Experimental philosophy

Joshua Knobe; Wesley Buckwalter; Shaun Nichols; Philip Robbins; Hagop Sarkissian; Tamler Sommers

doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100350

Experimental philosophy

Joshua Knobe, Wesley Buckwalter, Shaun Nichols, Philip Robbins, Hagop Sarkissian, Tamler Sommers

Philosophy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article

57 Scopus citations

Abstract

Experimental philosophy is a new interdisciplinary field that uses methods normally associated with psychology to investigate questions normally associated with philosophy. The present review focuses on research in experimental philosophy on four central questions. First, why is it that people's moral judgments appear to influence their intuitions about seemingly nonmoral questions? Second, do people think that moral questions have objective answers, or do they see morality as fundamentally relative? Third, do people believe in free will, and do they see free will as compatible with determinism? Fourth, how do people determine whether an entity is conscious?

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	81-99
Number of pages	19
Journal	Annual Review of Psychology
Volume	63
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100350
State	Published - Jan 1 2012

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Keywords

Causation
Consciousness
Free will
Moral psychology
Moral relativism

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Psychology(all)

Cite this

Knobe, J., Buckwalter, W., Nichols, S., Robbins, P., Sarkissian, H., & Sommers, T. (2012). Experimental philosophy. Annual Review of Psychology, 63, 81-99. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100350

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Access to Document

10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100350