Centre for Philosophical Psychology

Past projects

Find below an exhaustive list of the research projects carried out at the CPP, listed per year of completion.

Medical Treatment, Evidence of Effectiveness, and Placebo.

01/10/2018 - 30/09/2022

Abstract

Medical treatment is of profound importance to patients and society. This project explores the key features of medical treatment and its relation to disease, what sorts of evidence are required for the assessment of treatment effectiveness, and the roles placebos should play in research and treatment. The dominant paradigm in the field is evidence-based medicine, which has engendered a great deal of philosophical controversy. One debate has focused on whether mechanistic evidence (how a system works) and difference-making evidence (such as from placebo-controlled trials) are both required to establish a causal claim in the health sciences. Yet research gaps exist with respect to how these types of evidence specifically apply to medical treatment. Alternative classifications of types of evidence may do a better job of assessing treatment effectiveness and elucidating the nature of the conceptual link between disease and treatment. This project will explore current debates in these areas and endeavor to contribute to a better philosophical understanding of medical treatment.

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  • Research Project

Consideration of Musical Texture as a Perceptual Phenomenon; Implementation of visual texture analysis methods, on the phenomenon of musical texture.

01/10/2018 - 30/09/2022

Abstract

Texture as a distinct theoretical term appeared in musicians' discourse only towards the second part of the 20th century, and research of musical texture is in its early stage. A limited number of studies were published on this topic, and researchers differ in their approaches to analyzing musical texture. What most scholars do agree upon is that musical texture is a meta-parameter, that stem from the interrelations of all sonic events. In this research I examine the phenomenon of musical texture in regard to the research of visual texture, a distinct research field in cognitive science. Doing this I reexamine musical texture as a perceptual phenomenon, and present a theoretical model to analyze features in the music that contribute to the formation of musical texture. This model is continuously tested and refined through analyzing a wide variety of musical works, with an emphasis on contemporary music, where texture is especially evident On the artistic level of my research, I explore texture possibilities in music, through composing pieces and shorter musical fragments ('textural etudes') in which I use texture as a starting point of the creative process. The synergy between the artistic and theoretical aspects of the research is evident: I use composition as a testing field to explore issues I encounter in the theoretic research, and through a systematic study of texture I adopt new ways of expression and enrich my compositional language.

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  • Research Project

Facing the interface. Investigating whether and how contentless perception can interact with belief and knowledge.

01/01/2019 - 31/12/2022

Abstract

When you see a lemon, you will be able to think you see a lemon. Moreover, when you see a shape you know to be a lemon, you might see it as more yellowish than an arbitrary shape. In other words, while what you perceive influences what you believe and know, what you know and believe also influences what you perceive. But exactly how does what you perceive influence what you believe and know? And exactly how do your beliefs and your knowledge influence what you perceive? In this project, it is investigated how such interface questions can be answered without assuming that the interaction between perception and thought is analogous in any way to meaningful communication. That is, interface questions are handled from the perspective of Pure Interaction views of perception, according to which perception is adaptive interaction of an organism with its environment, which happens without that perception "describes" either the environment or the interaction. It is investigated to what extent main interface effects can be explained in terms of attunement of an organism to the regularities in its environment, and of attention. It will be taken into account that attunement and attention are often sculpted by shared social practices. Finally, the project will seek whether attunement and attention can explain other processes in which knowledge influences such as in placebo effects or in psychotherapy.

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  • Research Project

Removing the mind from the head. A Wittgensteinian perspective.

01/10/2018 - 31/01/2022

Abstract

What is the mind? Notice that we talk about minds all the time. "Mind your head." "What did you have in mind?" "It slipped my mind." What do we mean? Many philosophers have thought that if the mind is anything, then it must be the brain. Others have argued that the mind is an external phenomenon. You desire that piece of cake, not just because some neurons are firing inside your brain, but because the cake is in front of you, it looks delicious, you can smell the frosting etc. Mental events then are not simply brain states. Rather, they consist in processes involving your body. But who is right? Internalists, who claim that the mind is an internal, brain-bound phenomenon? Or externalists, who insist that the mind is an external, interactive affair? In my project, I claim that both internalists and externalists are wrong. The mind is neither a state in your brain nor a process involving your body. I base this claim on the work of the philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein. Wittgenstein was neither an internalist nor an externalist. He focused instead on behaviour, not in order to reduce the mind to behaviour, but rather because some of our psychological concepts, such as "thinking", are distinctive ways of characterizing our behaviours. I argue that this Wittgensteinian perspective offers a fresh take on how to understand the mind. For if Wittgenstein is right, then your mind is not locked away inside your head. Instead, your mind is revealed in the things you say and do.

Researcher(s)

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

  • Research Project