Overview
Background
Deborah Brown is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the University of Queensland Critical Thinking Project. She is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities and past President of the Australasian Association of Philosophy. Her research interests include philosophy of mind, with a particular focus on philosophical perspectives on pain, the history of philosophy, and applications of critical thinking in education and leadership development programs. Together with neuroscientist, Professor Brian Key, she helped establish UQ's first Neurophilosophy Lab and is on the steering committee for the Centre for Innovation in Pain and Health Research (CIPHeR), the largest consortium of pain health researchers in Australasia.
Availability
- Professor Deborah Brown is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Bachelor (Honours) of Arts, The University of Queensland
- Masters (Coursework), University of Toronto
- Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toronto
Research interests
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Philosophical Perspectives on Pain
Philosophical questions related to pain include what is the nature and function of pain, how does it relate to behaviour, and can we make informed decisions about the capacity for pain in species phylogenetically distant from humans. Professors Brown and Key aim to tackle these questions and have produced a novel approach to understanding and mapping the algorithms the brain executes when it experiences pain. Funded by an ARC Discovery Project grant, their work has been published in front rank journals across several fields of research including philosophy, psychology, physiology, neuroscience, and biology, and continues to have an impact on industry decision-making including, for example, acquaculture. Professors Brown and Key founded UQ's first Neurophilosophy Lab and Professor Brown is a member of the steering committee for UQ's Centre for Innovation in Pain Health Research (CIPHeR), the largest and most impactful consortium of pain researchers in Australasia, united in their aim to 'crack the code' on pain.
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Critical Thinking, Education, and Leadership
As Director of the UQ Critical Thinking Project, Professor Brown leads a team of researchers engaged in translating philosophical and critical thinking for application outside the academy. This includes collaborative research with schools, departments of education, not for profit companies, and the Australian Institute of Police Management, on whose Academic Governance Board she sits. Research collaborations have demonstrated statistically significant correlations between training in critical thinking and improved academic outcomes, improved teacher efficacy in classroom practice, and enhanced leadership capabilities.
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Early Modern Philosophy
Professor Brown is an internationally recognised scholar of Early Modern Philosophy. She is primarily known for her work on Descartes (Descartes and the Passionate Mind (Cambridge UP, 2006) and Descartes and the Ontology of Everyday Life (Oxford UP, 2019 with Professor Calvin Normore, UCLA). She has also written on Hobbes, Spinoza, Malebranche, Hume, Mary Astell, and the Cambridge Platonists. Topics covered include philosophy of mind, metaphysics, philosophy of science, affect theory and moral psychology. She has also written extensively on ancient and medieval thinkers, especially Plato, Aristotle, Stoics, Sceptics, Augustine, Aquinas, Ockham, Scotus, Buridan and Suárez, to better understand the currents playing out in the early modern period (1650-1800).
Research impacts
Professor Brown's work on pain has informed animal welfare decision-making by industry groups. As Director of the UQ Critical Thinking Project, Professor Brown has helped bring philosophical teaching methods and ideas into mainstream teaching across all levels of pre-tertiary education in Queensland and other jurisdictions nationally and internationally. She and her team have engaged with over 450 schools in Queensland alone. Through collaborative research and training agreements with the Australian Institute of Police Management aimed at integrating critical thinking in leadership practice, her work is having a significant impact on police and emergency leadership across Australia.
Works
Search Professor Deborah Brown’s works on UQ eSpace
2024
Book Chapter
Critical thinking
Ellerton, Peter, Leibovitch, Yael and Brown, Deborah (2024). Critical thinking. Teaching Middle Years. (pp. 244-256) London: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003458586-19
2024
Book Chapter
Assessing in the Age of AI
Lodge, Jason M., Ellerton, Peter, Zaphir, Luke and Brown, Deborah (2024). Assessing in the Age of AI. Artificial Intelligence Applications in K-12. (pp. 24-37) New York: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003440192-3
2024
Journal Article
Investigating the impact of critical thinking instruction on writing performance: a multilevel modelling analysis of relative gain data in the Australian National Assessment Program
Normore, George, Leibovitch, Yael M., Brown, Deborah J., Pearson, Samuel, Mazzolo, Claudio, Ellerton, Peter J. and Watt, Glenn (2024). Investigating the impact of critical thinking instruction on writing performance: a multilevel modelling analysis of relative gain data in the Australian National Assessment Program. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 53 101546, 101546. doi: 10.1016/j.tsc.2024.101546
2024
Journal Article
Making sense of feelings
Key, Brian and Brown, Deborah J (2024). Making sense of feelings. Neuroscience of Consciousness, 2024 (1) ARTN niae034, niae034. doi: 10.1093/nc/niae034
2024
Book Chapter
Anxiety, curiosity, and the fracturing of the Self: Descartes and Princess Elisabeth
Brown, Deborah J. (2024). Anxiety, curiosity, and the fracturing of the Self: Descartes and Princess Elisabeth. The moral psychology of anxiety. (pp. 41-62) edited by David Rondel and Samir Chopra. Lanham, MD USA: Rowman & Littlefield.
2024
Book Chapter
Making sense of plant sense
Key, Brian and Brown, Deborah J. (2024). Making sense of plant sense. Philosophy of plant cognition: interdisciplinary perspectives. (pp. 189-209) edited by Gabriele Ferretti, Peter Schulte and Markus Wild. New York, NY, United States: Taylor and Francis. doi: 10.4324/9781003393375-14
2023
Journal Article
Nature, Artifice, and Discovery in Descartes’ Mechanical Philosophy
Brown, Deborah Jean (2023). Nature, Artifice, and Discovery in Descartes’ Mechanical Philosophy. Philosophies, 8 (5) 85, 1-15. doi: 10.3390/philosophies8050085
2023
Journal Article
What if worms were sentient? Insights into subjective experience from the Caenorhabditis elegans connectome
Zalucki, Oressia, Brown, Deborah J. and Key, Brian (2023). What if worms were sentient? Insights into subjective experience from the Caenorhabditis elegans connectome. Biology and Philosophy, 38 (5) 34, 1-25. doi: 10.1007/s10539-023-09924-y
2023
Journal Article
Petticoat power? Mary Astell's appropriation of heroic virtue for women
Brown, Deborah J. and Broad, Jacqueline (2023). Petticoat power? Mary Astell's appropriation of heroic virtue for women. Journal of the American Philosophical Association, 9 (2), 214-233. doi: 10.1017/apa.2022.6
2023
Journal Article
Introduction
Brown, Deborah (2023). Introduction. Australasian Philosophical Review, 7 (1), 1-8. doi: 10.1080/24740500.2024.2364397
2023
Book Chapter
Foundations of Human and Animal Sensory Awareness: Descartes and Willis
Brown, Deborah and Key, Brian (2023). Foundations of Human and Animal Sensory Awareness: Descartes and Willis. Reading Descartes. (pp. 81-99) Florence: Firenze University Press. doi: 10.36253/979-12-215-0169-8.06
2022
Journal Article
The social dimension of generosity in Descartes and Astell
Brown, Deborah J. and Broad, Jacqueline (2022). The social dimension of generosity in Descartes and Astell. Journal of the History of Philosophy, 60 (3), 409-427. doi: 10.1353/hph.2022.0037
2022
Journal Article
Petticoat power? Mary Astell's appropriation of heroic virtue for women
Brown, Deborah J. and Broad, Jacqueline (2022). Petticoat power? Mary Astell's appropriation of heroic virtue for women. Journal of the American Philosophical Association, 9 (2), 1-20. doi: 10.1017/apa.2022.6
2022
Journal Article
A first principles approach to subjective experience
Key, Brian, Zalucki, Oressia and Brown, Deborah J. (2022). A first principles approach to subjective experience. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 16 756224, 756224. doi: 10.3389/fnsys.2022.756224
2021
Journal Article
Neural design principles for subjective experience: implications for insects
Key, Brian, Zalucki, Oressia and Brown, Deborah J. (2021). Neural design principles for subjective experience: implications for insects. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 15 658037, 1-20. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.658037
2021
Journal Article
Working from theory: developing the bases of teachers’ critical thinking pedagogies through action research
Hegazy, Hind, Ellerton, Peter, Campos-Remon, Hannah, Zaphir, Luke, Mazzola, Claudio and Brown, Deborah (2021). Working from theory: developing the bases of teachers’ critical thinking pedagogies through action research. Educational Action Research, 31 (1), 1-16. doi: 10.1080/09650792.2021.1877757
2021
Journal Article
Is absence of evidence of pain ever evidence of absence?
Brown, Deborah J. and Key, Brian (2021). Is absence of evidence of pain ever evidence of absence?. Synthese, 199 (1-2), 3881-3902. doi: 10.1007/s11229-020-02961-0
2021
Book Chapter
Agency, force, and inertia in Descartes and Hobbes
Brown, Deborah (2021). Agency, force, and inertia in Descartes and Hobbes. Reconsidering causal powers: historical and conceptual perspectives. (pp. 94-120) edited by Benjamin Hill, Henrik Lagerlund and Stathis Psillos. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/oso/9780198869528.003.0005
2021
Journal Article
Plant sentience, semantics, and the emergentist dilemma
Brown, Deborah and Key, Brian (2021). Plant sentience, semantics, and the emergentist dilemma. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 28 (1-2), 155-183.
2020
Book Chapter
Descartes’ dualism of mind and body in the development of psychological thought
Brown, Deborah and Key, Brian (2020). Descartes’ dualism of mind and body in the development of psychological thought. Oxford research encyclopedia of psychology. (pp. 1-22) edited by Wade E. Pickren. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.486
Funding
Current funding
Past funding
Supervision
Availability
- Professor Deborah Brown is:
- Available for supervision
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Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
Hume's Scepticism, Ancient Scepticism and the Nature of Sceptical Assent
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Aurelia Armstrong
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Doctor Philosophy
Scepticism of other minds in the animal pain debate
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Brian Key
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Doctor Philosophy
Education to improve Collaborative Complex Decision Making in Intensive Care
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Peter Ellerton
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Doctor Philosophy
Teaching for Thinking: Collaboration and Critical Thinking
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Peter Ellerton
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Doctor Philosophy
The Role of Intuition in English and Literature Classrooms
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Peter Ellerton
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Doctor Philosophy
Human freedom: spinoza, descartes and kant
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Aurelia Armstrong
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Doctor Philosophy
What vaccine hesitancy can teach us about fostering public trust in healthcare artificial intelligence (AI)
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Peter Ellerton
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Master Philosophy
Giving Our Girls A Voice: Using Dialogic Teaching to improve gender equity in classrooms.
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Robyn Gillies
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Doctor Philosophy
Creating curious classrooms through student questions
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Peter Ellerton
Completed supervision
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2023
Doctor Philosophy
Thomas Hobbes; Equality and Recognition: A reinterpretation
Principal Advisor
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2021
Master Philosophy
Is there a Need for a New, an Environmental, Metaphysic? Val Plumwood's Environmental Philosophy Radically Naturalised
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Gilbert Burgh, Dr Peter Evans
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2014
Doctor Philosophy
Hume and Human Error
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor William Grey
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2014
Doctor Philosophy
On The Nature of Persons; Persons as Constituted Events
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Dominic Hyde
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2013
Doctor Philosophy
Human Emotionality: Ontogenesis, Metaphysics and Expression
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor William Grey
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2012
Master Philosophy
Amending and Defending Constitution
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Dominic Hyde
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2005
Doctor Philosophy
SCEPTICISM, CONTEXTUALISM AND NATURAL DOUBT
Principal Advisor
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2023
Doctor Philosophy
Writing as a 21st century skill: A dialogic approach to literacy pedagogy
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Robyn Gillies
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2019
Doctor Philosophy
Context-indexed Counterfactuals and Non-vacuous Counterpossibles
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Joel Katzav
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2019
Doctor Philosophy
Teaching for thinking: explaining pedagogical expertise in the development of the skills, values and virtues of inquiry
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Gilbert Burgh
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2016
Doctor Philosophy
Emotion in Agency : The Problematic Influence of the Split Self and a Spinozist Corrective
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Aurelia Armstrong
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2012
Doctor Philosophy
Spinoza's relational ontology and ethics of desire
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Aurelia Armstrong
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2007
Doctor Philosophy
IRIS - Integrated Referential Intensional Semantics
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Dominic Hyde
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Doctor Philosophy
A Naturalistic Epistemology of Logic
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Dominic Hyde
Media
Enquiries
Contact Professor Deborah Brown directly for media enquiries about:
- Metaphysics
- Philosophy - early modern
- Philosophy of mind and language
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