I work on issues at the intersection between the philosophy of mind and action, epistemology, and moral psychology. I am particularly interested in the nature of practical reasons and reason-giving explanations of actions; the nature and significance of self-awareness (including pathologies of self-awareness); and perceptual knowledge (including the epistemic role of perceptual consciousness, the way in which perceptual explanations of knowledge can vindicate claims to knowledge, and the relation between explanations of perceptual knowledge and explanations of our responsibility for beliefs). More recently, I have started working on Montaigne, esp. Montaign'e version of virtue ethics. I also have long-standing interest in Kant (and the nature of transcendental arguments) and in the history of scepticism.

I came to Warwick as a research fellow in the AHRC interdisciplinary project on Consciousness and Self-Consciousness. I was subsequently co-director of the Warwick-based interdisciplinary project on Causal Understanding, and an associated partner of NormCon (Understanding the Normative Dimensions of Human Conduct: Conceptual and Developmental Issues). I was a member of Second Person project at Warwick, and I recently co-directed two projects: one (with Glenda Satne, Santiago) on 'Joint Practical Knowledge: Shared Agency and Knowledge of Other Minds', and one (with Gianfranco Soldati, Fribourg) on Perception, Rationality and Self-Knowledge.
I served as secretary of the European Society for Philosophy and Psychology (2018-2023) and as an Associate Editor of Philosophical Explorations.

PhD supervision

I'm happy to take on PhD students working on issues in the philosophy of mind and action, philosophy of psychology, and epistemology. I have supervised PhD theses on the following topics:

The role of desires in practical reasoning
Knowing one’s own actions
Responsibility for belief
Self-deception
The role of experience in monothematic delusions
The perception of affordances
Explaining delusions
Attention and perceptual consciousness

Publications

Edited Volumes

J. Roessler & N. Eilan (eds.), Agency and Self-Awareness: Issues in Philosophy and Psychology. Oxford: OUP. 2003.

N. Eilan, C. Hoerl, T. McCormack and J.Roessler (eds.), Joint Attention: Communication and Other Minds. Oxford: OUP. 2005.

J. Roessler, N. Eilan and H. Lerman (eds.), Perception, Causation, and Objectivity: Issues in Philosophy and Psychology. Oxford: OUP. 2011.

A. Giananti, J. Roessler and G. Soldati (eds.), Perceptual Knowledge and Self-Awareness, OUP 2024.

Articles and Reviews

• 'Understanding baseless self-knowledge: Boyle on reflection and rationality', in Philophisches Jahrbuch 2024
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• 'Perception, Knowledge, and Reflection', in A. Giananti, J. Roessler and G. Soldati (eds.), Perceptual Knowledge and Self-Awareness, OUP 2024.
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• 'Introduction: Perceptual Knowledge and Self-Awareness' (with A. Giananti), in A. Giananti, J. Roessler and G. Soldati (eds.), Perceptual Knowledge and Self-Awareness, OUP 2024.
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• 'Perceptual knowledge and the "activity" of belief', in A. Logins & J.-H. Vollet (eds.), Putting Knowledge to Work: New Directions for Knowledge-First Epistemology, OUP, 2024.
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• 'Montaigne on Virtue and Moral Luck' (with Giulia Luvisotto), Paradigmi 2022
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• 'Virtue, Character and Moral Responsibility: against the Monolothic View' (with Giulia Luvisotto), Argumenta 2022
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• 'Thought insertion and the ontology of thinking', forthcoming in P. López-Silva & T. McClelland (eds.), Intruders in The Mind: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Thought Insertion, OUP.
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• 'Practical knowledge and testimony', in R. Teichmann (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Elizabeth Anscombe
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• 'Plural practical knowledge', Inquiry 2020
  https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/V3V6TZZTRZQVGVKWW4KS/full?target=10.1080/0020174X.2020.1787221
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• Review of Michael Ayers, Knowing and Seeing: Groundwork for a New Empiricism. Mind 129 (2020)
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• 'The manifest and the philosophical image of perceptual knowledge', in F. Stadler & C. Limbeck-Lilienau (eds.), The Philosophy of Perception and Observation: Proceedings of the 40th International Wittgenstein Symposium. 2019.
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• 'Pro-Social Cognition: helping, practical reasons, and "theory of mind"' (with Josef Perner), Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 2015 (special issue on the development of normative understanding, ed. by Glenda Satne)
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• 'Self-Knowledge and Communication', Philosophical Explorations 18, 2015 (special issue on Self-Knowledge in Perspective', ed. by Fleur Jongepier and Derek Strijbos)
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• 'Thinking, Inner Speech, and Self-Awareness', Review of Philosophy and Psychology 2015 (in a special issue on Voices and Thoughts in Schizophrenia, ed. by Sam Wilkinson and B. Alderson-Day)
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• 'Reason explanation and the second-person perspective', Philosophical Explorations 2014 (special issue on the second person)
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• Review of D. Bakhurst et al (eds.), Thinking about Reasons: Themes from the Philosophy of Jonathan Dancy. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
• 'The Epistemic Role of Intentions', Proceedings of the Aristotelan Society 2012-13
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• 'Competition as rational action: Why young children can't appreciate competitive games' (with Beate Priewasser and Josef Perner), Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 2013.
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• 'Teleology: Belief as Perspective' (with Josef Perner), forthcoming in S. Baron-Cohen et al. (eds.), Understanding Other Minds, 3rd edition.
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• 'Knowledge, Explanation and Teleology', Oxford Studies in Epistemology 4, 2013.
• 'The Silence of Self-Knowledge', Philosophical Explorations 2013
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• 'Thought insertion, self-awareness and rationality', Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Psychiatry. Oxford: OUP. 2013)
• 'From infants' to children's appreciation of belief' (with Josef Perner) Trends in Cognitive Sciences 16, 2012. available here
• 'Introduction', N. Eilan, H. Lerman and J. Roessler (eds.), Perception, Causation and Objectivity. Oxford: OUP. 2011
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• 'Causation in Commonsense Realism', N. Eilan, H. Lerman and J. Roessler (eds.), Perception, Causation and Objectivity. Oxford: OUP. 2011
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• 'Perceptual Attention and the Space of Reasons', in Attention: Philosophical and Psychological Issues. Edited by Christopher Mole, Declan Smithies, and Wayne Wu. Oxford: OUP. 2011
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• ‘Perceptual causality, counterfactuals, and special causal concepts’, in Understanding Counterfactuals and Causation: Issues in Philosophy and Psychology. Edited by Christoph Hoerl and Teresa McCormack. Oxford: OUP. 2011.
• ‘Teleology and causal understanding in children’s theory of mind’ (with Josef Perner), in J. Aguilar & A.A. Buckareff (Eds.), Causing Human Action: New Perspectives on the Causal Theory of Action. Cambridge, MA: Bradford Book, The MIT Press. 2010
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• ‘Agents’ knowledge’,in A Companion to the Philosophy of Action, edited by Timothy O'Connor and Constantine Sandis. Oxford: Blackwell. 2010
• 'Critical Notice of Lucy O'Brien, Self-Knowing Agents', Philosophical Books 50, 2009
• ‘Perceptual experience and perceptual knowledge’, Mind 118, 2009
• ‘Joint Attention and the Problem of Other Minds’, in N. Eilan, C. Hoerl, T. McCormack, J. Roessler (eds.), Joint Attention, Oxford University Press, 2004
• ‘Intentional Action and Self-Awareness’, in J. Roessler & N. Eilan (eds.), Agency and Self-Awareness, Oxford University Press, 2003.
• ‘Action, Emotion, and the Development of Self-awareness’, European Review of Philosophy 5, 2002, pp. 33-52.
• ‘Understanding Delusions of Alien Control’, Philosophy, Psychiatry and Psychology 8, 2001, pp. 177-187.
• ‘Attention and the Self’, Journal of Consciousness Studies, 2000, pp. 78-84.
• ‘Perception , Introspection and Attention’, European Journal of Philosophy, 1999, pp. 47-64.

 

Email

J.Roessler at warwick.ac.uk