University of Alabama at Birmingham

Faculty Member, Philosophy

Assistant Professor

College of Arts and Sciences

About

My research is situated at the intersection of philosophy of neuroscience, philosophy of mind and philosophy of science and has its origin in a single basic question: What light does contemporary neuroscience shed on the relationship between mind and brain? ? My approach to this question is unique insofar as I contend that answering it requires directing analytical scrutiny at the investigative strategies neuroscientists use to probe this relationship. To this end, the project at the heart of my research program is to develop and refine a conceptual framework for analyzing experiments and experimental practice in the neurosciences of cognition (e.g., Sullivan 2009). By applying elements of this framework to cognitive neurobiological case studies, my work has illuminated an interesting set of epistemological problems that require solutions (e.g., Sullivan 2009, 2010a, 2010b). Characterizing the nature and sources of these problems, identifying their implications for the explanatory goals of neuroscience, and developing viable strategies for overcoming them, are the primary aims of my current research.

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