Experimental Philosophy
Experimental philosophy, or “x-phi”, applies the methods of experimental psychology to the study of intuitions. In a broad sense, experimental philosophy encompasses any work within philosophy that uses experimental methods to address philosophical questions.
Bristol philosophers working in experimental philosophy:
Ken Binmore’s experimental work has mostly been devoted to testing economic theories of bargaining in the laboratory. The papers are reprinted with a linking commentary in Does Game Theory Work? The Bargaining Challenge, published by MIT Press in 2007. He has also tested various auction designs in the laboratory for commercial enterprises. With Alex Voorhoeve, he is currently studying the extent to which irrationalities deriving from similarity-based reasoning may distort the ethical judgements of subjects asked to evaluate differing public health issues. His next project is to test the extent to which the Hurwicz criterion for making rational decisions under uncertainty can explain experimental behaviour in the Ellsberg paradox.
See also 'An Experimental Test of Rubinstein's Bargaining Model' (paper co-authored with Swierzbinski and Tomlinson)
Bryony Pierce is conducting research in the fields of philosophy of action and philosophy of mind. More information about her experimental work using surveys and online questionnaires will be available here once the first stage of this research has been completed.
Links to Experimental Philosophy resources on the internet:
Experimental Philosophy Society (XPS)
Thomas Nadelhoffer’s Experimental Philosophy blog
Joshua Knobe’s Experimental Philosophy page
University of Arizona Experimental Philosophy Lab
The Experimental Philosophy Page
(Contact Bryony Pierce if you would like your site to be listed here.)
Links to questionnaires:
Selja Seppälä and Edouard Machery's survey on metaphors is now closed.
Fiery Cushman and Eric Schwitzgebel's Moral Sense Test
Bryony Pierce's survey on Direct and Indirect Effects of Action is now closed.
Bryony Pierce's survey on Freedom and the Future is now closed.