Background

Members of the Philosophy Program became eligible to apply for competitive grants awarded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) in 2002. Below is a list of all ARC grants held by Program members and administered within the Program. Lists of earlier grants are maintained in the archives. Additional ARC grants are held in conjunction with scholars from other academic departments and universities. Full details of all ARC grants with which Program members are associated can be obtained by contacting the Program's Administrator.

Current ARC projects

Decision Theory in Crisis
DP130104665
Prof AR Hájek (ANU); Dr RA Briggs (ANU); Prof DP Nolan (ANU)
Year 1: $100,000
Year 2: $100,000
Year 3: $100,000
Our best theorizing about rational decision-making faces a crisis. There are many competing accounts of how our beliefs and desires combine to determine what we should do. Worse, each of these accounts faces serious problems. We thus have no adequate philosophical understanding of rationality, and no adequate theory to guide the decisions that we make—from the ordinary decisions of our daily lives, to the high-stakes decisions of industry and government. We aim to improve the state of the art in decision theory, building on cutting-edge work on conditionals and causation. This will benefit philosophy directly, and also benefit indirectly other disciplines that are concerned with decision-making, including those that inform public policy.

The Basis of Conscious Thought
DP1097264
Prof DJ Chalmers (ANU); Dr U Kriegel (Arizona)
2010 : $121,000
2011 : $40,000
2012 : $97,000
2013 : $90,000
2014 : $98,000

The science and philosophy of consciousness has made much progress in recent years, and the study of conscious thought is the next frontier. The project will place Australian research on the leading edge of this area. An international network of researchers will analyse both the neurobiological basis and the subjective experience of conscious thought, yielding a unified account of conscious thinking from the first-person and third-person perspectives. The resulting account will illuminate the nature of human thinking and reasoning, and will be applied to the detection of consciousness in post-coma patients.

Philosophical Progress
DP110105020
Prof D Stoljar (RSSS, ANU); Prof FC Jackson (RSSS, ANU)
2011 : $80,000
2012 : $75,000
2013 : $75,000

Can there be progress in philosophy? It is often said that philosophical problems are perennials for which it is pointless to expect a solution. On the other hand, professional philosophy seems to have organized itself, perhaps unconsciously, around the opposite view: how else to explain the panoply of conferences, graduate programs, journals, websites etc? Who is right? This project asks what philosophical progress might be, and whether it is rational to think that there is (has been, will be) any. To answer this question we will use a combination of techniques: clarification of the issues, comparative analysis of notions of progress in the sciences and philosophy, and interviews with prominent people in philosophy.

Benefiting from Injustice
DP110100175
Prof RE Goodin (RSSS, ANU); Dr. CH Barry (RSSS, ANU); Dr. GE Overland (CAPPE/Oslo); Dr. L Ypi (LSE)
2011 : $100,000
2012 : $100,000
2013 : $109,000

Do people have duties to address injustices arising from the fact that they are benefiting from them or have benefited from them in the past? This project investigates the quite different ways in which people and groups can be said to benefit from injustice, and the distinct moral reasons that beneficiaries of injustice have to address the harms suffered by the victims of injustice. We also explore the implications of our findings for thinking about key areas of public concern—policies regarding the treatment of former colonies and indigenous populations of colonized territories, international trade, and climate change.

Knowledge of Consciousness (ARC Future Fellowship)
FT100100242
Prof D Stoljar (RSSS, ANU)
2010 : $98,500
2011 : $196,000
2012 : $202,000
2013 : $202,000
2014 : $98,000

Creatures that are both rational and conscious—i.e., most of us, most of the time—possess considerable introspective knowledge of our own psychological states. We know that we know that Vienna is the capital of Austria, that we feel a tingle in the elbow and a host of other things. But what exactly is introspection? How does knowledge by introspection differ from other kinds of knowledge? Why are some psychological states introspectible and some not—e.g. those postulated by cognitive science or linguistics, or those involving deep-seated desire or prejudice? This project explores and defends a new philosophical perspective on introspection, and charts its connection to rationality and consciousness.

The Objects of Probabilities
DP1097075
Prof AR Hajek (RSSS, ANU)
2010 : $ 93,000 

2011 : $ 94,000

2012 : $ 96,000

Probabilities impact almost every aspect of our lives. Actuaries calculate probabilities of property loss due to bushfires, while climatologists warn that such probabilities will increase alarmingly. Probabilities abound in engineering, medicine, the law, the sciences and social sciences, and much philosophy. Yet we lack a proper understanding of the kinds of things that receive probabilities: the objects of probabilities. This project will provide such understanding. It will rethink the foundations of probability and decision theory, with potential ramifications for the philosophy, science, and public policy that are based on these theories. It thus aims to strengthen Australia's research profile and international standing in these areas.