Oxford Studies in Experimental Philosophy Volume 4

The new field of experimental philosophy has emerged as the methods of psychological science have been brought to bear on traditional philosophical issues. Oxford Studies in Experimental Philosophy is the place to go to see outstanding new work in the field. It features papers by philosophers, papers by psychologists, and papers co-authored by people in both disciplines. The series heralds the emergence of a truly interdisciplinary field in which people from different disciplines are working together to address a shared set of questions.

This fourth volume showcases the growing depth and breadth of the field. Epistemology and moral psychology have been important foci of past work in experimental philosophy, and the contributions in this volume attest to the ways in which empirical methods are being used to add nuance to previous claims, both theoretical and empirical. Alongside this progress on familiar topics, we see an expansion to new areas in mind and metaphysics, with studies exploring how people typically conceptualize different aspects of mind and different kinds of minds, including the extension of agentive modes of thinking well beyond the mental. The volume concludes where the field began: with explicit attention to philosophical methodology, and the ways in which empirical results can inform philosophical debates.

Tania Lombrozo, Professor of Psychology, Princeton University,Joshua Knobe, Professor of Cognitive Science and Philosophy, Yale University,Shaun Nichols, Professor of Philosophy, Cornell University

Tania Lombrozo is Professor of Psychology at Princeton University. Her research combines methods and insights from philosophy and psychology to address questions about explanation and understanding, learning, causal reasoning, conceptual representation, and social cognition. She is also a regular
blogger for NPR's 13.7: Cosmos & Culture.

Joshua Knobe is Professor of Cognitive Science and Philosophy at Yale University. Much of his research is concerned with the impact of moral judgments on people's intuitions about matters that might at first appear to be entirely non-moral in nature.


Shaun Nichols is Professor of Philosophy at Cornell University. His books include Sentimental Rules (2004), Bound (2014) and, co-authored with Stephen Stich, Mindreading (2003). His current research focuses on the psychological underpinnings of philosophical problems.

Introduction, Tania Lombrozo, Joshua Knobe, and Shaun Nichols
1. Folk Knowledge Attributions and the Protagonist Projection Hypothesis, Adrian Ziółkowski
2. Experimental Evidence that Knowledge Entails Justification, Alexandra Nolte, David Rose, and John Turri
3. Making the Veil of Ignorance Work: Evidence from Survey Experiments, Akira Inoue, Masahiro Zenkyo, and Haruya Sakamoto
4. The Empirical Case for Folk Indexical Moral Relativism, James R. Beebe
5. Empiricism is Natural: It Arises from the Collision of Dualism and Essentialism, Iris Berent, Melanie Platt, and Gwendolyn Sandoboe
6. Dehumanization and Perceptions of Immoral Intergroup Behavior, Larisa Heiphetz and Maureen A. Craig
7. Mentalizing Objects, David Rose
8. Insufficient Effort Responding in Experimental Philosophy, Thomas Pölzler
9. On Second Thought: Reflections On The Reflection Defense, Markus Kneer, David Colaço, Joshua Alexander, and Edouard Machery