PhD Students
Visiting Address: P.A. Munchs hus, Room 281
Mailing Address: CSMN, P.O. Box 1020, Blindern 0315, Norway
Heine
A. Holmen
Heine A. Holmen joined the CSMN as doctoral fellow in December 2007. He received his MA degree in philosophy at the University of Oslo in June 2007 under supervision of CSMN core member Carsten M. Hansen. His research project at the CSMN concentrates on metaphysical issues pertaining to mind, rationality and agency. The aim is to explore and employ a metaphysical framework that relies on a theory of facts and a basic knowledge-account to various issues in philosophy of language, -action, -mind, and –rationality. He will explore possible interactions between those fields of research and match them with results and insights stemming from so-called knowledge-first epistemology and the metaphysics of facts and -knowledge. Heine’s project is a continuation of his work in the MA-thesis, ‘The Primacyof Knowledge: A Critical Survey of Timothy Williamson’s Views on Knowledge, Assertion and Scepticism’, which investigated Timothy Williamson’s views on knowledge and his emphasis on its centrality to mind and rationality, as well as his application of knowledge-first epistemology to combat epistemic scepticism.
Heine’s main research interests are in metaphysics and epistemology with an eye to issues regarding agency, rationality, mind, and language. In particular he is interested in the metaphysics of content or -representation, issues in epistemology of language and language mastery, theories of facts and -truth, and the slingshot argument. Besides that he also has special interests in the problem of scepticism, the lottery paradox, the realism-antirealism debate in philosophy of language, the bearing of externalism on semantics and the philosophy of mind, as well as the special challenges connected with having a scientific understanding of rationality and rational behaviour of intentional agents.
Heine will be a one-year visitor at Rutgers Centre for Cognitive Science (RuCCS) - Rutgers State University starting February 2009.
Homepage: http://sites.google.com/site/philosopherheineholmen/
Torfinn Huvenes
Homepage: http://www.hf.uio.no/ifikk/om-instituttet/ansatte/vit/torfinh.xml
(More information about Torfinn will be posted soon)
Georg Kjøll
Georg Kjøll is working on pragmatics, conceptual representation
and the relationship between language and thought. His PhD project
concerns the language of morality and emotions, and applies the
framework of Relevance Theory in a cross-linguistic investigation
of the representation and use of words denoting abstract objects.
He is supervised by Professors Deirdre Wilson and Jan Terje
Faarlund from the Linguistic Agency Programme, but aims to develop
an interdisciplinary project and employ insights from philosophy of
mind and moral philosophy, as well empirical work in psychology and
cognitive science.
Georg graduated with an MA in Pragmatics from University College
London in 2007. His dissertation treated opposing views of
linguistic content and communicative context, using the cases of
poetry and slang as examples. He holds a BA in Language Studies
from the University of Oslo, where his main field of study was
rhetorics and communication. Formerly a student of Literature and
French, he maintains a strong academic interest in poetics and
stylistics, as well as creative language use and linguistic aspects
of miscommunication.
He is the co-founder and co-convenor of the weekly 'CSMN Seminar
on Language and Rationality'.
georgak@hf.uio.no
http://www.georgkj.com
+47 228 41667
Kari Refsdal
Kari Refsdal is a member of the group on moral agency. The overall question of her project is the following: is there a necessary connection between rational agency and moral agency? The way she understands this question, it amounts to the following: does any rational agent have a reason to act as she is morally obligated to act?
More information on Kari and her project can be found here: http://www.hf.uio.no/ifikk/om-instituttet/ansatte/vit/kariref.xml
+47 228 41664
Mathias Sagdahl 
Mathias Sagdahl works in the research area of rational agency. The topic of his project is the relationship between rationality and normative facts. Mathias aims to develop and defend a pluralistic account of normativity which includes widespread incommensurability of reasons. An important question he tries to answer is how one can rationally respond to such incommensurable reasons. He argues that this calls for an alternative conception of practical reasoning and the role and nature of rationality.
Mathias got his MA-degree from the University of Oslo in June 2008, and started his Ph.D. in February 2009. He has also worked on moral and political philosophy, and is interested in subjects like self-ownership, conscription, and international relations.
He will be a visitor at the University of Oxford, starting January 2010.
m.s.sagdahl@ifikk.uio.no
Lalaine H. Siruno
Lalaine H. Siruno is working on the CSMN sub-project on moral agency. She studied Philosophy and Psychology in the University of the Philippines – Diliman, and Applied Ethics in Linköping University (Sweden) and Utrecht University (the Netherlands). Lalaine’s areas of interests among others include meta-ethics, applied ethics (i.e., bioethics), gender studies, feminist philosophy, and socio-political philosophy. She has done research and published articles on commercial organ donation, the ethics of obesity and interventions, and medical migration.
Her Ph.D. project is entitled "Back to Basics: A Reiteration of the Role of Needs in the Attainment of Capabilities." The main objective is to formulate a modified a needs-based approach to human development. In particular, she is working to devise a clear-cut framework by which to identify, assess, and prioritize genuine need-claims.
Since April 2009, Lalaine is a visiting researcher at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), Department of International Development, University of Oxford.
l.h.siruno@csmn.uio.no
(+47) 228 41665 / 406 40121
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