Lecture 1: An Experimental Philosophy Manifesto

Lecture 1: An Experimental Philosophy Manifesto

​Ross Colebrook, PhD

Baruch College​

Fill in the Blank

Knobe & Nichols discuss experimental philosophy as a method. What is the opposing method of doing philosophy?

​What is Conceptual Analysis?

​A method in which a philosopher attempts to identify the meaning of a concept by breaking the concept up into its essential components concepts.

​Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for PENCIL

What would the necessary & sufficient conditions for PENCIL be?

1. Writing instrument.

2. Contains graphite in the center.

3. Made of wood on the outside.

Open Ended

What meets these conditions but isn't a pencil?

OR

What doesn't meet these conditions but is a pencil?

Conceptual Analysis in Action:​ Knowledge

S knows that p if and only if:

​1. p.

​2. S believes that p.

​3. Not-p -> S does not believe p.

​4. p -> S believes that p.

​

​If a person meets these conditions, they know p. Otherwise, they don't.

​Conceptual Analysis vs. Experimental Philosophy

​The goal:

Conceptual analysis: determine the necessary & sufficient conditions for the application of a concept.

​​Experimental philosophy: determine the internal psychological processes that underlie the application of a concept (p. 4-5).

​

​The method:

​Conceptual analysis: individual intuition.

​Experimental philosophy: controlled experiments.

Multiple Choice

The goal of experimental philosophy is to...

• determine the necessary & sufficient conditions for the application of a concept.

• Determine the internal psychological processes that underlie the application of a concept.

Multiple Choice

The method of conceptual analysis is...

• Philosophers' intuition.

• Controlled experiments.

Objection A: Majority Opinion Doesn't Matter

"How on earth could information about the statistical distribution of intuitions ever give us reason to accept or reject a particular philosophical view?" (p. 6).

​

​Philosophy isn't a matter of majority-rule!

Open Ended

How do Knobe & Nichols respond to the objection that the majority opinion doesn't matter? (p. 6)

​Knobe & Nichols' Response to Objection A

X-phi doesn't simply figure out what percentage of people have a given intuition and then say that the majority intuition is correct.

​

​Instead, the purpose is to determine the psychological processes that cause these intuitions (p. 6).

​

​Once we have an idea of those processes, we can determine whether those processes are reliable or not! (p. 7-8).

Objection B: Expertise (Version 1)

"...we rely on experts to advance inquiry. It would be absurd for physicists or biologists to conduct surveys on folk intuitions about physics or biology. Rather, physicists and biologists specialize in their domains and advance the field by exploiting their specialized knowledge. The same is true for philosophy...philosophers needn't consult folk philosophy" (p. 8).

Open Ended

How do Knobe & Nichols respond to the claim that philosophers, as experts, have the most reliable intuitions? (p. 8-9)

​Knobe & Nichols' Response to Objection B

While not always the case, commonsense intuitions are very often relevant to philosophical problems (free will, personal identity, knowledge, morality, etc.) (p. 8-9).

​

​If a theory in these areas doesn't address common sense, it looks like it has just changed the subject.

​Objection C: Expertise (Version 2)

"It's true that we are concerned with questions about commonsense concepts. The point is just that philosophers can use those very concepts...with a precision and subtlety that ordinary people can't quite achieve...As a result, philosophers have a more tightly honed ability to arrive at unsullied intuitions about cases than the folk" (p. 9).

​Knobe & Nichols' Response to Objection C

​The best way to investigate how ordinary people differ from philosophers is to conduct experiments!

​

​If these experiments reveal differences between the folk and philosophers, this doesn't immediately mean that the folk are wrong; philosophers' training may have biased them.

​More Reasons for X-Phi

​Diversity: x-phi can reveal cultural diversity in intuitions that may be helpful in assessing the status of various theories (p. 11).

​

​Exploring the mind: even where x-phi doesn't reveal facts about some metaphysical question (e.g. causation), it may still reveal interesting facts about what we think about those metaphysical questions, which also has import for philosophical questions.