Edouard Machery

  • Distinguished Professor • Director of the Center for Philosophy of Science

My research focuses on the philosophical issues raised by the cognitive sciences. I have written extensively about concepts: I have argued that the notion of concept is ill-suited for a scientific psychology, and I have criticized the neo-empiricist accounts of concepts. My current research focuses on the methodology of experimental psychology, with a special focus on null hypothesis significance testing, external validity, and issues in statistics. Recent research projects and publications also include the nature and origin of racial categorization, the application of evolutionary theories to human cognition, the nature of culture, and the structure of moral concepts. Finally, I am involved in the development of experimental philosophy, and I have used experimental and quasi-experimental methods to study intuitions about reference, folk judgments about intentional action, causation, the folk concept of race, and the folk concept of phenomenal consciousness.