Chloë Fitzgerald
Thesis
Intuition, emotion and heuristics: a philosophical investigation into the ethical implications of moral cognition research in neuroscience and empirical psychology
Supervisors
Professor Peter Goldie (Philosophy), Jonathan Quong (Politics)
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Research
My main research interests include ethics, emotions, moral reasoning and moral psychology, meta-ethics, evolutionary ethics, bioethics and phenomenology; I am also interested more generally in philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, philosophy of science, philosophy of social science and aesthetics.
Conference Papers
- 'Could the social sciences help make evolutionary game theory useful for industry and policy-makers?' (Co-authored with Christine Clavien, a researcher at the University of Lausanne ). Presented by both at 'Evolution, Co-operation and Rationality', University of Bristol, September 2009. We suggest ways in which data from the social sciences could be used to make evolutionary game theory more psychologically realistic and predictive of behaviour in specific contexts.
- 'Intuition: belief or emotion?' Presented at 'Emotion, Value and Desire' workshop, Manchester, May 2009. I propose a model of intuition according to which it is not to be identified as a mental type with belief or emotion, but is rather the prompting that precedes diverse kinds of mental events. A consequence of the view is that moral intuitions are neither to be revered nor dismissed, but evaluated according to the status of the underlying dispositions that generate them.
- 'The relevance of empirical research to meta-ethics.' Presented at the Manchester departmental research seminar, November 2008. I argue that empirical research is of little use in settling longstanding meta-ethical debates, but that it can be useful in reframing the way in which these debates are conceptualised.
- 'Thick concepts and their role in moral psychology.' (Co-authored with my supervisor, Peter Goldie) Presented by me on behalf of both at the interdisciplinary workshop, 'Emotions, imagination and moral reasoning', Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science, Sydney, September 2008. The paper argues that thick concepts are pervasive in our everyday moral thinking and strongly commends their use by all researchers in moral psychology. Forthcoming in a publication of the proceedings that will form part of the Macquarie Monographs in Cognitive Science series.
- 'Emotional conflict and social context.' Presented at 'Emotions and Intentionality', Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, April 2008. The paper is an attempt to advance the debate in philosophy of emotion concerning conflicts between emotion and judgement. I argue that the debate should be looked at from a new angle, taking into consideration the social context in which an individual's conflicts occur. Published in a special issue of the journal Organon F
- 'Moral or conventional motivation?' Presented at 'Emotions and moral motivation' workshop, Manchester, November 2007, which I co-organised with Professor Peter Goldie and fellow PhD student, Gayle Impey. I argue that behind the moral/conventional distinction employed in psychology lies a search for a special 'moral' motivation and that this search should be abandoned.
- 'Is moral realism consistent with evolution?' (Co-authored with Christine Clavien) Presented jointly at the annual conference of the International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Science of Biology, Exeter, August 2007 and at 'Darwin's Reach: Celebrating Darwin's Legacy Across the Disciplines', HOFSTRA Cultural Center, New York, March 2009. We argue that someone who takes an evolutionary approach to ethics cannot consistently be a moral realist. Currently under review with a journal.
Teaching
I have been a teaching assistant on the following second year philosophy modules: Ethics, Philosophy of Religion and Phenomenology and on the first year module: Mind and Language.
Additional Information
My current research is funded by a bioethics grant from the Wellcome Trust. I originally came to Manchester in September 2006 to do an MRes in Philosophy, for which I was funded by the AHRC. I was attracted to the Philosophy department at Manchester because I was keen to pursue research into emotions and Professor Peter Goldie, an expert in this field, had recently taken up the Samuel Hall Chair of Philosophy here.
I am currently a referee for Manchester's postgraduate online philosophy journal, Praxis. I helped organise the annual Manchester postgraduate conference on all areas of Philosophy, Open Minds, in June 2008.
I am keen on interdisciplinary research projects and like to be involved in collaboration between philosophy, psychology, anthropology, economics, politics, education, law and other disciplines