Practicalism: Knowing and Agency. Australian philosophy has a deserved reputation for excellence, especially in topics of traditional centrality for analytic philosophers. But more still needs to be done within Australian epistemology. Most of the recent related work has occurred within the philosophies of mind, of language, and of science, and to some extent within ethics. That work needs to be complemented by good work in epistemology. I hope this project will help to achieve that, thereby inc ....Practicalism: Knowing and Agency. Australian philosophy has a deserved reputation for excellence, especially in topics of traditional centrality for analytic philosophers. But more still needs to be done within Australian epistemology. Most of the recent related work has occurred within the philosophies of mind, of language, and of science, and to some extent within ethics. That work needs to be complemented by good work in epistemology. I hope this project will help to achieve that, thereby increasing the national and international philosophical visibility of Australian epistemology.Read moreRead less
The Demands of Reason. We may reason well or badly, depending on whether we satisfy two kinds of demands. We must register all and only relevant considerations and we must respond correctly to them. But ‘the demands of reason’, as described in this project, remain inadequately understood. Drawing on work from philosophy, psychology, political and legal theory, and the social sciences, this project aims to investigate the nature, power and reach of reason’s demands. It aims to shed light on what ....The Demands of Reason. We may reason well or badly, depending on whether we satisfy two kinds of demands. We must register all and only relevant considerations and we must respond correctly to them. But ‘the demands of reason’, as described in this project, remain inadequately understood. Drawing on work from philosophy, psychology, political and legal theory, and the social sciences, this project aims to investigate the nature, power and reach of reason’s demands. It aims to shed light on what they are; whether they have the positive transformative power attributed to them by enlightenment thinkers; and whether they can be adduced to explain the nature and origin of other important normative demands, such as the demands of morality, prudence and law.Read moreRead less
The truth about false memory. This project is aimed at determining whether reports of long-forgotten episodes of sexual abuse arising during psychotherapy should be regarded as memories or not. This issue hinges on a number of conceptual questions about memory. The project will illuminate the debate on recovered memories of sexual abuse by addressing those questions.
Pathologies of moral cognition. The saying "Nice guys finish last" captures the thought that moral cognition makes us vulnerable to exploitation. This project aims to examine this hypothesis by investigating three aspects of moral cognition that might lead us to form false beliefs or render us vulnerable to manipulation by others: our beliefs about punishment; our tendency to identify with groups; and our willingness to trust others. The project is designed to involve empirical investigation of ....Pathologies of moral cognition. The saying "Nice guys finish last" captures the thought that moral cognition makes us vulnerable to exploitation. This project aims to examine this hypothesis by investigating three aspects of moral cognition that might lead us to form false beliefs or render us vulnerable to manipulation by others: our beliefs about punishment; our tendency to identify with groups; and our willingness to trust others. The project is designed to involve empirical investigation of the circumstances in which moral behaviour can have harmful side-effects; it also entails theoretical analysis intended to improve our ability to construct robust theories of cooperative and punitive behaviour.Read moreRead less
Enlightened judgment: reflection and cognitive virtue in Kant's critical philosophy. This project aims to explain our cognitive practices: what is sound judgment and how does it depend on the ability to be critical about our concepts? What is intellectual creativity, and what makes it possible? The answers are provided through a new interpretation of the philosophical ideal of enlightenment, with special attention to the work of Kant.