Chris Ovenden
Thesis
Agential Control
Supervisors
Thomas Smith and Joel Smith
Research interests
Philosophers have spilt a great deal of ink over the likes of free will, alternate possibilities, moral responsibility, reasons, beliefs, desires, intentions and intentionality. Relatively little, however, has been said on the nature of control. This is suprising given the role that control plausibly plays in accounts of these other concepts: acting freely, morally responsibly and intentionally might, prima facie, look like they they involve a certain level of control on an agent's part; what's more, we might expect an account of beliefs, desires and especially intentions to, in part at least, aim to explain how agents exert control over themselves and their behaviour.
My research focuses upon providing an analysis of agential control and shedding some light on how it fits into debates about free will, alternate possibilities, moral responsibility and the like.
Teaching experience
I have been a tutor for Critical Thinking, first year Logic, Mind and Language, and Knowledge and Reality.
This year (2011/12) I will be tutoring Critical Thinking and Discovering Reality.
chris.ovenden@manchester.ac.uk