Improving decision-making processes in complex environments. This project will develop a new approach to understanding the factors involved in complex decision making. It will investigate the processes and mechanisms that individuals use to make decisions in complex environments. This project will also show that one way individuals deal with the problem of complexity is to frame their experiences aesthetically.
Place, Commonality and the Human: Towards a New Philosophical Anthropology. This project proposes a new philosophical vision of what it means to be human. Combining historical and conceptual approaches, the project aims to develop a new philosophical anthropology that centres on understanding human beings in terms of both place and commonality. This account is designed to provide the basis for a rethought conception of the ethics that are bound to human life and that understands the ethical as e ....Place, Commonality and the Human: Towards a New Philosophical Anthropology. This project proposes a new philosophical vision of what it means to be human. Combining historical and conceptual approaches, the project aims to develop a new philosophical anthropology that centres on understanding human beings in terms of both place and commonality. This account is designed to provide the basis for a rethought conception of the ethics that are bound to human life and that understands the ethical as essentially a matter of judgment rather than prescriptive rule. Given the centrality of the concept of the human to any thinking about our contemporary situation, the project would have both applied and interdisciplinary relevance.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160100473
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$346,434.00
Summary
The invention of collateral damage and the changing moral economy of war. This project aims to provide a novel philosophical account of the invention of the concept of collateral damage in war. It seeks to understand the historical and institutional processes that have produced a moral distinction between deliberate harm inflicted on non-combatants, and the non-intentional harm that is seen as an inevitable side effect of modern warfare. Drawing on archival material and military manuals, and com ....The invention of collateral damage and the changing moral economy of war. This project aims to provide a novel philosophical account of the invention of the concept of collateral damage in war. It seeks to understand the historical and institutional processes that have produced a moral distinction between deliberate harm inflicted on non-combatants, and the non-intentional harm that is seen as an inevitable side effect of modern warfare. Drawing on archival material and military manuals, and combining insights from the history of human rights and contemporary European political philosophy, the project aims to produce a sophisticated philosophical framework for understanding the social and political implications of conceiving civilian deaths as collateral damage to contribute to public debate about the human costs of war.Read moreRead less
Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism. This project aims to develop a new approach to understanding the purpose and power of social contracts: implicit agreements among members of a society to cooperate for mutual benefit. Australia’s post-war prosperity has relied on a robust social contract, but it is under increasing strain today from new technological, environmental and socio-political realities. Using techniques from philosophy and social theory, this project seeks t ....Rewriting the Social Contract: Technology, Ecology, Extremism. This project aims to develop a new approach to understanding the purpose and power of social contracts: implicit agreements among members of a society to cooperate for mutual benefit. Australia’s post-war prosperity has relied on a robust social contract, but it is under increasing strain today from new technological, environmental and socio-political realities. Using techniques from philosophy and social theory, this project seeks to examine the main pressures on the social contract today, and to propose how it can be reinforced. Intended benefits include strengthening social cohesion through better understanding the causes of reduced wellbeing, social fragmentation and unrest, and through proposing ways to mitigate their costly effects.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140101770
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$327,841.00
Summary
Secularism and Philosophy: The Challenge of Spinozism. With the resurgence of religious conflict throughout the world, the question of secularism has acquired renewed importance. Nowhere has the plausibility of a secular worldview been more rigorously debated than within the history of philosophy, and no philosopher has aroused more controversy on this subject than Benedict de Spinoza (1632-1677). This project will result in the first history of Spinozism's pivotal role in the history of secular ....Secularism and Philosophy: The Challenge of Spinozism. With the resurgence of religious conflict throughout the world, the question of secularism has acquired renewed importance. Nowhere has the plausibility of a secular worldview been more rigorously debated than within the history of philosophy, and no philosopher has aroused more controversy on this subject than Benedict de Spinoza (1632-1677). This project will result in the first history of Spinozism's pivotal role in the history of secularism, focusing on three distinct episodes of philosophical conflict generated by Spinoza's thought from the late eighteenth century to the present. The study will make clear that secularism is not simply a social and political phenomenon, but a philosophical conundrum, thus far irresolvable.Read moreRead less
The quest for the 'I': reaching a better understanding of the self through Hegel and Heidegger. The conception of the 'I' is central to our lives. The more multicultural a country is, the more pressing becomes the question of the conception of the self. Focusing on the thought of Hegel and Heidegger, this project aims to offer a richer account that avoids individualism and allows thinking of the formation of the self as a collective enterprise.
The God of Hegel's Post-Kantian Idealism. Recently both philosophical and popular debates over the role of religion in modern society have, like earlier debates from the 18th century, been marked by a commitment to philosophical realism. In the largely neglected "idealist" tradition of the nineteenth century, such disputes were cast in a different light. By developing an idealist conception of God, using contemporary philosophical resources, this project aims to offer a way of thinking about the ....The God of Hegel's Post-Kantian Idealism. Recently both philosophical and popular debates over the role of religion in modern society have, like earlier debates from the 18th century, been marked by a commitment to philosophical realism. In the largely neglected "idealist" tradition of the nineteenth century, such disputes were cast in a different light. By developing an idealist conception of God, using contemporary philosophical resources, this project aims to offer a way of thinking about the role of religion in human life that avoids the primacy of the question of belief in God as well as antagonistic conceptions of religious differences.Read moreRead less
Algebraic K-theory and groups. This project will study the K-theory of division algebras, their generalisation to Azumaya algebras and the nonstable K-theory of rings. Expected outcomes would enhance our understanding on the structure of these K groups.
The goal is to settle some of the most significant conjectures in the subject: Bak's solvability of nonstable K groups over rings and the Merkurjev-Suslin conjectures on reduced K theory of division rings.
The study of these problems contribu ....Algebraic K-theory and groups. This project will study the K-theory of division algebras, their generalisation to Azumaya algebras and the nonstable K-theory of rings. Expected outcomes would enhance our understanding on the structure of these K groups.
The goal is to settle some of the most significant conjectures in the subject: Bak's solvability of nonstable K groups over rings and the Merkurjev-Suslin conjectures on reduced K theory of division rings.
The study of these problems contributes to and draws from such topics as group theory, commutative ring theory, algebraic number theory and algebraic geometry.
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Homotopy theory: interactions with representation theory and moduli spaces. This proposal will involve young researchers and train them for problem solving in many fields, including management, the sciences, the financial industries, and the development of technologies. Furthermore, many of the projects in this proposal are collaborative and interdisciplinary. It is the CI's sincere hope that this proposal can help bolster communication amongst the wealth of topology, number theory, and mathe ....Homotopy theory: interactions with representation theory and moduli spaces. This proposal will involve young researchers and train them for problem solving in many fields, including management, the sciences, the financial industries, and the development of technologies. Furthermore, many of the projects in this proposal are collaborative and interdisciplinary. It is the CI's sincere hope that this proposal can help bolster communication amongst the wealth of topology, number theory, and mathematical physics experts in Australia. The research in these exciting areas of mathematics will contribute to maintaining Australia's position as a research leader in pure mathematics.
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Broadening Choice and Increasing Diversity in Public Schools. Currently, most families are limited to the public school in their catchment area, meaning the area in which they can afford to live. This leads to socio-economically and ethnically homogenous schools and entrenches disadvantage, as well as denying students the crucial life lessons that flow from being part of a diverse student body. This project aims to investigate a model for allocating public school places that integrates catchment ....Broadening Choice and Increasing Diversity in Public Schools. Currently, most families are limited to the public school in their catchment area, meaning the area in which they can afford to live. This leads to socio-economically and ethnically homogenous schools and entrenches disadvantage, as well as denying students the crucial life lessons that flow from being part of a diverse student body. This project aims to investigate a model for allocating public school places that integrates catchment areas. The expected outcome would be a system that gives families a wider choice, enabling them to enrol in out-of-area schools, while ensuring that allocations remain fair, equitable and balanced, and also delivering benefits such as achieving a desired level of diversity in student populations within schoolsRead moreRead less