Philosophy of Mind & Psychology
The philosophy department at the University of Warwick is one of the UK’s leading institutions for research in the philosophy of mind, and in the philosophy of psychology. Staff are involved in research across a wide range of topics at the centre of contemporary philosophy of mind and psychology. Issues that are at the core of research in philosophy of mind in the department include: the nature of perception and perceptual experience, agency and the nature of mental action, self-consciousness and self-awareness, second person representation, and the relations between time and phenomenal character. In the philosophy of psychology, members of staff have research interests across the psychology of agency, theory of mind, rationality, and temporal representation.
Philosophers of psychology at Warwick are engaged in innovative and unique collaborations with empirical researchers working at the forefront of cognitive and developmental psychology. The department is home to the Consciousness and Self-consciousness Research Centre, and the AHRC-funded Second Person project. Both of these groups are host to many research events throughout the year, from regular reading groups and student seminars, research seminars and workshops, to international conferences. Warwick University Philosophy department is also host to the annual MindGrad graduate conference in the philosophy of mind.
Questions that guide and inform the work of philosophers working in this field at Warwick include:
- Does the phenomenal character of perception have to be understood in terms of a relation to mind-independent objects?
- Are the senses natural kinds?
- How is the representation of something as capable of existing independently of one to be explained?
- What are the philosophically significant differences between dreaming and waking consciousness?
- What if anything depends on our ability to do things together? How are joint actions to be explained?
Current grants:
- Rethinking the Senses (AHRC, Science in Culture). Co-directed by Professor Matthew Nudds with Professor Fiona Macpherson (University of Glasgow), Professor Colin Blakemore (The Institute of Philosophy, University of London), and Professor Charles Spence (University of Oxford).
- The Second Person (AHRC). Directed by Professor Naomi Eilan, Dr Johannes Roessler and Dr Guy Longworth.
- Dr Stephen Butterfill and his collaborator Dr Corrado Sinigaglia have been awarded a BA/Leverhulme Small Grant to support their work on motor representation and practical reasoning.
- As part of the Templeton Foundation project 'New Agendas for the Study of Time', Christoph Hoerl has been awarded funding for a project on 'Time, Tense and the Psychology of Relief'.
Previous grants:
- Causal Understanding: Empirical and Theoretical Foundations for a New Approach (AHRC-funded project from 2004-8)
- Consciousness & Self-Consciousness (AHRC-funded project from 1997- 2004).
Graduate Research in Philosophy of Mind and Psychology
- The Consciousness & Self-Consciousness Research Seminar runs in conjunction with the Consciousness & Self-Consciousness Research Centre. It is open to all postgraduate students and meets every week during term.
- MindGrad is an annual conference for graduate students working in the philosophy of mind that is held every year at the University of Warwick.
- The London-Warwick Graduate Mind Forum aims to forge and maintain a cross-institutional research community for graduate students working in the philosophy of mind. Currently the network includes students from Warwick, King’s College, London, and University College London.
Academics
Stephen Butterfill
Quassim Cassam
Robert Cowan
Thomas Crowther
Naomi Eilan
Christoph Hoerl
Guy Longworth
Michael Luntley
Matthew Nudds
Johannes Roessler
David Smith
Matthew Soteriou
Postdocs / Fellows
Research centre
The Warwick Mind and Action Research Centre (WMA) hosts research seminars, reading groups and talks by visitors throughout the year.