Online research in philosophy

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• Graduate student, University of Arizona

• Normative Ethics
• Applied Ethics
• Meta-Ethics

• Metaphilosophy
• Philosophy of Cognitive Science

I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Philosophy and the Cognitive Science Program at the University of Arizona. My primary interests are in moral psychology, ethical theory, and applied ethics. I am particularly interested in exploring questions such as: What kinds of factors influence our moral decision making? How should this shape our normative and prescriptive theories? How can we engage in better moral decision making? In investigating these questions, I draw on research in ethical theory, experimental philosophy, cognitive science, and social psychology.

3 items found. Sort by: publication yearfirst authorviewingsaddition date Theresa Lopez, Jennifer Zamzow, Michael Gill & Shaun Nichols (2009). Side Constraints and the Structure of Commonsense Ethics. Philosophical Perspectives 23 (1):305-319. In our everyday moral deliberations, we attend to two central types of considerations – outcomes and moral rules. How these considerations interrelate is central to the long-standing debate between deontologists and utilitarians. Is the weight we attach to moral rules reducible to their conduciveness to good outcomes (as many utilitarians claim)? Or do we take moral rules to be absolute constraints on action that normatively trump outcomes (as many deontologists claim)? Arguments over these issues characteristically appeal to commonsense intuitions about (...) various cases. As a result, an important portion of the debate involves empirically tractable questions — questions that can be investigated by probing for people’s judgments in cases in which the two types of considerations come into conflict with one another. (shrink) Experimental Philosophy: Folk Morality in Metaphilosophy $14.00 new   $26.82 used   $44.49 direct from Amazon   (collection)   Amazon page Direct download (5 more)     My bibliography     Export citation   Shaun Nichols & Jennifer L. Zamzow (2009). Variations in Ethical Intuitions. In Ernest Sosa & Enrique Villanueva (eds.), Metaethics. Wiley Periodicals, Inc.. No categories   My bibliography     Export citation   Jennifer Zamzow & Shaun Nichols (2009). Variations in Ethical Intuitions. Philosophical Issues 19 (1):368-388. Philosophical theorizing is often, either tacitly or explicitly, guided by intuitions about cases. Theories that accord with our intuitions are generally considered to be prima facie better than those that do not. However, recent empirical work has suggested that philosophically significant intuitions are variable and unstable in a number of ways. This variability of intuitions has led naturalistically inclined philosophers to disparage the practice of relying on intuitions for doing philosophy in general (e.g. Stich & Weinberg 2001) and for doing (...) moral philosophy in particular (Appiah 2008; Doris & Stich 2005; Horowitz 1998; Nadelhoffer & Feltz 2008; Sinnott Armstrong 2008). In this paper, we will draw on naturalistic considerations to offer some solace to philosophers who rely on intuitions. We wouldn’t call this a defense of intuitions, exactly, since we are sympathetic with much of the naturalists’ critique. But we want to introduce into the debate some neglected naturalistic reasons to be optimistic about intuitions, focusing especially on ethical intuitions. (shrink) Experimental Philosophy, Miscellaneous in Metaphilosophy Experimental Philosophy: Ethics, Misc in Metaphilosophy Experimental Philosophy: Folk Morality in Metaphilosophy Direct download (5 more)     My bibliography     Export citation

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