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Rethinking Conscious Agency

Objective

This project will investigate the nature, structure and significance of conscious agency along three related fronts.
First, although philosophers have emphasized the importance of various aspects of consciousness for human agency, work on conscious agency within philosophy remains unsystematic. Cross-talk regarding the phenomena at issue hampers progress, as does a lack of significant attention to the richness of the phenomenology that accompanies human agency. In response, we will develop a new account of the nature and mechanistic underpinnings of agentive phenomenology.
Second, although psychology’s recent progress in explaining agentive capacities – e.g. metacognition, cognitive control, attention, perception, decision-making, and motor acuity – is impressive, insights regarding the importance of consciousness for these capacities need to be made explicit, and leveraged to construct a next generation model of action control. In response, we will map the phenomenology of agency onto the structure and function of action control capacities, with special focus on three areas: the role of explicit knowledge and its signatures within consciousness, the function of phenomenal states for cognitive control resource allocation, and the relationships between conscious intentions and perceptual feedback.
Third, we will deploy the tools of experimental philosophy – that is, the use of psychological methods to study philosophical questions – in two novel areas. First, we will complement and advance this project’s philosophical work by experimentally investigating agentive phenomenology. Second, we will explore the practical and moral significance of conscious agency, by determining what aspects of conscious agency drive commonsense moral thinking about responsibility for action.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

ERC-STG - Starting Grant

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2017-STG

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Host institution

UNIVERSITAT AUTONOMA DE BARCELONA
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 35 315,00
Address
EDIF A CAMPUS DE LA UAB BELLATERRA CERDANYOLA V
08193 Cerdanyola Del Valles
Spain

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Region
Este Cataluña Barcelona
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 35 315,00

Beneficiaries (2)

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