Sometimes philosophers complain that scientists do philosophy badly and that philosophers may thereby be underrated. The idea is that people could have better philosophy if they just turned to academic philosophers rather than the popular scientists that have done philosophy badly. (Perhaps analogous complaints about philosophers circulate among scientists). In this post, I want to … Via Nick Byrd, Ph.D. - Using science and technology to understand and improve how we think ..read more

In this episode, I read my short paper with Morgan Thompson in WIRES Cognitive Science titled, “Testing for Implicit Bias: Values, Psychometrics, and Science Communication”. You may have heard about implicit bias. It is measured by indirect rather than direct measures of bias. We reconstruct arguments from debates about these measures, reveal some instances of … Via Nick Byrd - Postdoc. and Asst. Professor studying how to improve reasoning, well-being, and technology ..read more

This time I read my 2022 paper in Review of Philosophy and Psychology titled, “Great Minds Do Not Think Alike: Philosophers’ Views Predicted by Reflection, Education, Personality, and Other Demographic Differences“. As the title suggests, various psychological factors predicted variance in philosophers’ answers to classic philosophical questions. This raises questions about how psychological and demographic … Via Nick Byrd - Postdoc. and Asst. Professor studying how to improve reasoning, well-being, and technology ..read more

In this episode, I read one of my 2022 articles in Metaphilosophy titled, “Bounded Reflectivism & Epistemic Identity“. Does reflective reasoning help or hinder our judgment? In this paper, I take a middle view between reflectivism and anti-reflectivism that I call bounded reflectivism. The idea is that reflection is a tool that can be used … Via Nick Byrd - Postdoc. and Asst. Professor studying how to improve reasoning, well-being, and technology ..read more

On this episode, I read one of my articles from 2021 titled, “Reflective Reasoning and Philosophy” in Philosophy Compass. Both philosophers and cognitive scientists seem to think that philosophical thinking could depend on whether we reason intuitively or reflectively. In this paper, I review the claims, scientific methods, evidence, and what we may need to … Via Nick Byrd - Postdoc. and Asst. Professor studying how to improve reasoning, well-being, and technology ..read more

Every semester I begin courses by asking students to close their eyes and imagine a philosopher doing philosophy. When I ask students to share what they imagined, I get classic stereotypes. “An old guy” says one. “With a beard,” adds another. “Yeah, in a toga!” yells someone in the back. […] byrdnick.com/teaching#teachingstatement This is unsurprising. … Via Nick Byrd - Postdoc. and Asst. Professor studying how to improve reasoning, well-being, and technology ..read more

Some colleagues and readers have asked about my experience with grant applications. Perhaps the most common questions is just “Where do I find out about grant opportunities?” That one is fairly straightforward. As usual, I recommend the automated or passive method: find websites that will crawl the internet for what you seek and then send … Via Nick Byrd - Fellow and Assistant Professor (to be) studying cognitive science of philosophy (and philosophy of cognitive science ..read more

In 2020, I deferred a tenure track job one year to start a postdoc. By Fall 2021, I had started the tenure track position (restructuring the postdoc as an external grant). In this post, I will report my time-logging data for all of 2020 and 2021, which includes my final 7 months of graduate school, … Via Nick Byrd - Fellow and Assistant Professor (to be) studying cognitive science of philosophy (and philosophy of cognitive science ..read more

I have been considering changes to my Philosophy of Mind syllabus. One kind of change would be to include non-Western philosophies and philosophers. So I did what every scholar of our era does when it’s time to venture in to new territory: I asked #PhilosophyTwitter. In this post, I’ll share the results. 1. The Twitter … Via Nick Byrd - Fellow and Assistant Professor (to be) studying cognitive science of philosophy (and philosophy of cognitive science ..read more

On this episode of Upon Reflection, I read my 2021 paper in Logoi titled, “On Second Thought, Libet-style Unreflective Intentions May Be Compatible With Free Will“. Imagine if I could predict your behavior before you even became of your conscious of your intention to behave that way. Would this mean that you don’t have free … Via Nick Byrd - Fellow and Assistant Professor (to be) studying cognitive science of philosophy (and philosophy of cognitive science ..read more