A model of the mind which explains the role of emotions in normal cognition and affective disorder. Depression is recognised as one of the most burdensome diseases in Australia. Though we of course make no claims, as philosophers, to cure depression our contribution is to engage philosophy productively with a vital national area of empirical research. The other area of national benefit is to consolidate Australia's developing reputation as a site for the involvement of philosophy in interdiscipl ....A model of the mind which explains the role of emotions in normal cognition and affective disorder. Depression is recognised as one of the most burdensome diseases in Australia. Though we of course make no claims, as philosophers, to cure depression our contribution is to engage philosophy productively with a vital national area of empirical research. The other area of national benefit is to consolidate Australia's developing reputation as a site for the involvement of philosophy in interdisciplinary projects which link the humanities to the sciences. Furthermore, with the project's anchoring in the humanities, there is hope that a focus on, and increased understanding of, depression will have flow-on effects in the Australian community that will help ease the stigmatisation that is still felt by many of its sufferers.Read moreRead less
Foundations for a Cognitive Biology. Understanding cognition has important implications for individual and social wellbeing and thus for the nation's economic health. Until the many disciplines concerned with cognition can effectively integrate their disparate findings, public investment in cognitive research will not yield benefits to its potential. The project aims to produce a coherent model of cognition that will facilitate new cross-disciplinary approaches to research, thereby improving Aus ....Foundations for a Cognitive Biology. Understanding cognition has important implications for individual and social wellbeing and thus for the nation's economic health. Until the many disciplines concerned with cognition can effectively integrate their disparate findings, public investment in cognitive research will not yield benefits to its potential. The project aims to produce a coherent model of cognition that will facilitate new cross-disciplinary approaches to research, thereby improving Australia's means of promoting and maintaining healthy cognitive function and treating cognitive dysfunction.Read moreRead less
Philosophy and Cognitive Neuropsychiatry: Delusions as a case study for an integrative neurocomputational theory of rationality. A cognitive model relevant to evaluating the complementary roles of cognitive behavioural therapy and pharmacological intervention in treatment of psychiatric disorders.
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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Taste and community: the cultural origins of personal experience. This project explores how artistic value and meaning are attributed to artworks and how cultural artefacts and imaginative constructs may be seen to motivate ethical or socially oriented behaviour. It investigates this theme through an innovative new medium, involving a website and imagery, through which the expertise of philosophers and artists can be brought to bear on a social problem. Its outcomes will include new understandi ....Taste and community: the cultural origins of personal experience. This project explores how artistic value and meaning are attributed to artworks and how cultural artefacts and imaginative constructs may be seen to motivate ethical or socially oriented behaviour. It investigates this theme through an innovative new medium, involving a website and imagery, through which the expertise of philosophers and artists can be brought to bear on a social problem. Its outcomes will include new understanding of the process of perceiving meaning and value as a response to cultural artefacts.Read moreRead less
Philosophical perspectives on psychedelic psychiatry. This project aims to develop a multi-level integrated theory of self-representation and self-awareness that explains the effects of psychedelic therapy in particular, and transformative experience in general. Psychedelic drugs can produce lasting psychotherapeutic benefits. The mechanism is a dramatic but temporary alteration to the ordinary sense of self, known as “ego dissolution”. However, fundamental questions about self-representation an ....Philosophical perspectives on psychedelic psychiatry. This project aims to develop a multi-level integrated theory of self-representation and self-awareness that explains the effects of psychedelic therapy in particular, and transformative experience in general. Psychedelic drugs can produce lasting psychotherapeutic benefits. The mechanism is a dramatic but temporary alteration to the ordinary sense of self, known as “ego dissolution”. However, fundamental questions about self-representation and its neural and cognitive implementation remain unresolved. In order to explain ego dissolution and its therapeutic effects, this project aims to integrate two theoretical approaches to self-representation situated at the intersection of philosophy and cognitive neuroscience, the predictive coding theory of brain function and the self-binding theory of self-representation. Such a framework has potential to anchor further interdisciplinary research and practical intervention in disorders of the self.Read moreRead less