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Experiments in Philosophy

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

by a Band of Philosophers

April 26, 2009

Experimental Philosophy on YouTube

By Joshua Knobe

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

March 2, 2009

Consciousness

By Edouard Machery

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

February 23, 2009

What Makes an Action Intentional?

By Edouard Machery

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

January 29, 2009

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

By Edouard Machery

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

January 23, 2009

Do People of all Cultures Believe in Free Will?

By Joshua Knobe

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

January 22, 2009

Can an Atheist Believe in Free Will?

By Tamler Sommers, Ph.D.

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

December 9, 2008

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

By Tamler Sommers, Ph.D.

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

November 9, 2008

Comedian Eugene Mirman Explaining Experimental Philosophy

By Joshua Knobe

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

November 5, 2008

Do You Have Asperger's Syndrome?

By Edouard Machery

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

June 25, 2008

Do Atheists Pose a Threat to Morality?

By Jesse Prinz, Ph.D.

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.

New findings in psychology and neuroscience are pushing philosophers to rethink such big questions as the relationship between mind and body, the meaning of free will, just exactly what faith is, the nature of consciousness, and what constitutes happiness.

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