What is Cognitive Progress?

Description

Part of the CRASSH Fellows Work-in-Progress seminar series.  All welcome, no registration necessary.  Sandwich lunch and refreshments provided.

Dr Nick Treanor (Faculty of Philosophy/ Churchill College)

 

Abstract
My project independently raises, and then connects, three issues in epistemology, the philosophy of mind, and metaphysics. On the epistemological side is the question of what it is to know more, or what it is to ameliorate ignorance. On the mind side is the question of how we are to understand the part/whole structure of belief, and in particular the question of whether beliefs are properly understood as individuals. And on the metaphysics side is the question of what the world is like such that more of it can be known, or such that more of it can escape our ken. The questions overlap since one of the issues that needs sorting out if we are to understand what it is to know more, or what it is to be less ignorant, is whether there are what we can think of as doxastic or veritic atoms. Moreover, the questions overlap because as Stalnaker has said, 'one can never fully disentangle questions about the nature of representation from questions about the nature of what is represented.'

To access the Readings for the Work in Progress seminar, please contact Michelle Maciejewska.