The Philosophy Department at Carleton University is home to an active research community. Members of the department publish in various subdisciplines of philosophy, including philosophy of mind and language, theoretical and practical ethics, feminist philosophy, the history of philosophy, philosophy of science, aesthetics, and other areas. Over half of our permanent faculty members hold external research grants. In the last couple of years, department members have published books with Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Rowman and Littlefield, and MIT Press. Philosophy students at Carleton often have the opportunity to engage in advanced research, in collaboration with and under the mentorship of faculty members.

Many department members are involved in interdisciplinary and collaborative research; we have close working relationships with colleagues in Cognitive Science, English, the School for Studies in Art and Culture, the College of the Humanities, Sociology/Anthropology, and Political Science, among other units. The department is also home to Carleton University’s Centre on Ethics and Values, an interdisciplinary research centre that takes advantage of Carleton’s location in the national capital by fostering conversations about issues in ethics and public policy between academics and members of the public sector.

Achieved in 2019

Research Grants (awarded beginning 2019):

Joshua Shepherd

1,064,071 EUR for ‘Rethinking Conscious Agency,’ funded by the European Research Council

Gabriele Contessa

$33,010 CAD for ‘The Responsibilities of Economists as Public Experts’ funded by SSHRC

Articles, Book Chapters, and Reviews

Annie Larivée

Book review of The Tomb of the Artisan God: On Plato’s Timaeus. University of Minnesota Press, 2019, pp. 146. https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/the-tomb-of-the-artisan-god-on-platos-timaeus/

“Becoming Socrates. Socrates’ Philosophical Education as Hermeneutic Key to Plato’s Parmenides,” IXth Symposium Platonicum, International Plato Society, Paris, July 2019.

Christine Koggel

“Expanding Agency: Conceptual, Explanatory, and Normative Implications” in Agency, Democracy, and Participation in Global Development, edited by Lori Keleher and Stacy Kosko. Cambridge University Press, 2019: 155-177.

Book review of Wellbeing, Freedom and Social Justice: The Capability Approach Re-examined, Ingrid Robeyns. Cambridge, 2017. Volume 35, Issue 3, November 2019, pp. 573-578.

“Agency, Participation, and Self-Determination for Indigenous Peoples in Canada: Foundational, Structural, and Epistemic Injustices” in Ethics and Economics, Volume 16, Issue 1 (Special issue from the joint Conference GREThA-International Development Ethics Association, A World United: Alliance and Collective Action for an Ethical Development, Bordeaux, June 25-27, 2018). Published October 2019. https://ethique-economique.net/Volume-16-Issue-1.html

Gabriele Contessa

‘Powerful Qualities or Pure Powers?’, Metaphysica, 20, 2019: 5–33. [refereed]

Myrto Mylopoulos

“Opportunities and Challenges for a Maturing Science of Consciousness”, Nature Human Behaviour 3(2), 104-107 (2019)

“Intentions: The Dynamic Hierarchical Model Revisited”, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 10(2), e1481 (2019)

“On Skepticism About Unconscious Perception” (with Jacob Berger), Journal of Consciousness Studies, 26(11-12), 8-32, 2019

Vida Panitch

“Canada’s Assisted Human Reproduction Act and the Exploitation of Gendered Altruism,” Health Law in Canada 39(4) 2019: 52-60.

“Liberalism, Commodification, and Justice,” forthcoming: Journal of Politics, Philosophy, and Economics 

“Basic Income and Intimate Labor,” in The Future of Work, Technology, and Basic Income, Michael Cholbi and Michael Weber eds. (New York: Routledge). June 2019.

“La Merchandisation, le Libéralism, et la Vente du Corps,” in Les Limites du Marché, Marie-Xavière Catto et Elodie Bertrand eds. (Paris: Mare & Marin). September 2019

Panitch, Vida and L. Chad Horne (2019). Paying for Plasma: Commodification, Exploitation, and Canada’s Plasma Shortage,” Canadian Journal of Bioethics 2(2):1-10.

Joshua Shepherd

Knowledge-how, understanding-why, and epistemic luck: An experimental study, with Duncan Pritchard and J. Adam Carter. Review of Philosophy and Psychology (2019)

Self-association and attentional processing regarding salient items, with Alejandra Sel, Jie Sui, and Glyn Humphreys. Review of Philosophy and Psychology (2019)

Associated Editor: Neuroethics, from January 2019

Presented Talks:

Gabriele Contessa

‘Economics and Inductive Risk: The Case of Natural Rate Theory,’ Philosophy of Social Sciences Roundtable, University of Vermont, April 2019

Vida Panitch

“Paying for Plasma: Exploitation, Commodification, and Profit,” w. L. Chad Horne. Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Society Conference, New Orleans, March 30, 2019

“De-Commodification as Exploitation.” Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Society Conference, New Orleans, March 28, 2019

Joshua Shepherd

“Skill and knowledge,” Carleton University, Philosophy Department Colloquium Series, September 13, 2019. (invited)

“Skill and knowledge,” University of Tübingen, April 2019

“Skill and knowledge,” University of Duisberg-Essen, April 2019

“Skill, reason, and the breadth of moral agency,” Duke University, Workshop on Cognitive Control and Moral Responsibility, February 2019

“The moral status of conscious subjects,” Colorado State University, February 2019

Eros Corazza

“Identity, Co-Reference, and Co-Indexation”. Carleton University, Ottawa ON, Canada (invited) 

Gordon Davis

“Pluralisme, réciprocité et délibération: Charles Taylor sur les limites de la délibération profonde dans les contextes transculturels”, to be presented at ACFAS in a panel entitled La Démocratie Délibérative: Habermas, Rawls, Taylor (conv. P. Hoyeck) in Gatineau, Quebec, May 2019 (invited)

“Two Kinds of Realism in Aesthetics and Two Kinds of Idealism in Ecology”, presented to the Carleton University Philosophy Society, 21/03/19 (invited)

“Doing Good while Counting Consequences: The Thought that Counts versus Thoughts that Count”, presented to Carleton Spring Conference (Gananoque, ON), 13/04/19 (invited)

Christine Koggel

“Self-determination and Indigenous Peoples in Canada: Foundational, Structural, and Epistemic Injustices.” Carleton University, Philosophy Department Colloquium Series, March 1, 2019. (invited)

“Epistemic Injustices in Settler Nations: Implications for Accounts of Agency, Participation, and Self-Determination.” Bryn Mawr College, Philosophy Department Colloquium Series, April 11, 2019. (invited) 

Melissa Frankel

“Materialism, immaterialism, and scepticism about the external world,” Carleton University, Philosophy Department Colloquium Series, November, 2019. (invited)

Myrto Mylopoulos

“Unconscious Perception and the Problem of Attribution” Philosophy Colloquium Series, Florida State University, December 2019 (invited)

“On Skepticism About Unconscious Perception” Cognitive Science Colloquium Series, York University, September 2019 (invited)

“The Puzzle of Skilled Action” Mental Faculties and their Metaphysics: An International Philosophy Conference, Shandong University, Jinan, China, May 2019 (invited)

“The Role of Metacognition in Skilled Action” Workshop on Metacognition, Consciousness, and Agency, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, May 2019 (invited)

“Metacognition and Motor Awareness” as part of Symposium on Action Awareness and Metacognition, Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, London, Ontario, Canada, June 2019 (invited)

“Flexibility as a Marker of Agency” (with Robert Foley) Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, London, Ontario, Canada, June 2019

“Intention, Flexibility, and the Vegetative State” (with Robert Foley), Canadian Philosophical Association, Vancouver, Canada, June 2019