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
Consciousness in the predictive mind. The project aims to provide a unified approach to the nature of consciousness. Neuroscience and philosophy are still unable to explain how the brain gives rise to our conscious experience. Competing theories of consciousness are piecemeal, difficult to test and compare, and mostly formulated without much regard to a general theory of brain function. This project takes a different approach: it front-loads a new and influential general theory of brain function ....Consciousness in the predictive mind. The project aims to provide a unified approach to the nature of consciousness. Neuroscience and philosophy are still unable to explain how the brain gives rise to our conscious experience. Competing theories of consciousness are piecemeal, difficult to test and compare, and mostly formulated without much regard to a general theory of brain function. This project takes a different approach: it front-loads a new and influential general theory of brain function, and aims to use this theory to determine which theories of consciousness can be defended and which rejected. The anticipated outcome is a unified scientific and theoretical approach to consciousness, achieving a deeper and more integrated understanding of a major field of contemporary neuroscience and philosophy research.Read moreRead less
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
Self-control and pathologies of agency. This project will develop a philosophically and scientifically sophisticated account of the nature of self-control. This account will provide tools for allocating responsibility for failures of self-control and will contribute to the development of means for enhancing it, thereby aiding in addressing major social problems.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220101536
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$343,772.00
Summary
Rewriting moral character and professional virtue. This project aims to solve the philosophical problems of whether moral character motivates action and how it does so by developing an innovative account of moral character that draws on two overlooked bodies of research: the psychology of ‘moral identity’ and the philosophy of narrative self-constitution. The resulting narrative account of moral character claims that moral identities motivate moral action and, therefore, underpin moral character ....Rewriting moral character and professional virtue. This project aims to solve the philosophical problems of whether moral character motivates action and how it does so by developing an innovative account of moral character that draws on two overlooked bodies of research: the psychology of ‘moral identity’ and the philosophy of narrative self-constitution. The resulting narrative account of moral character claims that moral identities motivate moral action and, therefore, underpin moral character. The project then applies this knowledge to professional ethics, empirically testing the extent to which professional moral identities influence action and creating novel, self-narrative focused strategies to foster professional virtue.Read moreRead less
Trust in a social and digital world. This project aims to provide a systematic and empirically-informed account of the way networks facilitate or hinder knowledge. Distinguishing on-line information from disinformation can be difficult. This task can be greatly assisted by networks of trusted peers, but figuring out who to trust is itself a challenge. Identifying, designing, and facilitating networks of trust is therefore an urgent task. By using the tools of social epistemology, virtue epistemo ....Trust in a social and digital world. This project aims to provide a systematic and empirically-informed account of the way networks facilitate or hinder knowledge. Distinguishing on-line information from disinformation can be difficult. This task can be greatly assisted by networks of trusted peers, but figuring out who to trust is itself a challenge. Identifying, designing, and facilitating networks of trust is therefore an urgent task. By using the tools of social epistemology, virtue epistemology, and network science, this project will identify how individuals should distribute their trust when embedded in epistemically hostile environments.Read moreRead less
The human mind in prediction: conceptual, experimental and practical implications of the theory that the brain is a hypothesis-tester. The relation between the mind and the body is investigated through analysis and experimental studies of the idea that the human brain is essentially a hypothesis-tester. This could radically change our understanding of experience, self and belief, and has the potential to lead to clinical and technological discovery and innovation.
The Enculturated Brain: How Culture Transforms the Brain and Extends our Cognitive Capabilities. This project aims to advance our understanding of the influence of the cultural and social environment on our cognitive capabilities. Its significance lies in producing a theoretical model of how human brains have evolved to be culturally situated. The outcome will be a model that explains how as a species: our brains evolved in richly social and cultural environments; how each human brain develops i ....The Enculturated Brain: How Culture Transforms the Brain and Extends our Cognitive Capabilities. This project aims to advance our understanding of the influence of the cultural and social environment on our cognitive capabilities. Its significance lies in producing a theoretical model of how human brains have evolved to be culturally situated. The outcome will be a model that explains how as a species: our brains evolved in richly social and cultural environments; how each human brain develops in such an environment; and, how culture transforms the brain. The cultural transformation of our brains results in culturally extended cognitive systems. This will be a significant innovation in our current understanding of how brains, bodies and culture transform our basic cognitive capabilities. Read moreRead less
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
Cognitive ecologies: a philosophical study of collaborative embodied skills. This project aims to develop a new theory of embodied collaboration and interaction in expert groups, asking how individuals with diverse technical and emotional skills align and cue their actions, or recover together from challenges. It combines foundational philosophical analysis and cognitive theory with empirical studies of experts in sport and music. The project will extend knowledge of how groups under pressure wo ....Cognitive ecologies: a philosophical study of collaborative embodied skills. This project aims to develop a new theory of embodied collaboration and interaction in expert groups, asking how individuals with diverse technical and emotional skills align and cue their actions, or recover together from challenges. It combines foundational philosophical analysis and cognitive theory with empirical studies of experts in sport and music. The project will extend knowledge of how groups under pressure work in socially and culturally significant settings.Read moreRead less