Experimental Philosophy

New *Interactive* Experimental Philosophy Video on YouTube

You all will probably remember the experimental film maker Ben Coonley, who was the creative force behind the YouTube video on the side-effect effect starring Eugene Mirman. Well, he's back, and this time he's actually managed to take it even further.

Focusing on some recent research on happiness and moral evaluations (which was inspired by Sven Nyholm's earlier finding), Ben has made af fully interactive YouTube video in which viewers can learn about experiemntal philosophy research on happiness while participating in a within-subjects version of the original study. That is really taking it to the next level. Check it out:

 

Reversing the Knobe Effect with Alternate Saliencing

Brian Robinson, Paul Stey, and I have been working on a theory of the Knobe effect that draws on my collaboration with Beebe and Robinson.   The basic idea is to use non-moral psychological processes to explain the effect.  We presented some preliminary results at the Experiments in Ethical Dilemmas conference in London last week.  Here's a write-up of that presentation.

(The second link takes you to my [rather] new blog.]

3 Quarks Daily and X-Phi

Our own Wesley Buckwalter has two posts that have been nominated for the 3 Quarks Daily Prize in Philosophy.  As it stands, one of his posts is in the lead in voting.  Readers of this blog should drop by and show their support!

Churchland and Suhler at On the Human

There is an on-line discussion over at On the Human about Patricia Churchland and Christopher Suhler's recent work on nonconscious control and agency.  Several experimental philosophers have already joined the conversation, so hopefully some of you will follow suit!  Here is the general introduction and here is the discussion thread.

Flickers of Freedom

As some of you may already know,  The Garden of Forking Paths was recently shut down.  I, for one, enjoyed the blog throughout the years.  As such, I thought that the closing of the Garden left a cyber-void that needed to be filled.  So, with John Martin Fischer’s blessing, a few of us got together to develop  a new free will & action theory blog—Flickers of Freedom.  We just launched the blog this morning, so hopefully you will drop by to check it out.  Neil Levy will be posting the first substantive piece soon.  So, check back soon!

New Search Function

Simon Cullen recently made a very helpful suggestion.  Given that we are soon going to cross the 400 post thresh hold, it would be useful to have each of the past and future posts properly categorized.  In light of his suggestion, I ask that in the future all contributors make sure their posts are properly categorized.  In the event that a new category is needed, simply add it.  For my part, I will spend the next few months trying to go back and make sure the past 375+ posts are placed into their appropriate categories.  In the event that some of you are willing to go back and recategorize your own prior posts, please let me know.  I would be more than delighted to have your help!  In the meantime, I have added a google search function to the side bar so that people can locate old posts more readily.  It may take Google a few days to completely index the site, but after that it should be a useful addition to the blog.  As always, if you have any other suggestions, please don't hesitate to let me know!