Raphaël Fiorese
Doctoral Student
Email: raphael.fiorese@arts.monash.edu.au
Phone: +61 3 990 58546 (office)
Thesis Topic:
"Psycho-Physical Reduction and Mental Causation"
Supervisors:
Background and interests:
I came to Monash from France in 2006. I hold a Maîtrise – i.e., roughly, a Honours degree – in Philosophy from Sorbonne University, and a M.A. in Information and Communication Studies from Sorbonne Nouvelle University.
My doctoral research is in metaphysics of mind. More specifically, I am interested in models of psycho-physical reduction and their implications for mental causation. In the last few months I’ve worked on “new wave” reduction (an account of intertheoretic relations which originates in the works of Paul Churchland and Clifford Hooker, and has been further elaborated by John Bickle). Presently I am concerned with Jaegwon Kim’s “supervenience argument” to the effect that mental properties are either physically reducible or causally impotent.
My areas of scholarly interest include: metaphysics, philosophy of science/knowledge, Descartes, Nietzsche.
Philosophy aside, I enjoy playing music, taking photos, riding my newly acquired bike and taking strolls through the streets of Melbourne.
If you would like to join the MPPA online discussion forum (http://groups.google.com/group/mppa-dialogos), please email me.
Should you be interested, my academic CV is available here (pdf format).