Research in the Department of Philosophy
Macquarie has a growing reputation as a distinctive centre of excellence for philosophical research. The Department of Philosophy has an innovative and vibrant research culture, benefiting from the presence of a number of philosophical and inter-disciplinary perspectives, and consistently producing high-level research publications in a wide range of central areas. The main research areas in the department are Mind, Metaphysics and Meaning (Bayne, Duke-Yonge, Fernandez, Menzies, Parsell, Smith, Sutton), Social Philosophy and Continental Philosophy (Deranty, Lotz, Sinnerbrink, Smith), and Ethics and Ethical Theory (Bayne, Lotz, Mackenzie, Townley). A number of Macquarie philosophers also have strong interests in the history of philosophy (Deranty, Sinnerbrink, Sutton). In recent years a number of Macquarie philosophers have been awarded ARC Discovery Project Grants, including Peter Menzies (Singular Causation: A Conceptual Analysis), John Sutton (Interdisciplinarity in the Sciences of Memory: cognition, culture, and complexity), Tim Bayne (Moral Responsibility and Cognitive Science: Agency, Empathy and Theory of Mind), Catriona Mackenzie (Autonomy and Identity: A relational theory), Jean-Philippe Deranty (Applying the Ethics of Recognition: Work and the Social Bond), and Nicholas Smith (Applying the Ethics of Recognition: Work and the Social Bond).
The department also hosts extended visits by researchers from overseas. Visitors in 2004 and 2005 included Igal Kvart (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Tim Crane (UCL) and Shane O'Neill (Belfast), Mark Rowlands (Exeter), Andy Clark (Edinburgh), Elizabeth Pacherie (CREA Paris), Jay Garfield (Massachusetts), Robert R.Williams (Illinois), and Michael Devitt (CUNY). In 2006 visitors have included Jackie Leach Scully (University of Basel), Stephen Wilkinson (Keele) and Steven Ross (CUNY).
Below is a brief synopsis of some aspects of current research in philosophy at Macquarie. For details of publications and work-in-progress, please contact any member of the academic staff, or consult academic staff members' individual webpages. For pre-prints of published papers please see the pre-prints page.
MIND, METAPHYSICS AND MEANING
Tim Bayne works on the unity of consciousness and agency, and on philosophical issues surrounding delusions. Jennifer Duke-Yonge's main interests concern metaphilosophical issues about the relationship between natural language and logic, especially issues concerning truth, paradox, and the semantic universality of natural languages. Peter Menzies has wide-ranging interests in metaphysics, philosophy of science, and philosophy of mind and language. His main interests concern the metaphysics of causation (including mental causation), counterfactual conditionals, response-dependence, and modality. Nicholas Smith works on anti-representationalist approaches to mind and meaning. He has recently published an edited collection on John McDowell's Mind and World. John Sutton has worked extensively on memory and has wide-ranging interests in the philosophy of psychology and cognitive science. He also has strong interests in 17th century philosophy and science. Mitch Parsell works in the philosophy of mind, broadly construed to include the philosophy of psychology and the foundations of cognitive science. His pet area is distributed connectionist models of folk psychological states, like beliefs and desires.
SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY AND CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY
Jean-Philippe Deranty works mainly in French and German Philosophy, with a particular focus on social and political philosophy. His current research interests include the philosophy of law, critiques of political liberalism, theories of modernity, theories of intersubjectivity, and continental aesthetics. He is writing a book on Axel Honneth's ethics of recognition. Robert Sinnerbrink has wide-ranging interests in 19th and 20th Century European philosophy, contemporary French and German philosophy, critical theory and poststructuralism, philosophy and cinema, and the history of aesthetics. He is currently working on a book project on Hegel, Heidegger, and modernity. Nicholas Smith is well known for his work on Charles Taylor. He is currently researching a number of issues in critical social theory, including the relationship between work and recognition, the bases of social hope, and religion and modernity. In addition, Nick is Director of the Macquarie University Centre for Research on Social Inclusion (based in the Division of Society, Media, Culture, and Philosophy), of which several Macquarie philosophers are members.
ETHICS AND ETHICAL THEORY
Tim Bayne has research interests in applied ethics, particularly parenthood, procreation and death. He also has research interests in the philosophy of religion. Mianna Lotz has research interests in applied ethics as well as social philosophy, with a particular interest in the ethical and social implications of biotechnological developments in the sphere of human reproduction. She also works on childrens' and parents' interests, rights and obligations, and on questions concerning the moral status and claims of contingent future persons. Catriona Mackenzie works in moral psychology, moral philosophy, feminist philosophy and applied ethics. Her current research interests include theories of autonomy, agency and practical deliberation, theories of moral responsibility, conceptions of selfhood and identity, and philosophy of the emotions. She is also interested in a range of issues in bioethics, including reproductive ethics, end of life decisions, and conceptions of autonomy, choice and embodiment in bioethics. Cynthia Townley works on topics within ethics, applied ethics and epistemology including trust, tolerance and intellectual property. A book titled Knowledge, Community and Ignorance, which deals with epistemic virtue theory and interdependence, is in progress.