Moral Responsibility and Cognitive Science: Agency, Empathy and Theory of Mind. Moral responsibility has two components: being responsible for one's actions (moral agency), and holding others responsible for their actions (moral ascription). The aim of this project is to develop empirically informed and philosophically sophisticated models of moral agency and moral ascription. We will do this by drawing on recent research on agency and moral cognition within cognitive science. An adequate model ....Moral Responsibility and Cognitive Science: Agency, Empathy and Theory of Mind. Moral responsibility has two components: being responsible for one's actions (moral agency), and holding others responsible for their actions (moral ascription). The aim of this project is to develop empirically informed and philosophically sophisticated models of moral agency and moral ascription. We will do this by drawing on recent research on agency and moral cognition within cognitive science. An adequate model of moral responsibility has significant intellectual value and may lead to new methods for treating anti-social behavior. Read moreRead less
Rationality and Resource Bounds in Logics for Intentional Attitudes. Formal philosophy is the discipline at the interface between traditional philosophy and modern mathematical logic. It has had a substantial impact in recent years and has benefited neighbouring disciplines, including computer science and artificial intelligence. It is a good example of how philosophical research can interact with more practical disciplines. This project will make substantial contributions to formal philosophy, ....Rationality and Resource Bounds in Logics for Intentional Attitudes. Formal philosophy is the discipline at the interface between traditional philosophy and modern mathematical logic. It has had a substantial impact in recent years and has benefited neighbouring disciplines, including computer science and artificial intelligence. It is a good example of how philosophical research can interact with more practical disciplines. This project will make substantial contributions to formal philosophy, which will in turn provide benefits in computer science and artificial intelligence, by providing a framework for logicians, computer scientists and researchers in artificial intelligence to discuss issues concerning knowledge, belief and rationality.Read moreRead less
Knowing the Nature of Knowledge. From Plato onwards, philosophers have tried to determine what it is to have knowledge. This project will uncover some factors that have impeded those philosophical efforts to understand knowledge's nature. The project will thus constitute a fundamental challenge to standard philosophical assumptions regarding how we could, if ever, know what knowledge is. A new conception of the nature of knowledge will be developed, by resurrecting an ancient but now-ignored con ....Knowing the Nature of Knowledge. From Plato onwards, philosophers have tried to determine what it is to have knowledge. This project will uncover some factors that have impeded those philosophical efforts to understand knowledge's nature. The project will thus constitute a fundamental challenge to standard philosophical assumptions regarding how we could, if ever, know what knowledge is. A new conception of the nature of knowledge will be developed, by resurrecting an ancient but now-ignored conception, and marrying it with contemporary technical sophistication. This new theory will be non-absolutist, admitting different grades of knowledge, even of a single fact. This will be a widely applicable theory.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.
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.
Probability and necessity in the physical sciences. This is a philosophical study of concepts that are vital to the conduct of science: namely, dispositional concepts such as force in physics, solubility in chemistry, biological fitness, and psychological traits. By offering a radical and novel interpretation of such concepts, this project has the potential to influence the future development of Australian science. Moreover, dispositions are crucial to understanding our distinctively human persp ....Probability and necessity in the physical sciences. This is a philosophical study of concepts that are vital to the conduct of science: namely, dispositional concepts such as force in physics, solubility in chemistry, biological fitness, and psychological traits. By offering a radical and novel interpretation of such concepts, this project has the potential to influence the future development of Australian science. Moreover, dispositions are crucial to understanding our distinctively human perspective on the world. The abilities to predict, reason, communicate meanings, and to act intentionally all involve dispositional states. This project addresses the fundamental nature of such states, and will thus be of significance to anyone who hopes to understand these distinctively human phenomena.Read moreRead less
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 High-Level Structure of Consciousness. The study of consciousness is often regarded as the last great frontier for science. Work in this area has flowered recently, but it has focused on low-level aspects of consciousness, such as visual perception of color and shape. We aim to discover the high-level structure of consciousness, which involves attention, self-consciousness, and the unity of consciousness, among other things. The project involves international collaboration in a three-way int ....The High-Level Structure of Consciousness. The study of consciousness is often regarded as the last great frontier for science. Work in this area has flowered recently, but it has focused on low-level aspects of consciousness, such as visual perception of color and shape. We aim to discover the high-level structure of consciousness, which involves attention, self-consciousness, and the unity of consciousness, among other things. The project involves international collaboration in a three-way interaction between philosophy, cognitive science, and phenomenology. This work has potential social benefits, for example in understanding attention in distracted drivers, and potential medical benefits, in understanding breakdowns of the unity of consciousness in patients with mental illnessRead moreRead less
Semantics, externalism and a priori truths. This project aims to discover more about the logical roots of a priori knowledge. Pure mathematicians and logicians discover truths which are not justified by inference from observations; philosophers traditionally have aspired to do likewise. Yet little is understood about what makes a priori knowledge possible. There is a growing branch of logic which studies what is known as "double indexing" and this promises to throw light on the a priori. Austral ....Semantics, externalism and a priori truths. This project aims to discover more about the logical roots of a priori knowledge. Pure mathematicians and logicians discover truths which are not justified by inference from observations; philosophers traditionally have aspired to do likewise. Yet little is understood about what makes a priori knowledge possible. There is a growing branch of logic which studies what is known as "double indexing" and this promises to throw light on the a priori. Australian philosophers have played a very salient role in the study of double indexing, and this project is well placed to make significant contributions in this area.Read moreRead less