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 studies the ontology and nature of the mind and its relationship with the body. The mind–body problem is a paradigmatic issue in philosophy of mind, although a number of other issues are ad ...

and

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

and

ethics Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns ...

. He is Professor of Cognitive Science and Philosophy at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

. He is known for his work on the "

Knobe effect Joshua Michael Knobe (born 1974) is an American experimental philosopher, whose work ranges across issues in philosophy of mind and action and ethics. He is Professor of Cognitive Science and Philosophy at Yale University. He is known for h ...

" and use of experimental methods to understand personal reactions to

moral dilemmas In philosophy, ethical dilemmas, also called ethical paradoxes or moral dilemmas, are situations in which an agent stands under two (or more) ''conflicting moral requirements'', none of which ''overrides'' the other. A closely related definition c ...

Education and career

Knobe received his B.A. at Stanford University in 1996 and his Ph.D. from

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

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 A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which r ...

from 2006 until moving to Yale in 2009.

Philosophical work

His work has spanned various topics, including

intentionality ''Intentionality'' is the power of minds to be about something: to represent or to stand for things, properties and states of affairs. Intentionality is primarily ascribed to mental states, like perceptions, beliefs or desires, which is why it ha ...

free will Free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded. Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgements which apply only to a ...

, and the

self The self is an individual as the object of that individual’s own reflective consciousness. Since the ''self'' is a reference by a subject to the same subject, this reference is necessarily subjective. The sense of having a self—or ''selfhood ...

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 central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...
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 Philosophers of mind Moral philosophers Moral psychologists 1974 births