Formal approaches to legal reasoning. This project aims to use formal epistemology to improve understanding of existing legal practices and to propose recommendations for improving the consistency and accuracy of legal proceedings. Since judges and juries rarely know all the relevant facts, they must make the best decision possible in the face of uncertainty. Formal epistemology employs probabilistic reasoning to advance understanding of how to form beliefs and make decisions in response to unce ....Formal approaches to legal reasoning. This project aims to use formal epistemology to improve understanding of existing legal practices and to propose recommendations for improving the consistency and accuracy of legal proceedings. Since judges and juries rarely know all the relevant facts, they must make the best decision possible in the face of uncertainty. Formal epistemology employs probabilistic reasoning to advance understanding of how to form beliefs and make decisions in response to uncertain evidence. The project has potential to influence the relevant policy and will result in improved legal reasoning and risk reduction in legal decision making.Read moreRead less
Conferring dignity in law and health care. This project aims to develop a new and more inclusive philosophical conception of dignity. It expects to generate an alternative to the exclusionary view that dignity is inherent since not all human beings possess the relevant inherent traits. The project will develop a conception of dignity as something conferred, and expects to show that such dignity can and should be conferred on all human beings. The expected outcome is a new understanding of the im ....Conferring dignity in law and health care. This project aims to develop a new and more inclusive philosophical conception of dignity. It expects to generate an alternative to the exclusionary view that dignity is inherent since not all human beings possess the relevant inherent traits. The project will develop a conception of dignity as something conferred, and expects to show that such dignity can and should be conferred on all human beings. The expected outcome is a new understanding of the importance of dignity in human rights law and in health care services. The intended benefits are better appreciation of the role of dignity in human rights, and guidance for health and aged care services on how they can promote the dignity of all of their clients.Read moreRead less
Significances of 'childhood' in postcolonial Australia. This project aims to investigate the rhetorical and political use of the figure of the Aboriginal child as a site of mediation in efforts to reconcile cultural tensions in Australia, particularly between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. Utilising an interdisciplinary critical analysis of concepts of childhood, the expected outcomes of the project include enhanced understanding of the specific character of injury inflicted upon Abo ....Significances of 'childhood' in postcolonial Australia. This project aims to investigate the rhetorical and political use of the figure of the Aboriginal child as a site of mediation in efforts to reconcile cultural tensions in Australia, particularly between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. Utilising an interdisciplinary critical analysis of concepts of childhood, the expected outcomes of the project include enhanced understanding of the specific character of injury inflicted upon Aboriginal communities through interventions targeting their children, such as their removal into out of home care. This should provide significant benefits to the contemporary social project of reconciliation, through increasing critical attention to the part of cultural misunderstanding in perpetuating Aboriginal disadvantage.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE230101136
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$428,416.00
Summary
Understanding Philosophical Progress. This project aims to develop the first unified account of progress in science and philosophy, by extending the noetic account of scientific progress into an account of philosophical progress. According to this account, progress consists in increased understanding, i.e., in grasping how something depends on, or fails to depend on, something else. Developing a unified account will shed light on the nature of intellectual progress quite generally, as well subst ....Understanding Philosophical Progress. This project aims to develop the first unified account of progress in science and philosophy, by extending the noetic account of scientific progress into an account of philosophical progress. According to this account, progress consists in increased understanding, i.e., in grasping how something depends on, or fails to depend on, something else. Developing a unified account will shed light on the nature of intellectual progress quite generally, as well substantially advancing meta-philosophical debates about (i) the prevalence of philosophical progress; (ii) whether, and the ways in which, expert disagreement would undermine progress; and (iii) which philosophical methodologies promote progress.Read moreRead less
A life in time. This project aims to explore the connection between theories of time and timelessness in metaphysics and physics, and our lived experience as agents. The story of our lives is one that unfolds through time; ever changing and updating as we add to the store of memories through which we understand our past selves, and our store of intentions, through which we shape our future selves. Yet there is disagreement about the nature of time: about what time is and whether, in fact, it rea ....A life in time. This project aims to explore the connection between theories of time and timelessness in metaphysics and physics, and our lived experience as agents. The story of our lives is one that unfolds through time; ever changing and updating as we add to the store of memories through which we understand our past selves, and our store of intentions, through which we shape our future selves. Yet there is disagreement about the nature of time: about what time is and whether, in fact, it really exists at all. The project will look to determine what structure the temporal dimension must have if it is to support agents like us, and whether, if there is no temporal dimension, as some physicists suggest, we can make any sense of our lived experience.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220100387
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$352,000.00
Summary
Life without Birth: The Ethics, Politics, and Law of Artificial Wombs. This project aims to assess the morality of ectogenesis, the process of gestating a foetus in an artificial womb. Recent technological advances in non-human ectogenesis raise the question of whether it is desirable to pursue research in human ectogenesis. This project expects to generate new knowledge in social philosophy by inquiring into the value of natural gestation, the foundations of parenthood, and the interests of foe ....Life without Birth: The Ethics, Politics, and Law of Artificial Wombs. This project aims to assess the morality of ectogenesis, the process of gestating a foetus in an artificial womb. Recent technological advances in non-human ectogenesis raise the question of whether it is desirable to pursue research in human ectogenesis. This project expects to generate new knowledge in social philosophy by inquiring into the value of natural gestation, the foundations of parenthood, and the interests of foetuses during gestation. Expected outcomes of this project include an improved understanding of the costs, risks, and benefits of ectogenesis. This should provide significant benefits, such as resources for ethical decision-making in light of technologies aimed at radically reshaping the process of human creation. Read moreRead less
The invention of norms: how ethics, law, and the life sciences shape our social selves. This project aims to produce a new account of the emergence and role of the concept of norms. While norms have been the subject of significant academic attention, their history has never been recorded. This project aims to study the development of the conceptual vocabulary of norms, normality and normativity in the key areas of the life sciences, legal discourse, and ethics. Showing how these discourses link ....The invention of norms: how ethics, law, and the life sciences shape our social selves. This project aims to produce a new account of the emergence and role of the concept of norms. While norms have been the subject of significant academic attention, their history has never been recorded. This project aims to study the development of the conceptual vocabulary of norms, normality and normativity in the key areas of the life sciences, legal discourse, and ethics. Showing how these discourses link up to one another and to social institutions, it will produce new insights into the 'normalising' society. Its purpose is thus to understand how individuals and public policy can successfully navigate the proliferation of norms in various fields today, in a situation of increasing diversity of rules and cultural codes.Read moreRead less
Making Better Decisions: An Investigation of Time-Biases. The aim of this project is to empirically and normatively evaluate two kinds of time-biases.
Using an interdisciplinary approach, this project will empirically investigate near-bias and future-bias in a unified manner, and use this data to inform theorising about the rationality of time-biased preferences. The project will yield a rich account of the conditions under which we display time-biases and the likely mechanisms that underlie th ....Making Better Decisions: An Investigation of Time-Biases. The aim of this project is to empirically and normatively evaluate two kinds of time-biases.
Using an interdisciplinary approach, this project will empirically investigate near-bias and future-bias in a unified manner, and use this data to inform theorising about the rationality of time-biased preferences. The project will yield a rich account of the conditions under which we display time-biases and the likely mechanisms that underlie them.
This project will determine whether, and when, time-biased preferences lead to sub-optimal outcomes, and lay the groundwork for determining which strategies mitigate these biases, leading to better decisions and outcomes.Read moreRead less
Governing the knowledge commons. This project investigates a variety of collective action problems that confront communities that aim to produce knowledge and information, such as academic communities and the media. This project is expected to generate insights into the role of governance institutions in science, social media, and journalism, using techniques of agent-based modelling, economics, and philosophical analysis. Expected outcomes of the project include enhanced capacity to build epist ....Governing the knowledge commons. This project investigates a variety of collective action problems that confront communities that aim to produce knowledge and information, such as academic communities and the media. This project is expected to generate insights into the role of governance institutions in science, social media, and journalism, using techniques of agent-based modelling, economics, and philosophical analysis. Expected outcomes of the project include enhanced capacity to build epistemic networks to maximise the production and dissemination of knowledge, improved understanding of the role of knowledge networks in a just democratic society.Read moreRead less
Trust and Distrust in Social Epistemic Networks. This project aims to discover critically-needed understandings of the social causes and consequences of ‘fake news’. It will do this by investigating and mapping the relationship between ‘epistemic vices’ and people’s acceptance of misinformation and disinformation (e.g. conspiracy theories). It will bring together approaches from experimental philosophy, natural language processing, social network analysis, and normative reflection to provide new ....Trust and Distrust in Social Epistemic Networks. This project aims to discover critically-needed understandings of the social causes and consequences of ‘fake news’. It will do this by investigating and mapping the relationship between ‘epistemic vices’ and people’s acceptance of misinformation and disinformation (e.g. conspiracy theories). It will bring together approaches from experimental philosophy, natural language processing, social network analysis, and normative reflection to provide new insights regarding distrust and intellectual vice, thus significantly advancing knowledge of the ‘dark side’ of social epistemology. Results will lead to urgently required guidance regarding the features of social networks that exacerbate or buffer against the manifestation of these vices.Read moreRead less