Community and identity in post-war European philosophy. This project will evaluate the political notions of community and identity in post-war European philosophy. Recent developments in international political relations have challenged accepted Western understandings of politics as the business of nation states. This project contends that there is much to be learnt in this regard from post-war European political philosophy. A notion of community has been developed that is irreducible to a polit ....Community and identity in post-war European philosophy. This project will evaluate the political notions of community and identity in post-war European philosophy. Recent developments in international political relations have challenged accepted Western understandings of politics as the business of nation states. This project contends that there is much to be learnt in this regard from post-war European political philosophy. A notion of community has been developed that is irreducible to a politics of identity and the anonymity of the global. In exploring this notion, the project aims to expand the intellectual instruments available to academic and public discussion in Australia.Read moreRead less
Digital Death and Immortality. This project will create a philosophically-informed ethical approach for managing the 'digital remains' of internet users who have died. Emerging artificial intelligence technologies make it possible to reuse and interact with these digital remains. This offers new ways of commemorating the dead and for managing grief. Yet these technologies also threaten to exploit the dead and to change our relationship to them in troubling ways. Expected outcomes of the project ....Digital Death and Immortality. This project will create a philosophically-informed ethical approach for managing the 'digital remains' of internet users who have died. Emerging artificial intelligence technologies make it possible to reuse and interact with these digital remains. This offers new ways of commemorating the dead and for managing grief. Yet these technologies also threaten to exploit the dead and to change our relationship to them in troubling ways. Expected outcomes of the project include guidance for the ethical use of these technologies and policy recommendations for regulating the reuse of digital remains. This will provide significant benefits by helping Australia to avoid the ethical dangers inherent in emerging technologies of 'digital reanimation.'Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120100300
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
The politicised child in postcolonial community: a political ontology of childhood and memory examined through cases in Australia and Canada. The project investigates the meaning and use of childhood in recent political and social movements, such as the 'Stolen Generations' in Australia and sterilised children in Canada. This research will contribute to current debates about the need for reconciliation, and to Australia's international profile in the field of political philosophy.
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
Persuasive Force: The Role of Aesthetic Experience in Moral Persuasion. This project will make a significant contribution to the pressing contemporary topic of moral motivation. Because of its innovative approach to the problem of moral motivation this proposal will have an international impact on debates over moral conduct and raise the international profile of Australia in this field. In addition to its academic benefits for research training and our national research reputation, this proposal ....Persuasive Force: The Role of Aesthetic Experience in Moral Persuasion. This project will make a significant contribution to the pressing contemporary topic of moral motivation. Because of its innovative approach to the problem of moral motivation this proposal will have an international impact on debates over moral conduct and raise the international profile of Australia in this field. In addition to its academic benefits for research training and our national research reputation, this proposal has implications for the way social policy is devised. In particular, the reconsideration of the sources of moral action proposed here has important implications for understanding the dynamics involved in religious fundamentalism and political violence.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220100329
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$416,000.00
Summary
No place like home? A phenomenology of racialised non-belonging. Racism is a persistent problem in Australian society, yet its existential effects remain inadequately understood. This project aims to develop a new understanding of racism’s deep impact on one’s sense of self, and sense of place. The project seeks to use the emerging framework of critical phenomenology to illuminate different experiences of racialised non-belonging. Expected outcomes include an improved understanding of the ontolo ....No place like home? A phenomenology of racialised non-belonging. Racism is a persistent problem in Australian society, yet its existential effects remain inadequately understood. This project aims to develop a new understanding of racism’s deep impact on one’s sense of self, and sense of place. The project seeks to use the emerging framework of critical phenomenology to illuminate different experiences of racialised non-belonging. Expected outcomes include an improved understanding of the ontological significance of feeling not at home in one’s environs, or in one’s own body. This expanded understanding will provide significant benefits by helping to motivate and guide more robust models of anti-racism in public life, leading to a more racially just society.Read moreRead less
Cinematic Ethics: Exploring Ethical Experience through Film. This project develops a new interdisciplinary framework for understanding cinema’s unique power to evoke ethical experience via audiovisual means. Combining philosophy with film analysis, it moves beyond the prevalent view that cinema merely illustrates moral situations, and challenges the long-held suspicion toward film’s manipulative aesthetic power. This project proposes instead a model of cinematic ethics: an investigation of how c ....Cinematic Ethics: Exploring Ethical Experience through Film. This project develops a new interdisciplinary framework for understanding cinema’s unique power to evoke ethical experience via audiovisual means. Combining philosophy with film analysis, it moves beyond the prevalent view that cinema merely illustrates moral situations, and challenges the long-held suspicion toward film’s manipulative aesthetic power. This project proposes instead a model of cinematic ethics: an investigation of how cinema evokes ethical experience through emotional, cognitive, and aesthetic engagement. This project will advance the emerging interdisciplinary field of film-philosophy by highlighting film’s under-recognised potential to enhance ethical understanding, and thus to promote greater social awareness and intercultural communication.Read moreRead less
Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism. This project aims to develop a new approach to understanding the purpose and power of social contracts: implicit agreements among members of a society to cooperate for mutual benefit. Australia’s post-war prosperity has relied on a robust social contract, but it is under increasing strain today from new technological, environmental and socio-political realities. Using techniques from philosophy and social theory, this project seeks t ....Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism. This project aims to develop a new approach to understanding the purpose and power of social contracts: implicit agreements among members of a society to cooperate for mutual benefit. Australia’s post-war prosperity has relied on a robust social contract, but it is under increasing strain today from new technological, environmental and socio-political realities. Using techniques from philosophy and social theory, this project seeks to examine the main pressures on the social contract today, and to propose how it can be reinforced. Intended benefits include strengthening social cohesion through better understanding the causes of reduced wellbeing, social fragmentation and unrest, and through proposing ways to mitigate their costly effects.Read moreRead less
Digital Technologies, Mediated Futures: Envisioning Culture in Arnhem Land. This research offers an exciting new way to understand how Aboriginal people are envisioning, and working towards, a culturally viable future for themselves and their children. Digital media technologies allow Yolngu elders to connect with current and future generations in new, but nevertheless, culturally appropriate ways. They allow them to work innovatively to strengthen the social fabric of communities in crisis. ....Digital Technologies, Mediated Futures: Envisioning Culture in Arnhem Land. This research offers an exciting new way to understand how Aboriginal people are envisioning, and working towards, a culturally viable future for themselves and their children. Digital media technologies allow Yolngu elders to connect with current and future generations in new, but nevertheless, culturally appropriate ways. They allow them to work innovatively to strengthen the social fabric of communities in crisis. For mainstream Australian society, this project represents an important opportunity for to learn directly from, and about, indigenous cultures. It offers a significant opportunity to take up the ethical and imaginative challenges of seeing the world from indigenous perspectives. Read moreRead less
Improving decision-making processes in complex environments. This project will develop a new approach to understanding the factors involved in complex decision making. It will investigate the processes and mechanisms that individuals use to make decisions in complex environments. This project will also show that one way individuals deal with the problem of complexity is to frame their experiences aesthetically.