People

Home > People > Profile

Shaun Nichols

Professor of Philosophy
Ph.D., Rutgers University, 1992
Philosophy of Psychology, Experimental Philosophy
Personal Website

Shaun Nichols joined the Arizona philosophy department in 2006.  His current research projects are in experimental philosophy, cultural evolution, free will, and cognitive theories of the imagination.

Books

  • Nichols, S. 2004. Sentimental Rules: On the Natural Foundations of Moral Judgment. New York: Oxford University Press.
 
  • Nichols, S. and Stich, S. 2003. Mindreading: An Integrated Account of Pretense, Self-awareness and Understanding Other Minds. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
 

Selected Publications

  • Nichols, S. forthcoming. “Imagination and the I.” Mind & Language.
 
  • Roskies, A. and Nichols, S. forthcoming. “Bringing Moral Responsibility Down to Earth.” Journal of Philosophy.
 
  • Nichols, S. 2007. “The Rise of Compatibilism: A Case Study in the Quantitative History of Philosophy.” In P. French and H. Wettstein (ed.) Midwest Studies in Philosophy, XXXI. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 260-270.
 
  • Nichols, S. and Knobe, J. 2007. “Moral Responsibility and Determinism: The Cognitive Science of Folk Intuitions.” Noûs, 41, 663-685.
 
  • Nichols, S. and Ulatowski, J. 2007. “Intuitions and Individual Differences: The Knobe Effect Revisited.” Mind & Language, 22, 346-365.
 
  • Nichols, S. and Mallon, R. 2006. “Moral Dilemmas and Moral Rules.” Cognition, 100, 530-542.
 
  • Nichols, S. 2004. “Folk Concepts and Intuitions: From Philosophy to Cognitive Science.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8, 514-518.
 
  • Nichols, S. 2004. “The Folk Psychology of Free Will: Fits and Starts.” Mind & Language, 19, 473-502.
 
  • Nichols, S. 2002. “How Psychopaths Threaten Moral Rationalism: Is It Irrational to Be Amoral?” The Monist, 85, 285-304.
 
  • Nichols, S. 2002. “Norms with Feeling: Towards a Psychological Account of Moral Judgment.” Cognition, 84, 221-236.
 
  • Nichols, S. 2002. “On the Genealogy of Norms: A Case for the Role of Emotion in Cultural Evolution.” Philosophy of Science, 69, 234-255.

Books Edited

  • Knobe, J. & Nichols, S. 2008. Experimental Philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press.
 
  • Nichols, S. 2006. The Architecture of the Imagination: New Essays on Pretense, Possibility, and Fiction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Teaching

  • Introduction to Cognitive Science (LING/PHIL/PSYC 569)
  • Seminar in Philosophy of Mind (PHIL 596K)
  • Philosophy and Psychology (PHIL/PSYC 451/551)