"Reason and Inquiry is a major contribution to the philosophy of mind, the psychology of reasoning, and cognitive science, with implications for linguistics, epistemology, and decision theory. The erotetic theory looks set to be a key player in future debates on the nature of rationality."
TIMOTHY WILLIAMSON
Wykeham Professor of Logic
University of Oxford
"An insightful treatment of reason and rationality, explaining many puzzles and integrating many viewpoints."
STEVEN PINKER
Johnstone Professor of Psychology
Harvard University
"It is easy for researchers in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to get excited with our technical achievements and lose track of the big questions: what is intelligence, and how does it work? This thought provoking and wide-ranging book prompts us to look again at our field: to revisit the most basic questions surrounding our endeavour, and, perhaps most importantly, to consider new directions for the future."
MICHAEL WOOLDRIDGE
Co-Director for AI
The Alan Turing Institute


ABOUT
Fulford Clarendon Associate Professor
of Philosophy of Mind and Cognitive Science
University of Oxford
Senior Research Associate
Institute for Ethics of AI
University of Oxford
Fulford Fellow
St. Catherine's College
Ph.D. (Philosophy and Neuroscience) Princeton University
B.A. Pomona College
My main interest is the human capacity for reasoning and decision-making. My recent book Reason and Inquiry presents a theory of this capacity and its two-faced nature: On the one hand, we are subject to systematic fallacies and framing effects, empirically documented in psychology and behavioural economics. On the other hand, we largely get things right and are capable of incredible feats of rationality. I argue that our minds naturally aim at resolving issues or answering questions as directly as possible, and if we are inquisitive enough in the process, we can get the kind of rationality required for science, philosophy, and classical economic agents as a special case. I am also interested moral judgment and in definitions of general intelligence, both in humans and in artificial intelligence (AI). I regularly collaborate with computer scientists on formal work on these topics. I have also had many past collaborations with colleagues from psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, and environmental systems.
Updates
January 17, 2023 First meeting of "A Theory of Reason" graduate seminar with Sean Moss (Computer Science)
Research
Reasoning and Decision-Making
Moral judgment and Delusional thinking
Attention and Perception
(selected for symposium at www.philosophyofbrains.com, replies by Chris Mole, Felipe de Brigard, Sebastian Watzl, et al.)
Language

Teaching
I regularly offer the following graduate seminars:
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A Theory of Reason: Philosophy, Psychology, and Algorithms
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Topics in Minds and Machines: Perception, Cognition, and AI
I regularly offer undergraduate instruction on the following, among other topics:
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Philosophy of Cognitive Science
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Philosophy of AI
I have offered doctoral supervision in both philosophy and computer science in a variety of topics including language, consciousness, and moral judgment.