Mathematical explanation. The best mathematical proofs tell us why some mathematical fact holds, not simply that it holds. However to understand how one piece of mathematics explains another piece of mathematics is poorly understood. This project will develop a philosophical account of mathematical explanation. In particular, it will show how mathematics can explain further mathematics as well as how it can explain physical phenomena.
Mathematical notation: a philosophical account. This project will explore philosophical issues associated with mathematical notation. In particular, it will provide an account of how mathematical notation is used in mathematical applications and how it facilitates analogical reasoning in science.
Causes that make a difference: A philosophical theory of token-causation. Discussions of causation in philosophy and other disciplines raise matters of practical concern: for example, about how to improve causal explanations in economics, how to devise better ways of testing causal hypotheses in medicine, and how to automate procedures for discovering causal relations in agriculture. By clarifying the structure of causal concepts, the project will help in the efforts to address these problems, a ....Causes that make a difference: A philosophical theory of token-causation. Discussions of causation in philosophy and other disciplines raise matters of practical concern: for example, about how to improve causal explanations in economics, how to devise better ways of testing causal hypotheses in medicine, and how to automate procedures for discovering causal relations in agriculture. By clarifying the structure of causal concepts, the project will help in the efforts to address these problems, and so contribute indirectly to the national benefits that will accrue from solving them. A central aim of the project is to train several PhD students, the next generation of researchers, in this important field of enquiry.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180101119
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$357,008.00
Summary
Making more effective groups and group decisions. This project aims to devise strategies that a wide range of groups, such as those in healthcare, science, business etc can use to improve their judgements and decisions. It begins with a philosophical approach to develop a practical framework for understanding and working with groups. This interdisciplinary examination will include devising concrete guidelines that various groups can use to improve the quality of their enquiries and decisions.
Culture, cognition and mental illness. This project aims to establish conceptual foundations for studying cultural variation in mental disorders and their implications for cognitive and behavioural science. Mental disorder contributes to the burden of death and disability around the world, but modern psychiatric theories must also deal with non-Western forms of mental illness. Do non-Western individuals suffer from the same conditions as Westerners, but in a different form, or do they suffer fro ....Culture, cognition and mental illness. This project aims to establish conceptual foundations for studying cultural variation in mental disorders and their implications for cognitive and behavioural science. Mental disorder contributes to the burden of death and disability around the world, but modern psychiatric theories must also deal with non-Western forms of mental illness. Do non-Western individuals suffer from the same conditions as Westerners, but in a different form, or do they suffer from distinctive local conditions? This project intends to discuss the foundational issues raised within psychiatry. This will contribute to a greater understanding of the mental health of non-Western populations.Read moreRead less
Mental Causation in a Physical World. The issues concerning mental causation are not just philosophical issues. They are discussed in the fields of psychology, cognitive science, and psychiatry as questions about whether mental phenomena, eg mental illnesses, are best understood at the cognitive level or the neurophysiological level of causation. The project will result in a research monograph aimed at practitioners from these fields among others. By introducing these practitioners to recent ph ....Mental Causation in a Physical World. The issues concerning mental causation are not just philosophical issues. They are discussed in the fields of psychology, cognitive science, and psychiatry as questions about whether mental phenomena, eg mental illnesses, are best understood at the cognitive level or the neurophysiological level of causation. The project will result in a research monograph aimed at practitioners from these fields among others. By introducing these practitioners to recent philosophical thinking about causation and reduction, the present project may lead to more subtle ways of conceptualising and treating mental illnesses, and so contribute indirectly to the socio-economic benefits accruing from more reflective psychological and psychiatric practice.Read moreRead less
A relational theory of procedural justice. This project aims to develop a relational theory of procedural justice, based on the quality of interactions between individuals and legal authorities. Just procedures maintain the public's trust in the legal system, but lawyers and philosophers have not studied what makes legal procedures morally justifiable. The project will use empirical studies about the public's understanding of procedural justice to enrich the normative analysis and demonstrate th ....A relational theory of procedural justice. This project aims to develop a relational theory of procedural justice, based on the quality of interactions between individuals and legal authorities. Just procedures maintain the public's trust in the legal system, but lawyers and philosophers have not studied what makes legal procedures morally justifiable. The project will use empirical studies about the public's understanding of procedural justice to enrich the normative analysis and demonstrate the value of the theory in the practical setting of tribunal proceedings. This research is expected to contribute to theoretical and practical debates about how to improve legal procedures.Read moreRead less
Sceptical reasoning: its epistemological nature, limits, and worth. Philosophers usually take sceptical reasoning seriously — yet without agreeing on why this should be so — even when wishing not to be sceptics about people ever having knowledge. This project will uncover new problems in sceptical reasoning while offering new ideas as to how, even so, it could be epistemologically valuable.
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
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