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
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
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
2019
Book Chapter
The metaphysics of Cartesian persons
Brown, Deborah (2019). The metaphysics of Cartesian persons. Mind, body, and morality: new perspectives on Descartes and Spinoza. (pp. 17-36) edited by Martina Reuter and Frans Svensson. New York, NY, United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781351202831-3
2019
Other Outputs
Detailed list of studies identified in systematic review of published research examining the critical thinking of higher education students
Lodge, Jason, Pezaro, Charlotte, Brown, Deborah, Kent, Kirsty, Corbett, Brooklyn and Ellerton, Peter (2019). Detailed list of studies identified in systematic review of published research examining the critical thinking of higher education students. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.14264/uql.2019.964
2019
Book
Descartes and the ontology of everyday life
Brown, Deborah J. and Normore, Calvin G. (2019). Descartes and the ontology of everyday life. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/oso/9780198836810.001.0001
2018
Journal Article
Designing brains for pain: human to mollusc
Key, Brian and Brown, Deborah (2018). Designing brains for pain: human to mollusc. Frontiers in Physiology, 9 (AUG) 1027, 1027. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2018.01027
2018
Book Chapter
Animal souls and beast machines: Descartes’s mechanical biology
Brown, Deborah J. (2018). Animal souls and beast machines: Descartes’s mechanical biology. Animals: a history. (pp. 187-209) edited by Peter Adamson and G. Fay Edwards. New York, United States: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/oso/9780199375967.003.0013
2017
Book Chapter
Power and passion in Hobbes, Descartes and Spinoza
Brown, Deborah (2017). Power and passion in Hobbes, Descartes and Spinoza. The Routledge companion to seventeenth century philosophy. (pp. 334-353) edited by Dan Kaufman. New York, NY, United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315771960-12
2016
Book Chapter
Being, formal versus objective
Brown, Deborah (2016). Being, formal versus objective. The Cambridge Descartes lexicon. (pp. 60-65) edited by Lawrence Nolan. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511894695.027
2016
Book Chapter
Passion
Brown, Deborah (2016). Passion. The Cambridge Descartes lexicon. (pp. 563-569) edited by Lawrence Nolan. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511894695.192
2015
Journal Article
Animal automatism and machine intelligence
Brown, Deborah (2015). Animal automatism and machine intelligence. Res Philosophica, 92 (1), 93-115. doi: 10.11612/resphil.2015.92.1.2
2014
Book Chapter
On bits and pieces in the history of philosophy
Normore, Calvin G. and Brown, Deborah J. (2014). On bits and pieces in the history of philosophy. Composition as identity. (pp. 24-43) edited by Cotnoir, A. J. and Baxter, Donald L. M.. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
2014
Book Chapter
The Sixth Meditation: Descartes and the embodied self
Brown, Deborah (2014). The Sixth Meditation: Descartes and the embodied self. The Cambridge Companion to Descartes' Meditations. (pp. 240-257) edited by David Cunning. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CCO9781139088220.013
2013
Book Chapter
Understanding interaction revisited
Brown, Deborah (2013). Understanding interaction revisited. Debates in Modern Philosophy: Essential Readings and Contemporary Responses. (pp. 54-64) Taylor and Francis. doi: 10.4324/9780203078235-4
2013
Book Chapter
Descartes and content skepticism
Brown, Deborah (2013). Descartes and content skepticism. Descartes' Meditations: a critical guide. (pp. 25-42) edited by Karen Detlefsen. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9781139030731.005
Funding
Current funding
Supervision
Availability
- Professor Deborah Brown is:
- Available for supervision
Before you email them, read our advice on how to contact a supervisor.
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
Scepticism of other minds in the animal pain debate
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Brian Key
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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
Dialogic Pedagogy and the Impact on Gender Equality in Classroom Interactions
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Robyn Gillies
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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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Doctor Philosophy
Teaching for Thinking: Collaboration and Critical Thinking
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
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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: 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
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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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