Closing the Future: New Foundations for the Physics of Possibility. The distinction between a fixed and an open future is deeply embedded in human thought, and also central to some of the most profound puzzles in contemporary physics. By revealing the human origins of out fundamental concepts of possibility in time, this project will enhance our understanding of one of the most basic features of our experience of the world, lay foundations for a new treatment of time and possibility in foundame ....Closing the Future: New Foundations for the Physics of Possibility. The distinction between a fixed and an open future is deeply embedded in human thought, and also central to some of the most profound puzzles in contemporary physics. By revealing the human origins of out fundamental concepts of possibility in time, this project will enhance our understanding of one of the most basic features of our experience of the world, lay foundations for a new treatment of time and possibility in foundamental physics, and throw important new light on the mysteries of the quantum world.Read moreRead less
Understanding phenomenal experience as a natural part of our world. The natural sciences?physics, chemistry and biology?provide compelling accounts of our world. They contain, however, no overt mention of mental states and in particular the mental states with a phenomenology: states like itches and colour experiences. The challenge for naturalists is locate these states within the naturalist picture. This project develops and draws on representationalist accounts of mind to explain how to locate ....Understanding phenomenal experience as a natural part of our world. The natural sciences?physics, chemistry and biology?provide compelling accounts of our world. They contain, however, no overt mention of mental states and in particular the mental states with a phenomenology: states like itches and colour experiences. The challenge for naturalists is locate these states within the naturalist picture. This project develops and draws on representationalist accounts of mind to explain how to locate mental states that have a phenomenology within the naturalist's picture. This will yield new perspectives on the mental lives of machines.Read moreRead less
Conscious Experience and the Hegemony of Representation. Many things make humans special but three stand out: the possession of a moral sense, rationality, and consciousness. This project aims to explain consciousness in a way fully comppatible with the aspirations of cognitive science to see humans as a natural part of the physical world.
Examining scientific, philosophical, and folk perspectives on time=. This project aims to consider three very different physical theories, each of which reconciles quantum mechanics and general and special relativity in a different way. While science is more accessible than ever, we are increasingly faced with a scientific world-view that is antithetical to the way we see the world and experience ourselves in it. This project will consider the tension between the scientific picture of the world ....Examining scientific, philosophical, and folk perspectives on time=. This project aims to consider three very different physical theories, each of which reconciles quantum mechanics and general and special relativity in a different way. While science is more accessible than ever, we are increasingly faced with a scientific world-view that is antithetical to the way we see the world and experience ourselves in it. This project will consider the tension between the scientific picture of the world and our experience of the world, and aims to reconcile the two by bridging the gap between lived experience and scientific findings. The project will provide a range of ways of bridging the tension between these physical theories with our lived experience.Read moreRead less
Concepts and Conceptual Change. Aim: To develop a new theory of conceptual change that explains how a concept can change considerably, while still remaining in a crucial sense the very same concept.
Significance: All areas of philosophy need to solve this problem so as to distinguish between real and merely verbal disputes. There is no adequate solution to this long standing problem.
Outcomes: A general solution to the problem, with applications to areas including ethics, philosophy of con ....Concepts and Conceptual Change. Aim: To develop a new theory of conceptual change that explains how a concept can change considerably, while still remaining in a crucial sense the very same concept.
Significance: All areas of philosophy need to solve this problem so as to distinguish between real and merely verbal disputes. There is no adequate solution to this long standing problem.
Outcomes: A general solution to the problem, with applications to areas including ethics, philosophy of consciousness, metaphysics and political theory.
Read moreRead less
The Structure of Spacetime. This project, is part of a career long program of Critical Scientific Realism, which asserts that the sciences are a valuable guide to the truth, but rejects a ?fundamentalist? attitude towards them as if they were self-interpreting.
This project will make major contributions to our understanding of:
The properties and relations constitutive of Spacetime
Minimal Convexity Theory
Quantum theory and absolute Simultaneity
Stephen Wolfram and Discrete Geomet ....The Structure of Spacetime. This project, is part of a career long program of Critical Scientific Realism, which asserts that the sciences are a valuable guide to the truth, but rejects a ?fundamentalist? attitude towards them as if they were self-interpreting.
This project will make major contributions to our understanding of:
The properties and relations constitutive of Spacetime
Minimal Convexity Theory
Quantum theory and absolute Simultaneity
Stephen Wolfram and Discrete Geometrodynamics
Ways of approximating the discrete by the continuous
The resulting advances in knowledge will be presented in journal articles and a book integrating my work on Space and Time.Read moreRead less
Belief singular versus beliefs plural. Research on the brain and how it represents the environment has the potential to reconfigure our ordinary conceptions of belief and rationality. This project explores the impact of the changes and their implications.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180100414
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$336,905.00
Summary
Timelessness in physics and philosophy. This project aims to offer a new approach to conceptualising the nature of time focussing on the gap between our everyday understanding of time, and the picture of time inherited from current physics. It is expected that the project will result in the generation of new knowledge that supports science communication, and strengthening research ties between the arts and science.
Causes that make a difference: A philosophical theory of token-causation. Discussions of causation in philosophy and other disciplines raise matters of practical concern: for example, about how to improve causal explanations in economics, how to devise better ways of testing causal hypotheses in medicine, and how to automate procedures for discovering causal relations in agriculture. By clarifying the structure of causal concepts, the project will help in the efforts to address these problems, a ....Causes that make a difference: A philosophical theory of token-causation. Discussions of causation in philosophy and other disciplines raise matters of practical concern: for example, about how to improve causal explanations in economics, how to devise better ways of testing causal hypotheses in medicine, and how to automate procedures for discovering causal relations in agriculture. By clarifying the structure of causal concepts, the project will help in the efforts to address these problems, and so contribute indirectly to the national benefits that will accrue from solving them. A central aim of the project is to train several PhD students, the next generation of researchers, in this important field of enquiry.Read moreRead less
Singular Causation: A Conceptual Analysis. The concept of causation plays a central role in structuring our experience of the world. Bu how is the concept of causation itself to be understood? This project aims to answer this question by advancing a novel theory to explain the content and structure of the concept. A book monograph outlining the new theory will be of interest not only to philosophers, but also to natural and social scientists concerned to understand the application of the concept ....Singular Causation: A Conceptual Analysis. The concept of causation plays a central role in structuring our experience of the world. Bu how is the concept of causation itself to be understood? This project aims to answer this question by advancing a novel theory to explain the content and structure of the concept. A book monograph outlining the new theory will be of interest not only to philosophers, but also to natural and social scientists concerned to understand the application of the concept in their disciplines, and to cognitive psychologists and artificial intelligence experts concerned to understand its role in human cognition.
Read moreRead less