Overview
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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Early Modern Philosophy
Early Modern Philosophy covers the period of philosophical thought roughly from 1650-1800, and encompasses radical changes in philosophical and scientific thinking and their intersection. Research interests include early modern and medieval theories of mind, action, metaphysics and epistemology, as well as social and political thought. Key figures of the early modern period include Descartes, Hobbes, Malebranche, Hume and the Cambridge Platonists and of the later medieval period, Aquinas, Ockham, Scotus, Buridan and Suárez.
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Logic and the Philosophy of Science
Logic and the Philosophy of Science examines fundamental issues in formal and informal reasoning, the nature of scientific reasoning, and other issues concerned with scientific method, scientific knowledge, the rise of modern science, the nature of scientific entities and metaphysical concepts that underlie science. Research interests include the emergence of the notion of force and theories of inertia, causation, emergent properties, functions and mereology.
Works
Search Professor Deborah Brown’s works on UQ eSpace
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
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) 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
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
2020
Journal Article
Minds, morality and midgies
Key, Brian and Brown, Deborah (2020). Minds, morality and midgies. Animal Sentience, 5 (29) 24. doi: 10.51291/2377-7478.1619
2020
Journal Article
Reichenbachian common cause clusters
Mazzola, Claudio, Kinkead, David, Ellerton, Peter and Brown, Deborah (2020). Reichenbachian common cause clusters. Erkenntnis, 87 (4), 1707-1735. doi: 10.1007/s10670-020-00269-6
2019
Journal Article
Reasons: a digital argument mapping library for modern browsers
Kinkead, Dave, Brown, Deborah, Ellerton, Peter and Mazzola, Claudio (2019). Reasons: a digital argument mapping library for modern browsers. Journal of Open Source Software, 4 (37), 1044. doi: 10.21105/joss.01044
2019
Other Outputs
You look but do not find: why the absence of evidence can be a useful thing
Brown, Deborah and Key, Brian (2019, 04 23). You look but do not find: why the absence of evidence can be a useful thing The Conversation
2019
Journal Article
Women and Liberty, 1600-1800: Philosophical Essays
Brown, Deborah (2019). Women and Liberty, 1600-1800: Philosophical Essays. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 97 (3), 1-1. doi: 10.1080/00048402.2018.1561734
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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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
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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
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
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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2019
Doctor Philosophy
Context-indexed Counterfactuals and Non-vacuous Counterpossibles
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Joel Katzav
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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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