Carrie Figdor
University of Iowa, USA
Academic Year 2013
Pieces of Mind: A Humanistic Defense of Mechanistic Explanation of Mind 

Carrie Figdor is an Associate Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy and the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Neuroscience at the University of Iowa. She is the author of articles in philosophy of mind, metaphysics, neuroethics and media ethics, is co-host of the podcast New Books in Philosophy, and is a member of the executive committee of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology. During her stay at Pittsburgh she will be working on a monograph in the cognitive science of cognitive ontology, developing a framework for how we create cognitive activity concepts for the purpose of explaining the mind in a way that is continuous with explanations in the biological sciences.

2014

I continued work on my book project, in part by preparing material for presentations, working some of it into a paper, and finalizing a prospectus. I also progressed on several side projects that I juggle in my spare time. I can report the following fruits of my labors:

"On the Proper Domain of Psychological Predicates." Forthcoming in Synthese.

"Is Free Will Necessary for Moral Responsibility?: A case for rethinking their relationship and the design of experimental studies in moral psychology." With Mark Phelan. Forthcoming in Mind & Language.

"Experimental Philosophy and the Underrepresentation of Women." With Matt L. Drabek. Forthcoming in W. Buckwalter and J. Sytsma, eds., A Companion to Experimental Philosophy, Wiley-Blackwell).

I also presented (different) chunks of the book project in talks at two venues that were wonderful for getting great feedback: at the Society for Philosophy and Psychology, 40th annual meeting in Vancouver, BC, in June, and at University of Colorado—Boulder as a keynote speaker at the 30th Annual Boulder 'Conference on the History and Philosophy of Science: Neurons, Mechanisms, and The Mind: The History and Philosophy of Cognitive Neuroscience', in October.

2015

Spent the summer as a Visiting Scholar at the Eidyn Research Centre, University of Edinburgh, Scotland. June-August 2015 and was awarded an Arts & Humanities Initative grant (University of Iowa), PI. Project title: Mechanisms of dehumanization by cognitively impaired subjects in virtual Milgram conditions.