Experimental philosophy

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Experimental philosophy (often abbreviated as X-Phi ) is a young philosophical movement in which methods from the empirical social sciences and in particular from experimental psychology are applied. The main purpose of this is to find out how certain problem cases are generally assessed. Using the methods of empirical science, these philosophers conduct experiments on human thought and use the results to argue for philosophical theses. The experimental philosophy can be bordered by the empirically informed philosophy.

Divisions

Empirically informed philosophers do not carry out experiments themselves, but use empirical results for their philosophical arguments.

Two main currents can again be distinguished within experimental philosophy. Proponents of the so-called "positive program" intend to add experimental methods to the method arsenal of philosophy. Proponents of the "negative program" criticize the approach of traditional philosophy with the help of experimental studies.

Development over time

The term had a different meaning in the 17th and 18th centuries. Century: The natural science newly founded by name by Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton was called experimental philosophy, in which the highest criterion of truth was no longer the philosophical principles, but the observations.

Today's experimental philosophers argue that empirical results of philosophical problems can be of use to us by helping us understand the psychological processes behind so-called "philosophical intuitions". This philosophical use of empirical results is controversial; many philosophers see it as the opposite of the kind of philosophy that only uses a priori arguments, the so-called "armchair philosophy ". The term denotes an understanding of philosophizing as an activity that is entirely based on knowledge obtained through reflection in a comfortable armchair (French: armchair ). There is therefore disagreement as to which are the best methods of philosophizing, with experimental philosophy meeting with both enthusiastic approval and vehement criticism.

Topics and priorities

In the beginning, the subjects of experimental philosophy mainly revolved around cultural differences between philosophical intuitions, our intuitions about free will , and certain questions of the philosophy of action. In the meantime, however, experimental philosophers have broadened their research to include most traditional philosophically-relevant terms, such as B. causality , happiness and knowledge . Accordingly, various sub-areas can be distinguished in experimental philosophy. The literature database philpapers.org now distinguishes between the following sub-areas:

literature

  • Joshua Knobe / Shaun Nichols (eds.): Experimental Philosophy (Vol. 1) , Oxford: Oxford University Press 2008, ISBN 9780195323269 .
  • Joshua Knobe / Shaun Nichols (eds.): Experimental Philosophy (Vol. 2) , Oxford: Oxford University Press 2013, ISBN 9780199927401 .
  • Christoph Lütge , Hannes Rusch & Matthias Uhl (eds.): Experimental Ethics: Toward an Empirical Moral Philosophy , Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2014.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lackman, Jon. The X-Philes Philosophy meets the real world , Slate , March 2, 2006.
  2. ↑ Appiah, Anthony. The New New Philosophy , New York Times , December 9, 2007.
  3. ↑ Appiah, Anthony. The 'Next Big Thing' in Ideas , National Public Radio , January 3, 2008.
  4. ↑ Shea, Christopher. Against Intuition , Chronicle of Higher Education , October 3, 2008.
  5. ^ A b Edmonds, David and Warburton, Nigel. Philosophy's great experiment , Prospect , March 1, 2009
  6. ↑ The Experimental Philosophy Page ( Memento of the original from April 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.experimentalphilosophy.org
  7. ↑ Prinz, J. Experimental Philosophy , YouTube September 17, 2007.
  8. ↑ Knobe, Joshua. What is Experimental Philosophy? (PDF; 26 kB) The Philosophers' Magazine (28) 2004.
  9. ↑ Knobe, Joshua and Nichols, Shaun. An Experimental Philosophy Manifesto (PDF; 172 kB), in Knobe & Nichols (eds.) Experimental Philosophy 2008.
  10. ↑ Prince, Jesse. Empirical philosophy and experimental philosophy, in Knobe & Nichols (eds.) Experimental Philosophy 2008.
  11. ↑ Alexander, Joshua; Mallon, Ron; Weinberg, Jonathan. Accentuate the Negative , Review of Philosophy and Psychology , 1 (2), pp. 297-314, 2010.
  12. ↑ e.g. John Theophilus Desaguliers: A Course of Experimental Philosophy , London 1745, S. V (Preface) [1]
  13. ↑ Knobe, Joshua and Nichols, Shaun. An Experimental Philosophy Manifesto (PDF; 172 kB), in Knobe & Nichols (eds.) Experimental Philosophy , § 2.1. 2008.
  14. ↑ Shea, Christopher. Against Intuition , Chronicle of Higher Education , October 3, 2008.
  15. ^ Kauppinen, A. (2007). The Rise and Fall of Experimental Philosophy. In: Philosophical Explorations 10 (2), pp. 95-118. doi : 10.1080 / 13869790701305871
  16. ↑ Ludwig, K. (2007). The Epistemology of Thought Experiments: First vs. Third Person Approaches ( Memento of the original from March 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 173 kB). Midwest Studies in Philosophy. 31: 128-159. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.clas.ufl.edu
  17. ↑ Cullen, S. (forthcoming). Survey-Driven Romanticism. European Review of Philosophy, 9.
  18. ↑ Weinberg, J., Nichols, S., & Stich, S. (2001). Normativity and Epistemic Intuitions. ( Memento of the original from August 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Philosophical Topics 29, pp. 429-460. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / ruccs.rutgers.edu
  19. ↑ Machery, E., Mallon, R., Nichols, S., & Stich, S. (2004). Semantics, Cross-Cultural Style (PDF; 217 kB). Cognition 92, pp. B1-B12.
  20. ↑ Nahmias, E., Morris, S., Nadelhoffer, T. & Turner, J. Surveying Freedom: Folk Intuitions about Free Will and Moral Responsibility ( Memento of the original from November 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link became automatic used and not yet tested. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 231 kB). Philosophical Psychology (18) 2005 p. 563 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www2.gsu.edu
  21. ↑ Knobe, J. (2003a). Intentional action and side effects in ordinary language, (PDF; 20 kB) Analysis 63, pp. 190-193.
  22. ↑ Shaun Nichols & Joseph Ulatowski (2007). Intuitions and Individual Differences: The Knobe Effect Revisited. In: Mind & Language 22 (4): 346–365. doi : 10.1111 / j.1468-0017.2007.00312.x
  23. ↑ Experimental Philosophy at philpapers.org

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