understanding of nature, humanity, and paths to healing.

Publisher Website

Amazon

Mind Brain & the Elusive Soul

Does science argue against the existence of the human soul? I reinterpret the traditional doctrine of the soul as form of the body to frame contemporary scientific study of the human soul.

Publisher Website

Amazon

Designing XML Databases

When published in 2002, Designing XML Databases was the first single-author book on XML databases and the most comprehensive guide to XML-based database design for Web and enterprise environments.

Google Books

KEY PUBLICATIONS

Moral AI

Using moral theology and psychology to develop AI that can act morally

M Graves (2025). Gracing of Sociotechnical Virtues. Theology and Science. 23(3). (doi)
M Graves & J Compson (2024). Compassionate AI for Moral Decision-Making, Health, and Well-Being. Proceedings of AAAI/ACM Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics & Society. (pdf)
M Graves (2024). Modeling Morality and Spirituality in Artificial Chaplains. Computers in Human Behavior: Artificial Humans. 2(1). (open access)
M Graves (2024). Apprehending AI Moral Purpose in Practical Wisdom. AI & Society. 39:1335-1348 (springer share)
M Graves (2023). Embodied Experience in Socially Participatory Artificial Intelligence. Zygon. 58(4):928-951. (doi)
M Graves (2022). Theological Foundations for Moral Artificial Intelligence. Journal of Moral Theology. 11(Special Issue 1): 182-218. Special Issue on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. (open access)
M Graves (2021). Emergent Models for Moral AI Spirituality. International Journal of Interactive Multimedia and Artificial Intelligence – IJIMAI. 7(1): 7-15. Special Issue on AI, Spirituality, and Analogue Thinking. (open access)
M Graves (2017). Shared Moral and Spiritual Development Among Human Persons and Artificially Intelligent Agents. Theology and Science 15(3): 333-351. (doi)

Podcast-style audio summary of this research by NotebookLM, with a focus on Compassionate AI (October 2024): CompassionateAI (22:07)

Ethics

Data science ethics for healthcare

E Ratti and M Graves (2025). A Capability Approach to AI Ethics. American Philosophical Quarterly. 62(1):1–16. (open access)
M Graves and E Ratti (2025). A Capability Approach to Ethical Development and Internal Auditing of AI Technology. Journal of Responsible Technology. 22(June). Special issue on Coded Ethics: Decision-Making and the Responsible Development of Automated Digital Technologies. (open access)
E Ratti and M Graves (2022). Explainable Machine Learning Practices: Opening Another Black-Box for Reliable Medical AI. AI and Ethics. 2:801–814. (open access)
M Graves* and E Ratti* (2021). Microethics for Healthcare Data Science: Attention to Capabilities in Sociotechnical Systems. The Future of Science and Ethics. 6:64-73. (online)
E Ratti* and M Graves* (2021). Cultivating Moral Attention: A Virtue-oriented Approach to Responsible Data Science in Healthcare. Philosophy & Technology. 34(4): 1819-1846. (open access)

Commentary:

HJ Curzer, AC Epstein (2022). The Virtuous Data Scientist and the Ethics of Good Science.Philosophy & Technology 35:46. (doi)
M Graves* and E Ratti* (2022). Who Is a Good Data Scientist? A Reply to Curzer and Epstein. Philosophy & Technology 35:52 (open access)

* Authors contributed equally

Moral Psychology & NLP

Semantic text analysis for moral psychology

M Graves (2025). Modeling Exemplary Practical Wisdom and Discernment in Sociotechnical Communities. In Exemplars, Imitation, and Spiritual Formation: A Philosophical, Psychological, and Christian Inquiry. pp. 136-156. Routledge. (publisher website)
T Reilly, D Narvaez, M Graves, K Kaikhosroshvili, and S Israel de Souza (2022). Moral and Intellectual Virtues in Practices: Through the Eyes of Scientists and Musicians. Palgrave. (publisher website; Amazon)
M Graves, T Reilly, K Kaikhosroshvili, D Narvaez (2022). Moral and Intellectual Virtues: Computational Linguistic Analysis of Scientists and Musicians Accounts. In Moral and Intellectual Virtues in Practices: Through the Eyes of Scientists and Musicians, edited by T Reilly, D Narvaez, M Graves, K Kaikhosroshvili, and S Israel de Souz. Palgrave. (doi)
M Graves (2019). Semantic Analysis of Moral Values in Semi-Structured Interviews. In Virtue and the Practice of Science: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, edited by Celia Deane-Drummond, Thomas A. Stapleford, and Darcia Narvaez. Center for Theology, Science, and Human Flourishing, Notre Dame, Indiana. (ebook)

Philosophical Theology

Emergent human systems

M Graves (2023). An Introduction to Natural, Human, Philosophical & Theological Dualisms. In Views of Nature and Dualism in Philosophy, Theology, and Religion, edited by T.J. Hastings, K.-W. Sæther. Palgrave, (doi)
M Graves (2023). Interaction in Emergent Human Systems. Theology and Science. 21(2). (doi)
M Graves (2016). Places of Information Generation: Bridging Pannenberg’s Logos & Deacon’s Emerging Semiosis. Theology and Science 14(3): 305-324. (doi)
M Graves (2009). The Emergence of Transcendental Norms in Human Systems. Zygon 44(3). (doi)

Spirituality & Cognitive Science

M Graves (2018). Habits of Theological Reason in Spiritual Formation. Spiritus 18: 35-61. (pdf)
M Graves (2017). Grace and Virtue: Theological and Psychological Dispositions and Practices. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality 9(3): 303-308. (doi)
M Graves (2017). Habits, Tendencies, & Habitus: Dispositions of Mind, Body & Person. In Habits in Mind: Ethics, Religion, and the Science of Virtue, edited by GR Peterson, JA Van Slyke, ML Spezio, and KS Reimer. Brill. (doi)
M Graves (2014). Gracing Neuroscientific Tendencies of the Embodied Soul. Philosophy and Theology 26(1): 97-129. (doi)

Aesthetics & Nature

Psychological and philosophical approaches to studying nature, especially well-being and beauty in nature

M Graves (2023). Appraising Nature: Pan-experiential approach to nature's agency. In Issues in Science and Theology: Global Sustainability, Springer. pp. 137-147.
HS Løvoll, K-W Sæther, M Graves (2020). Feeling at Home in the Wilderness: Environmental Conditions, Well-Being, and Aesthetic Experience. Frontiers in Psychology. Research Topic on Environment, Art, and Museums: The Aesthetic Experience in Different Contexts. 11: 402. (open access)
M Graves, HS Løvoll, and K-W Sæther (2019). Friluftsliv: Aesthetic and psychological experience of wilderness adventure. In Issues in Science and Religion: Nature and Beyond: Transcendence and Immanence in Science and Religion, Springer. pp. 207-220. (doi)
A Garcia-Rivera, M Graves, C Neumann (2009). Beauty in the Living World. Zygon 44(2). (doi)

Genome Databases (Links to older webpage/site)

MORE INFORMATION

PhilPapers
Index of papers of interest to philosophers, with abstracts, categories, and links.

Google Scholar
List of my papers and books according to Google, with links and related articles.

ResearchGate
List of research articles, often with full text links or easiest way to request a copy from me.