Qualitative models of rationality: Philosophical foundations and applications. This project aims to establish the qualitative approach to rationality as a viable and attractive choice. Mathematical models of rationality, which aim to formalise the rules of good reasoning and decision making, traditionally assume that beliefs and desires are always given in precise, quantifiable degrees of confidence and value. This assumption is implausibly strong, and alternative, qualitative frameworks have be ....Qualitative models of rationality: Philosophical foundations and applications. This project aims to establish the qualitative approach to rationality as a viable and attractive choice. Mathematical models of rationality, which aim to formalise the rules of good reasoning and decision making, traditionally assume that beliefs and desires are always given in precise, quantifiable degrees of confidence and value. This assumption is implausibly strong, and alternative, qualitative frameworks have been developed to handle the frequent situations in which it fails. These, however, remain incomplete and their foundations poorly understood. The project will address their omissions, secure their conceptual underpinnings and use them to clarify and resolve long-standing philosophical problems.Read moreRead less
Trust in a social and digital world. This project aims to provide a systematic and empirically-informed account of the way networks facilitate or hinder knowledge. Distinguishing on-line information from disinformation can be difficult. This task can be greatly assisted by networks of trusted peers, but figuring out who to trust is itself a challenge. Identifying, designing, and facilitating networks of trust is therefore an urgent task. By using the tools of social epistemology, virtue epistemo ....Trust in a social and digital world. This project aims to provide a systematic and empirically-informed account of the way networks facilitate or hinder knowledge. Distinguishing on-line information from disinformation can be difficult. This task can be greatly assisted by networks of trusted peers, but figuring out who to trust is itself a challenge. Identifying, designing, and facilitating networks of trust is therefore an urgent task. By using the tools of social epistemology, virtue epistemology, and network science, this project will identify how individuals should distribute their trust when embedded in epistemically hostile environments.Read moreRead less
The Language of Knowledge. Knowledge is central to our lives. The way we attribute knowledge to others governs whom we trust, how we reason, what we do, and whether we succeed. The significance of this project consists in a deeper understanding of our attributions of knowledge, situated within the context of questions. This project offers the benefits of quality foundational research in an interdisciplinary venue. It connects to a range of areas of National Research Priority including An Environ ....The Language of Knowledge. Knowledge is central to our lives. The way we attribute knowledge to others governs whom we trust, how we reason, what we do, and whether we succeed. The significance of this project consists in a deeper understanding of our attributions of knowledge, situated within the context of questions. This project offers the benefits of quality foundational research in an interdisciplinary venue. It connects to a range of areas of National Research Priority including An Environmentally Sustainable Australia, Promoting and Managing Good Health, and Frontier Technologies for Building and Transforming Australian Industries, insofar as all of these areas of National Research Priority are concerned with the acquisition and transfer of knowledge.Read moreRead less
Embodied Virtues and Expertise. The Project will provide a theoretical framework for understanding expertise. Crucially, the framework will provide an account that explains the motivation of experts, and allows for the virtues of experts to be analysed and promoted. The framework will thus fill a perceived gap in professional pedagogical disciplines such as Education, Nursing Education, and Medicine, in which the concept of expertise is central, but for which an adequate theoretical framework of ....Embodied Virtues and Expertise. The Project will provide a theoretical framework for understanding expertise. Crucially, the framework will provide an account that explains the motivation of experts, and allows for the virtues of experts to be analysed and promoted. The framework will thus fill a perceived gap in professional pedagogical disciplines such as Education, Nursing Education, and Medicine, in which the concept of expertise is central, but for which an adequate theoretical framework of expertise is lacking. Academics and practitioners from these disciplines will participate in conferences and workshops run under the Project.Read moreRead less
Philosophical progress. Understanding the nature and possibility of progress in philosophy will shed light not only on philosophy as a funded research discipline within the university system in Australia, but also on the nature of research within the humanities and social sciences more generally.
The truth about false memory. This project is aimed at determining whether reports of long-forgotten episodes of sexual abuse arising during psychotherapy should be regarded as memories or not. This issue hinges on a number of conceptual questions about memory. The project will illuminate the debate on recovered memories of sexual abuse by addressing those questions.
Knowledge of consciousness. This project explores and defends a new philosophical perspective on introspective knowledge and charts its connection to larger issues of human rationality and consciousness.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120102055
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Agent tracking and its disorders: a theory of the cognitive mechanisms, errors, and ethics involved in the identification of human individuals. This project will develop and test a multidisciplinary theory of the means used by people and social institutions to gather information about human individuals. Its expected outcome is a better understanding of the successes and errors in tracking and identifying individuals and of the ethical issues related to such processes of identification.
Enlightened judgment: reflection and cognitive virtue in Kant's critical philosophy. This project aims to explain our cognitive practices: what is sound judgment and how does it depend on the ability to be critical about our concepts? What is intellectual creativity, and what makes it possible? The answers are provided through a new interpretation of the philosophical ideal of enlightenment, with special attention to the work of Kant.
Idealism, Pragmatism, and the Historical Norms of Rationality. This project engages critically with the remarkable "normative pragmatics" of Robert Brandom, essentially the first analytic philosopher in a century to defend Hegel's "logic" from a modern logical perspective. It develops Brandom's suggested "inferentialist" interpretation of Hegel, but shows how a presupposition distorts both Brandom's reading of Hegel and his substantive account of the norms of reason. A corrective is developed on ....Idealism, Pragmatism, and the Historical Norms of Rationality. This project engages critically with the remarkable "normative pragmatics" of Robert Brandom, essentially the first analytic philosopher in a century to defend Hegel's "logic" from a modern logical perspective. It develops Brandom's suggested "inferentialist" interpretation of Hegel, but shows how a presupposition distorts both Brandom's reading of Hegel and his substantive account of the norms of reason. A corrective is developed on the basis of the later work of Brandom's mentor, Wilfrid Sellars. The corrected account shows how the norms of thought need not be eternal to be rational, but rather, are rational because of the way they are historical.Read moreRead less