Research Interests

Moral Responsibility

My approach to moral responsibility is broadly instrumentalist, I defend the view that what ultimately makes an individual morally responsible is the fact that their moral agency can be developed through our practices of holding each other responsible.

In my current project I investigate whether and if so how the fact that an individual suffers from a psychiatric disorder affects their moral responsibility.

I also have a long-standing interest in resultant moral luck.

Moral Psychology

In my research, I investigate aspects of human thought and feeling that are relevant for moral philosophy. This includes a number of questions concerning our moral judgments, such as: what makes us change our views of what is morally acceptable, how do we uphold a positive moral self-image? Do we need to have a realistic moral self-image in order to act morally?

Philosophy of Psychology and Psychiatry

I have worked on unrealistic optimism and self-enhancing beliefs. In the philosophy of psychiatry, I am interested in definitons of psychiatric illness and dysfunction and in the relation between mental disorder and brain disorders. Further issues in this area are problems arising in labelling specific conditions as disorders.

A further interest mine lies in theories of conceptual content. What determines the content of a concept such as, for example 'health'? How do our concepts change, and to what extent do we use words with the same interpersonally shared meaning?

Links to my papers on these topics can be found on the publications page.