Experiments in Philosophy

The impact of psychological research on life's big questions.

By a Band of Philosophers

Experimental Philosophy on YouTube

By Joshua Knobe on April 26, 2009 - 4:30pm in Experiments in Philosophy

A funny new video in which experimental philosophers take on an ancient conundrum. Read More

Consciousness

By Edouard Machery on March 2, 2009 - 4:06pm in Experiments in Philosophy

How do ordinary people think about their subjective experience? Do they believe in qualia, as many philosophers such as David Chalmers and Ned Block claim? And are we mistaken in believing that our experiences have qualia, as Daniel Dennett asserts? Read More

What Makes an Action Intentional?

By Edouard Machery on February 23, 2009 - 6:17pm in Experiments in Philosophy

A few months ago, I reported on some studies on how people with Asperger think about intentional actions (see my previous post on the topic). Read More

Are Free-Will Deniers Open to Experience? Are Materialists Extrovert? Help us Find out!

By Edouard Machery on January 29, 2009 - 3:19pm in Experiments in Philosophy

Could it be that people are attracted to different philosophical views because of their temperament? Read More

Do People of all Cultures Believe in Free Will?

By Joshua Knobe on January 23, 2009 - 9:48am in Experiments in Philosophy

Imagine a universe in which everything that happens is completely caused by whatever happened before. So the things that happened at the very beginning of the universe caused the things that happened next, which caused the things that happened after that... Read More

Can an Atheist Believe in Free Will?

By Tamler Sommers, Ph.D. on January 22, 2009 - 10:40am in Experiments in Philosophy

Here's an interesting 5 minute video accusing Richard Dawkins of being inconsistent in holding that belief in free will and moral responsibility is justified but that belief in God is unjustified. The argument goes like this. Read More

Apparently I was right about Satoshi Kanazawa, aka the Scientific Fundamentalist.

By Tamler Sommers, Ph.D. on December 9, 2008 - 9:56am in Experiments in Philosophy

A few weeks ago I commented to a colleague that PT blogger Satoshi Kanazawa only wrote one of his recent posts so that someone would write a parody of that post. There could be no other explanation. Apparently I was right. Read More

Comedian Eugene Mirman Explaining Experimental Philosophy

By Joshua Knobe on November 9, 2008 - 10:44pm in Experiments in Philosophy

As Edouard mentioned in his recent post, some of the most fascinating discoveries in experimental philosophy have come from work on people's ordinary understanding of human action. Read More

Intentional Action and Asperger Syndrome

By Edouard Machery on November 5, 2008 - 1:15pm in Experiments in Philosophy

How do we think about the intentional nature of actions? And how do people with an impaired mindreading capacity thinkg about it? Read More

Do Atheists Pose a Threat to Morality?

By Jesse Prinz, Ph.D. on June 25, 2008 - 1:47pm in Experiments in Philosophy

Atheism is said to pose a major threat to morality. Some theists claim that disbelief leads to moral relativism and undermines the motivation to do good deeds. Recent research can help us see what is true and false about these anxieties.