Experimental Philosophy

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Experimental Philosophy
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What is Experimental Philosophy?
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What Have We Been Doing?

• Figuring out mostly conceptual issues
• Ex What is free will? Is it compatible
  with determinism?
• Ex What is the nature of consciousness?
  Is it fundamentally a physical thing?
• Often using thought experiments

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Thought Experiments

• Consider Gettier counterexamples to JTB
• We stipulated a case
• then we asked ourselves Does such a person have
  knowledge?
• We (or at least many) judged that the person
  didnt have knowledge

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Thought Experiments (cont.)

• Its like a scientific experiment but dealing
  with concepts and how we apply them
• The hypothesis is the thesis, view, etc. at issue
  (e.g. JTB)
• The experimental conditions are the stipulations
  (e.g. details of the case)
• The data are our judgments about the case (what
  some call intuitions)

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What Is X-Phi?

• Experimental philosophy (X-phi) involves the
  collection of empirical data to shed light on
  philosophical issues.
• Usually involves surveying people to see what
  judgments they make about certain thought
  experiments

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Intentional Action A Case in the Uses of X-phi
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Intentional Action

• We distinguish between actions done intentionally
  and unintentionally
• Ex I reach for my water intentionally
• Ex While trying to reach for my water, I
  knocked over your coffee unintentionally

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Intentional Action (cont.)

• D.P.P v. Smith (1961) in England Smith swerved
  car back and forth to shake off a policeman
  clinging to the side of the car (which contained
  stolen goods).
• Officer was finally shaken off, rolled into
  traffic, and suffered fatal injuries.

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Intentional Action (cont.)

• Imagine youre on the jury and you must decide
  whether Smith intentionally killed the policeman.
  
• What factors would affect your verdict?
• Certainly things like
• Ex Did Smith foresee that his actions would
  bring about the policemans death?

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Intentional Action (cont.)

• Was killing the police officer a mere
  side-effect of his action?
• Does that mean he didnt bring it about
  intentionally?

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Intentional Action (cont.)

• Would your decision be influenced by the fact
  that Smith brought about a bad result?
• Should it?
• Seems not
• Seems goodness or badness of an action should be
  irrelevant to whether done intentionally

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Mele on Intentional Action

• ...if there is a widely shared concept of
  intentional action...
• a philosophical analysis of intentional action
  that is wholly unconstrained by that concept runs
  the risk of having nothing more than a
  philosophical fiction as its subject matter.
• - Alfred Mele, "Acting Intentionally Probing
  Folk Notions," (2001) p. 27.

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CEO Harm Case

• The vice-president of a company went to the
  chairman of the board and said,
• We are thinking of starting a new program. It
  will help us increase profits, but it will also
  harm the environment.
• The chairman of the board answered,
• I dont care at all about harming the
  environment. I just want to make as much profit
  as I can. Lets start the new program.
• They started the new program. Sure enough, the
  environment was harmed.

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CEO Harm Case (cont.)

• Question
• Do you think the CEO intentionally harmed the
  environment?
• Results
• Yes 82
• No 18

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CEO Help Case

• The vice-president of a company went to the
  chairman of the board and said,
• We are thinking of starting a new program. It
  will help us increase profits, but it will also
  help the environment.
• The chairman of the board answered,
• I dont care at all about helping the
  environment. I just want to make as much profit
  as I can. Lets start the new program.
• They started the new program. Sure enough, the
  environment was helped.

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CEO Help Case (cont.)

• Question
• Do you think the CEO intentionally helped the
  environment?
• Results
• Yes 23
• No 77

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The Knobe Effect

• Evaluative considerations seem to effect
• whether people judge that an action was done
  intentionally
• Note effect found for many other things too
  (e.g. cause, in order to)

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Knobes Explanation

• Attributions of praise and blame were also
  measured
• the total amount of praise or blame that
  subjects offered was correlated with their
  judgments about whether or not the side effect
  was brought about intentionally

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Knobes Explanation

• this asymmetry in peoples assignment of praise
  and blame may be at the root of the corresponding
  asymmetry in peoples application of the concept
  intentional
• namely, that they seem considerably more willing
  to say that a side effect was brought about
  intentionally when they regard that side effect
  as bad than when they regard it as good.

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Knobes Explanation (cont.)

• This reflects something about the ordinary
  (folk) concept of intentional action
• Whether or not a side-effect is regarded as done
  intentionally depends on
• whether the side-effect is blameworthy

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Knobes Explanation (cont.)

• But are people just misusing the concept (or
  something like that)?
• That is, should they be saying this?
• Knobe doesnt take a stand here on that normative
  claim.
• Hes just trying to figure out thenon-normative
  claim

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Macherys (2008) Critique

• Not whether the side-effect is blameworthy
• Its whether the side-effect is perceived to be
  a cost needed to be incurred for the desired
  gain
• And costs are taken to be intentionally incurred
  in order to obtain the benefit
• This is the trade-off hypothesis

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Free Cup Case

• Joe was feeling quite dehydrated, so he stopped
  by the local smoothie shop to buy the largest
  sized drink available.
• Before ordering, the cashier told him that if he
  bought a Mega-Sized Smoothie he would get it in a
  special commemorative cup.
• Joe replied, I dont care about a commemorative
  cup, I just want the biggest smoothie you have.
  
• Sure enough, Joe received the Mega-Sized
  Smoothie in a commemorative cup.

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Free Cup Case (cont.)

• Q Did Joe intentionally obtain the commemorative
  cup?
• Results 45 YES
• Q Was obtaining the commemorative cup
  blameworthy, praiseworthy, or neutral?
• Results 81 NEUTRAL

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Extra Dollar Case

• Joe was feeling quite dehydrated, so he stopped
  by the local smoothie shop to buy the largest
  sized drink available.
• Before ordering, the cashier told him that the
  Mega-Sized Smoothies were now one dollar more
  than they used to be.
• Joe replied, I dont care if I have to pay one
  dollar more, I just want the biggest smoothie you
  have.
• Sure enough, Joe received the Mega-Sized
  Smoothie and paid one dollar more for it.

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Extra Dollar Case (cont.)

• Did Joe intentionally pay one dollar more?
• Results 95 YES
• Was paying one dollar more blameworthy,
  praiseworthy, or neutral?
• Results 90 NEUTRAL

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Combined Results

• Side-effect brought about intentionally?
• Free-cup 45 YES
• Extra-dollar 95 YES
• Side-effect blameworthy, praiseworthy, or
  neutral?
• Free-cup 81 NEUTRAL
• Extra-dollar 90 NEUTRAL

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Macherys Conclusion

• Asymmetry found without correlation with blame
• Predictions of trade-off hypothesis borne out by
  data
• Knobes hypothesis disconfirmed

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What is the Value of Experimental Philosophy?
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X-Phi vs. the Armchair

• Traditional philosophical method involves just
  thinking hard about tough issues (from the
  armchair)
• Should we say (e.g.) an action is done
  intentionally whenever ordinary people say it
  is?
• Not necessarily.

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X-Phi vs. the Armchair (cont.)

• It neednt replace armchair philosophy
• Its suppose to be another tool to add to the
  philosophers toolkit
• Its only useful for certain things we should
  expect ordinary peopleto have a decent grasp of
  (e.g. non-technical terms and concepts)

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Appiah on Value of X-Phi

• X-phi helps keep us honest and enforces a useful
  modesty about how much weight to give ones
  personal hunches, even when theyre shared by the
  guy in the next office.
• But although experiments can illuminate
  philosophical arguments, they dont settle them

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Appiah on the Armchair

• You can conduct more research to try to clarify
  matters, but youre left having to interpret the
  findings they dont interpret themselves.
• There always comes a point where the clipboards
  and questionnaires and M.R.I. scans have to be
  put aside.
• To sort things out, it seems, another powerful
  instrument is needed. Lets see theres one in
  the corner, over there. The springs are sagging a
  bit, and the cushions are worn, but never mind.
• That armchair will do nicely.

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X-Phi vs. Psychology

• But is X-phi really philosophy?
• Isnt this just psychology?
• Well, there arent sharp boundaries between
  disciplines.

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X-Phi vs. Psychology (cont.)

• Psychologists sometimes have to sit in an
  armchair
• Ex to think hard about how best to interpret
  some data
• Doesnt mean theyre not doing psychology

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X-Phi vs. Psychology (cont.)

• Likewise
• Philosophers sometimes do experiments to
  illuminate some philosophical issue
• Doesnt mean theyre not doing philosophy