Joshua Michael Knobe (; born 1974) is an American experimental philosopher, whose work ranges across issues in

philosophy of mind Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of the mind and its relation to the Body (biology), body and the Reality, external world. The mind–body problem is a paradigmatic issue in philosophy of mind, although a ...

and

action Action may refer to: * Action (philosophy), something which is done by a person * Action principles the heart of fundamental physics * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video gam ...

and

ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...

. He is Professor of Cognitive Science and Philosophy at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

. He is known for his work on the " Knobe effect" and use of experimental methods to understand personal reactions to moral dilemmas.

Education and career

Knobe received his B.A. at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

in 1996 and his Ph.D. from Princeton in 2006, where his dissertation was directed by Gilbert Harman. He was Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

from 2006 until moving to Yale in 2009.

Philosophical work

His work has spanned various topics, including

intentionality Intentionality is the mental ability to refer to or represent something. Sometimes regarded as the ''mark of the mental'', it is found in mental states like perceptions, beliefs or desires. For example, the perception of a tree has intentionality ...

free will Free will is generally understood as the capacity or ability of people to (a) choice, choose between different possible courses of Action (philosophy), action, (b) exercise control over their actions in a way that is necessary for moral respon ...

, the

self In philosophy, the self is an individual's own being, knowledge, and values, and the relationship between these attributes. The first-person perspective distinguishes selfhood from personal identity. Whereas "identity" is (literally) same ...

and

dual-character concept Dual character concepts have two independent dimensions for classification: descriptive and normative. For example, someone is descriptively an “artist” if they earn a living by painting. Normatively, someone is an “artist” only if they l ...

Knobe effect

Knobe is arguably most widely known for what has come to be called the Knobe effect or the "side-effect effect". According to Jones (2009):

Rather than consulting his own philosophical intuitions, Knobe set out to find out how ordinary people think about intentional action. In a study published in 2003, Knobe presented passers-by in a Manhattan park with the following scenario. The
CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...
of a company is sitting in his office when his Vice President of R&D comes in and says, ‘We are thinking of starting a new programme. It will help us increase profits, but it will also harm the environment.’ The CEO responds that he doesn’t care about harming the environment and just wants to make as much profit as possible. The programme is carried out, profits are made and the environment is harmed.

Did the CEO intentionally harm the environment? The vast majority of people Knobe quizzed – 82 per cent – said he did. But what if the scenario is changed such that the word ‘harm’ is replaced with ‘help’? In this case the CEO doesn’t care about helping the environment, and still just wants to make a
profit Profit may refer to: Business and law * Profit (accounting), the difference between the purchase price and the costs of bringing to market * Profit (economics), normal profit and economic profit * Profit (real property), a nonpossessory inter ...
– and his actions result in both outcomes. Now faced with the question ‘Did the CEO intentionally help the environment?’, just 23 per cent of Knobe’s participants said ‘yes’ (Knobe, 2003a).

This asymmetry in responses between the ‘harm’ and ‘help’ scenarios, now known as the Knobe effect, provides a direct challenge to the idea of a one-way flow of judgments from the factual or non-moral domain to the moral sphere. ‘These data show that the process is actually much more complex,’ argues Knobe. Instead, the moral character of an action’s consequences also seems to influence how non-moral aspects of the action – in this case, whether someone did something intentionally or not – are judged.; Knobe (2003b).

Selected publications

* Hitchcock, C. & Knobe, J. (2009). "Cause and Norm". ''Journal of Philosophy'', 106, 587-612. * Knobe, J. (2009). "Answers to Five Questions". In Aguilar, J & Buckareff, A (eds.) ''Philosophy of Action: 5 Questions''. London: Automatic Press.
PDF
* Knobe, J., & Kelly, S. D. (2009). "Can one act for a reason without acting intentionally?" In C. Sandis (ed.), ''New Essays on the Explanation of Action'' (pp. 169–183). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. * Knobe, J. & Nichols, S. (2008). ''Experimental Philosophy''. New York: Oxford University Press. * Nichols, S. & Knobe, J. (2007). "Moral Responsibility and Determinism: The Cognitive Science of Folk Intuitions". ''Nous'', 41, 663-685. * Knobe, J. (2006). "The Concept of Intentional Action: A Case Study in the Uses of Folk Psychology". ''Philosophical Studies''. 130: 203-231. * Knobe, J. (2003a). "Intentional Action and Side Effects in Ordinary Language". ''Analysis'', 63, 190-193. * Knobe, J. (2003b). "Intentional Action in Folk Psychology: An Experimental Investigation". ''Philosophical Psychology'', 16, 309-324.

References

External links

Personal page with a list of published papersAn in-depth autobiographical interview with Joshua KnobeList of Video Discussions
on bloggingheads.tv
Interview at 3AM Magazine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knobe, Joshua Stanford University alumni Princeton University alumni University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty Yale University faculty Living people 21st-century American philosophers American philosophers of mind American moral psychologists 1974 births