People

Principal Investigator

Thomas Pölzler (University of Graz)

Thomas Pölzler is a researcher and lecturer at the Section Moral and Political Philosophy of the University of Graz, Austria. Previously, he also worked at the University of Tokyo and the College of Charleston.

His main areas of research are metaethics and moral psychology. In particular, he is interested in the validity and philosophical relevance of empirical studies on morality (such as studies on folk moral objectivism, the evolution of morality, and moral judgements’ relation to emotions).

Further research interests include basic needs, distributive justice, environmental ethics and the philosophy of Albert Camus.

His articles have been published in journals such as Synthese, Inquiry and Review of Philosophy and Psychology. Most of them can be downloaded at Publications.

He has also written two books, both published by Routledge: A Philosophical Perspective on Folk Moral Objectivism (2022) and Moral Reality and the Empirical Sciences (2018).

Supervisors

Lukas Meyer (University of Graz)
Professor at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Graz
Areas of Research: intergenerational justice, ethics of climate change, historical justice, legitimate expectations, basic needs

Akira Inoue (University of Toyko)
Professor at the Department of Advanced Social and International Studies of the University of Tokyo
Areas of Research: theories of justice, experimental research in political philosophy, democratic theories, history of contemporary political philosophy

Joanna Demaree-Cotton (Oxford University)
Research Fellow at the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics
Areas of Research: moral psychology, experimental philosophy, applied ethics with special focus on bioethics, moral judgments and intuitions

Justin Sytsma (Victoria University of Wellington)
Associate Professor in the School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations at Victoria University of Wellington
Areas of Research: philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, experimental philosophy, philosophy of language, philosophy of science

Collaborators

Norbert Paulo (Freie Universität Berlin)
Interim Professor at the Department of Philosophy of Freie Universität Berlin
Areas of Research: empirically informed ethics, moral psychology, experimental philosophy, political philosophy, applied ethics, Adam Smith 

Jeroen Hopster (Utrecht University)
Assistant Professor of Ethics at Utrecht University, PI of the VENI project “Lost in Transition”
Areas of Research: philosophy of technology, climate ethics, animal ethics, environmental ethics, metaethics, philosophy of biology