Reasons and Rationality. The project explains how we assess the truth and falsehood of everyday claims about what people have reason to do. It also explains what legitimizes our practice of praising and blaming people for their success and failure at doing what we think they have reason to do. In so doing it provides a foundation for both our ordinary practice of holding people responsible, and for the more institutionalised counterpart of this ordinary practice in the law.
The Epistemology of Colour Vision. This project will advance knowledge on the important traditional philosophical topic of colour and colour perception by drawing both on philosophical and scientific sources. The problem of colour is one to which Australian philosophy has made seminal contribution. For this reason, this project will continue to develop an Australian expertise in the area and help to make Australia a world centre of research in the area.
The Analog Mind: Connectionism, Consciousness and Mental Representation. The aim of our project is to explore novel conjectures about the way information is coded and processed in the brain, and the manner in which the brain manufactures consciousness. This work may eventually pay rich dividends by reducing the incidence of mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, that disturb conscious experience. It may also lead to the development of more powerful forms of computation in artificial neural ne ....The Analog Mind: Connectionism, Consciousness and Mental Representation. The aim of our project is to explore novel conjectures about the way information is coded and processed in the brain, and the manner in which the brain manufactures consciousness. This work may eventually pay rich dividends by reducing the incidence of mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, that disturb conscious experience. It may also lead to the development of more powerful forms of computation in artificial neural networks. This will have a significant impact on the artificial intelligence industry, with obvious economic benefits for Australia.
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Minds in skilled performance: Explanatory framework and comparative study. This project aims to develop an explanatory framework to characterise states of mind necessary for skilled performance, and show how intelligence and emotion affect performance. The theoretical grounding of skilled performance is controversial. This project will use and refine core ideas from enactivist approaches to embodied cognition to address philosophical challenges that block understanding of its basis. The project ....Minds in skilled performance: Explanatory framework and comparative study. This project aims to develop an explanatory framework to characterise states of mind necessary for skilled performance, and show how intelligence and emotion affect performance. The theoretical grounding of skilled performance is controversial. This project will use and refine core ideas from enactivist approaches to embodied cognition to address philosophical challenges that block understanding of its basis. The project will draw on Phenomenology, Pragmatism and Japanese "do". clarifying and recontextualising what they have to offer to contemporary thinking about skilled performance.Read moreRead less
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0354503
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$10,000.00
Summary
The Self and its Disorders: Humanistic, Psychiatric, and Neural Perspectives. Mental disorder fragments the self, distorts its development in adolescence, and obliterates it in old age. Because no one discipline can adequately understand the self and its pathologies, this Initiative aims to bring together researchers from the humanities and the sciences of the mind to investigate what mental disorder can reveal about the nature of the self, and what humanistic approaches to the self can contribu ....The Self and its Disorders: Humanistic, Psychiatric, and Neural Perspectives. Mental disorder fragments the self, distorts its development in adolescence, and obliterates it in old age. Because no one discipline can adequately understand the self and its pathologies, this Initiative aims to bring together researchers from the humanities and the sciences of the mind to investigate what mental disorder can reveal about the nature of the self, and what humanistic approaches to the self can contribute to its scientific study. A better understanding of diminished selfhood in mental disorder will lead to improvements in social policy and thereby to social and financial benefits for the community at large.Read moreRead less
Measuring the Mind: A Framework for Building a Consciousness Meter . This project aims to develop a new framework for measuring consciousness. The lack of well-validated measures of consciousness is at the root of a methodological crisis in the science of consciousness. Drawing on work in the philosophy of science and mind, the project plans to investigate whether consciousness can be measured in the way that other natural properties can be measured. The results of this project may inform guidel ....Measuring the Mind: A Framework for Building a Consciousness Meter . This project aims to develop a new framework for measuring consciousness. The lack of well-validated measures of consciousness is at the root of a methodological crisis in the science of consciousness. Drawing on work in the philosophy of science and mind, the project plans to investigate whether consciousness can be measured in the way that other natural properties can be measured. The results of this project may inform guidelines for the objective assessment of consciousness in the context of post-coma brain injury, anaesthesia, epileptic absence seizures, infancy and non-human animals.Read moreRead less
The Formation and Development of Chinese Philosophy as an Academic Discipline in Twentieth Century China. It is in Australia's national interest to pay close attention to the orientation of intellectual and political currents in China and to how these currents are increasingly merging and interacting. This project will enhance our capacity to interpret and engage with our regional environment by contributing to a clearer understanding of the changing relationship between Chinese intellectual tra ....The Formation and Development of Chinese Philosophy as an Academic Discipline in Twentieth Century China. It is in Australia's national interest to pay close attention to the orientation of intellectual and political currents in China and to how these currents are increasingly merging and interacting. This project will enhance our capacity to interpret and engage with our regional environment by contributing to a clearer understanding of the changing relationship between Chinese intellectual traditions and cultural identity. A commitment to understanding what Chinese philosophy means to China's educated elite also demonstrates a willingness to foster dialogue and communication that is sensitive to the intellectual and cultural traditions which are a source of pride and identity for several of our major regional partners. Read moreRead less
A Computational Solution to the Problem of Reference. This project will attack the core problem of philosophy of language by developing and applying tools from the theory of algorithmic complexity. Groundbreaking pure research at the intersection of logic, language, information and computation is the lifeblood of commercial research and development in information technology and telecommunications. The project will foster a cross-fertilisation of ideas between philosophy, computer science, math ....A Computational Solution to the Problem of Reference. This project will attack the core problem of philosophy of language by developing and applying tools from the theory of algorithmic complexity. Groundbreaking pure research at the intersection of logic, language, information and computation is the lifeblood of commercial research and development in information technology and telecommunications. The project will foster a cross-fertilisation of ideas between philosophy, computer science, mathematics, linguistics and psychology, and will provide students with skills and analytic techniques that will be valuable in future pure and applied research.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170101254
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$363,645.00
Summary
Wandering minds in sleep and wakefulness: Attention, consciousness, self. This project aims to develop a theory of mind wandering. A large portion of our conscious lives is spent mind wandering: attention periodically drifts away from current tasks, often without our noticing. This challenges the assumption that healthy adults are normally aware of and able to control their thought processes. This project will use cognitive neuroscience, sleep and dream research and philosophy of mind to develop ....Wandering minds in sleep and wakefulness: Attention, consciousness, self. This project aims to develop a theory of mind wandering. A large portion of our conscious lives is spent mind wandering: attention periodically drifts away from current tasks, often without our noticing. This challenges the assumption that healthy adults are normally aware of and able to control their thought processes. This project will use cognitive neuroscience, sleep and dream research and philosophy of mind to develop a theory of mind wandering across the sleep-wake cycle and an interdisciplinary methodology for its investigation. The anticipated outcome is understanding of spontaneous thought and its relationship to attention, consciousness and the self. This potentially throws new light on important issues relating to mental health and sleep disorders.Read moreRead less
A Philosophical Investigation into Conditions of Conceptual Creativity. Australia as a young and striving society depends heavily on innovation and the integration of creative forces. Yet creativity can only be understood through a close analysis of its conditions. This philosophical project can contribute directly by investigating paradigm cases of successful groupings of individuals around specific clusters of related problems. It aims at exploring the nature of such structures and conditions ....A Philosophical Investigation into Conditions of Conceptual Creativity. Australia as a young and striving society depends heavily on innovation and the integration of creative forces. Yet creativity can only be understood through a close analysis of its conditions. This philosophical project can contribute directly by investigating paradigm cases of successful groupings of individuals around specific clusters of related problems. It aims at exploring the nature of such structures and conditions that determine the emergence and flourishing of conceptual creativity. Understanding the nexus between creativity, innovation and these groupings is of central importance to the promotion and maintenance of modern societies. It is central to the dynamics of societal processes and enhances creative responses in the realm of e. g. conflict solving.Read moreRead less