PHIL 3503 - Experimental & Appl Research

3 Semester Hours
A project-based course focusing on original research identified by the student; the instructor Experimental philosophy uses concept analysis to identify which questions traditionally associated with philosophy (epistomology, free will, morality, casual inference, etc) may be at least partly addressed by using the experiemental research methods of cognitive science, neuroscience,; psychology Applied philosophy takes a particular problem or phenomenon,; employs a set of methods to analyze; make recommendations for solving the problem or explaining the phenomenon Those methods include conceptual analysis, definitional clarification, problem identification, assumption identification, possibility gridding, logical analysis, field observation, thick phenomenological description, text mining,; experimental research Students interested in this course should contact the instructor to discuss research ideas; meeting times (which are very flexable; not linked to the standard course meeting times) While the Philosophy department has significant resources for projects in moral psychology, biomedical ethics; medicine, students may wish to propose projects in law, public policy, religion, or science Recent student projects include analyzing interpersonal trust, correlating political positions with moral psychology, the spread of ADHD as a diagnosis, the role of public assistance in promoting obesity, moral psychological causes for literary character popularity, motivations for anti-vaccination choices among educated people,; the problems in declining empathy among physicians