Dr Joshua May
Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, 2011
B.A. California State University, Sacramento, 2005
Email: josh.may@monash.edu
Tel: +61 3 990 20016
Room: W903B - Menzies Building
http://www.joshdmay.com | Curriculum Vitae (pdf)
Research Interests
Moral Psychology, Meta-ethics, Epistemology.
Most of my research is on moral and epistemic thought, reasoning, and motivation. I’m interested in what goes on in our heads when we think about what to do and what to believe. So I try to answer questions like: What motivates us to do what we believe is right? Are we all ultimately self-interested? What do we think is required for attaining knowledge? Can we attain moral knowledge? My main overarching project right now is to develop a moral psychology in the rationalistic tradition that is naturalistic or empirically adequate.
I currently serve as Assistant to the General Editors at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy and an Editor for various categories at PhilPapers. In October 2010, I was awarded the Spindel Emerging Scholar Prize for my paper “Egoism, Empathy, and Self-Other Merging.”
Publications
Articles
- “What in the World is Weakness of Will?” (w/Richard Holton) Philosophical Studies Vol. 157, No. 3 (2012), pp. 341-360.
- “Egoism, Empathy, and Self-Other Merging” Southern Journal of Philosophy Vol. 49 (2011), Spindel Supplement: Empathy & Ethics, Remy Debes (ed.), Emerging Scholar Prize Essay, pp. 25-39.
- “Relational Desires and Empirical Evidence against Psychological Egoism” European Journal of Philosophy Vol. 19, No. 1 (2011), pp. 39–58.
- “Practical Interests, Relevant Alternatives, and Knowledge Attributions” (w/Sinnott-Armstrong, Hull, & Zimmerman) Review of Philosophy and Psychology (formerly European Review of Philosophy), Edouard Machery, Tania Lombrozo, & Joshua Knobe (eds.), Psychology and Experimental Philosophy, Vol. 1, No. 2 (2010), pp. 265-273.
Reviews
- Review of Experimental Philosophy ed. by Knobe & Nichols (2008, OUP), Philosophical Psychology Vol. 23, No. 5 (2010), pp. 711-715.
- Review of Willing, Wanting, Waiting by Richard Holton (2009, OUP), Metapsychology Vol. 13, No. 23 (2009).
- Review of A Very Bad Wizard: Morality behind the Curtain by Tamler Sommers (2009, McSweeney’s), Metapsychology Vol. 13, No. 52 (2009).
Encyclopedia entries
- “Moral Psychology, Empirical Work In” (forthcoming) Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- “Psychological Egoism” (2011), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
More information is available on my website.