The Australian Research Council last month announced the winners of its latest round of Future Fellowships.
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The fellowship awards are roughly AU $1 million, and are intended to support 4-year projects.
The philosophy faculty named in this recent round of fellowships include:
Guillermo Badia (The University of Queensland)
A project to develop new many-valued logics to help machines reason about data that is scored with numbers, probabilities, security access levels, etc. This is a significant issue since a great deal of information we handle in daily life comes in this form. This project expects to improve how we ask questions of complex databases by producing novel techniques and explore how much time and memory computers need to answer them. This has potential for applications in AI, secure data access and disease tracking, among others. The expected outcomes are novel logical tools for understanding and optimizing queries. Benefits include the development of distinguished expertise in Australia to lead in logic for advanced data technologies.
Stephanie Collins (Monash University)
This project aims to build a new ethical framework for business corporations, in light of recent Australian corporate scandals. It expects to generate a rigorous, philosophically grounded framework that reimagines what business corporations are and what they are for, using an innovative methodology that engages business ethics advisors and policymakers in ethical dialogue. Expected outcomes include new ethical principles to guide corporate governance and regulation, focused on the energy, care, and banking sectors. By reconceiving how business corporations can be contributors to wellbeing, the Fellowship’s benefits will include a positive transformation in how we understand and conceptualise ethics in business.
Nicholas Evans (Monash University)
This project aims to develop a comprehensive, unified ethical framework for decision making in Australian health security covering preparation for and responses to naturally occurring disease pandemics, biological weapons, and laboratory containment failures. The project expects to generate new knowledge in bioethics, using innovative and interdisciplinary methods to identify ethical responses during public health crises, and understand Australians’ beliefs about government preparation and responses to those crises. Expected outcomes of this project include novel bioethical frameworks in public health, improved trust in Australian pandemic response, and ethics guidance for Australian public health and national security policymakers.
Peter Evans (The University of Queensland)
Quantum theory works, but it fails to provide a clear picture of how and why it works. This project aims to address this problem by building a philosophical framework that places observers inside the scientific picture. Drawing on tools in philosophy and quantum physics, this framework expects to rethink objectivity for the quantum age, and demonstrate practical utility through case studies in optical clock networks and quantum devices. Expected benefits include a transformative new understanding of quantum reality, strengthened dialogue between science and humanities, and reinforced Australian research capacity and leadership in the rapidly growing quantum sector.
Luara Ferracioli (The University of Sydney)
This project aims to assess the ethics of demographic renewal, the process by which new citizens join a political community over time. Low fertility rates around the world raise the question of whether it is legitimate and ethical for liberal democracies to adopt pro-natalist polices, thereby encouraging citizens to have more children than they would otherwise. This project expects to generate new knowledge in political philosophy and public policy by developing a new theory of family formation policies.
Sandra Leonie Field (Monash University)
This project aims to investigate fundamental questions of human agency: when are my desires just passively ‘from the outside’ and when do they count as active and ‘really mine’? Developing underappreciated theoretical resources from the great 17th century philosopher Spinoza, the project will generate new knowledge about Spinoza’s philosophical system and new knowledge in political philosophy concerning individual and collective agency. Expected outcomes include a novel Spinozist theoretical paradigm for political philosophy, and enhanced research capacity through the development of an Early Career Researcher network.
The full list of Fellowship winners is here.
