Research projects
Principal Investigator
Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship. Project title: ‘Incredible Beliefs: Understanding Clear-Eyed Believing Against the Evidence’. 2024-2027
Project Member
National Social Science Fund of China––Young Scholars Project. Project title: ‘A Philosophical Study of Perceptual Biases in Social Cognition’. PI: Jie Lu, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University. 2024-2029.
Journal Articles
7. Akratic beliefs and seemings
Australasian Journal of Philosophy (forthcoming)
[Accepted version]
6. One-factor versus two-factor theory of delusion: Replies to Sullivan-Bissett and Noordhof
Neuroethics (2025) 18, Article number: 4
[Open access]
* This is a peer-reviewed response to a commentary on my 2023 paper in Neuroethics.
5. The dark side of clarity
The Southern Journal of Philosophy (2024)
[Open access]
4. Revisiting Maher’s one-factor theory of delusion
Neuroethics (2023) 16, Article number: 15
[Open access]
* A short version for a general audience is posted on Imperfect Cognitions.
3. Can a bodily theorist of pain speak Mandarin?
Philosophia (2023) 51, 261–272
[Open access]
2. Continuing commentary: challenges or misunderstandings? A defence of the two-factor theory against the challenges to its logic.
Cognitive Neuropsychiatry (2019) 24(4): 300-307
[Accepted version | Published version]
1. Delusional beliefs, two-factor theories, and bizarreness
Frontiers of Philosophy in China (2016) 11(2): 263-278
[Accepted version | Published version]
Book Chapters
2. Measuring delusional experiences
In M. S. Overgaard & A. Kirkeby-Hinrup (Eds.), Subjective Measures in Clinical Contexts. Oxford University Press. (commissioned)
1. Why rational people obstinately hold onto irrational beliefs: A new approach.
In E. Schmidt & M. Grajner (Eds.), Epistemic Dilemmas and Epistemic Normativity. Routledge. (commissioned)
PhD thesis
Understanding delusions: evidence, reason, and experience
Department of Philosophy, University of Warwick (2022)
[Warwick Library e-thesis]
Abstract
This thesis develops a novel framework for explaining delusions.
In Chapter 1, I introduce the two fundamental challenges posed by delusions: the evidence challenge lies in explaining the flagrant ways delusions flout evidence; and the specificity challenge lies in explaining the fact that patients’ delusions are often about a few specific themes, and patients rarely have a wide range of delusional or odd beliefs.
In Chapter 2, I discuss the strengths and weaknesses of current theories of delusions, which typically appeal to one or both of two factors: anomalous experience and reasoning abnormality. I argue that anomalous experience can help explain the specificity of delusions, but has difficulties in addressing the evidence challenge; reasoning abnormality can help address the evidence challenge, but has difficulties in explaining the specificity of delusions. This suggests that there may be an important factor that has not been captured by current theories of delusions.
To search for this missing factor, in Chapter 3, I turn to normal believing. Inspired by the literature on Cartesian clarity and phenomenal dogmatism, I develop a dual-force framework of believing, according to which beliefs can be understood as the results of the interaction between the justificatory force and causal force of evidence and the justificatory force and causal force of clear experience, in which something clearly seems to be so to the subject. This framework suggests that the missing factor may be the clear experience with its distinctive phenomenal clarity that compels assent.
In Chapter 4, I return to delusions, and argue that the dual-force framework can help us to get a better grip on some personal descriptions of delusions; make progress in addressing the evidence and specificity challenges of delusions; and shed new light on the underpinnings of delusions. In the end, I conclude with some remaining questions for future study.
Selected Presentations
Why Rational People Obstinately Hold to Irrational Beliefs: A New Approach
The 98th Joint Session of the Aristotelian Society and the Mind Association
University of Birmingham, UK, 12-14 July, 2024
Epistemic Norms, Reasons, and Dilemmas Workshop
TU Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany, 2-4 September 2024
Delusion and experience
Lille University, France, 22-24 May, 2024
Mind, Value and Mental Health: Philosophy and Psychiatry Summer School
University of Oxford, UK, 18-19 July, 2024
The dark side of clarity.
The 97th Joint Session of the Aristotelian Society and the Mind Association
Birkbeck and The Institute of Philosophy, University of London, UK, 7-9 July 2023.
Delusion, two-factor theory and experience.
The 9th Congress of the Society for the Philosophy of Science
University of Paris Nanterre, France, 31 May - 2 June 2023.
Believing what we clearly perceive and being deluded.
The 28th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Philosophy and Psychology
Leipzig-Online, Germany, September 2021.
Jumping to delusions?.
The 27th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Philosophy and Psychology
Athens, Greece, September 2019.
When is a cognitive system immune to delusions?.*
Uniting Two Perspectives on Mental Illness: Philosophy and Linguistics
University of Essex, UK, September 2018.
Jena Summer Symposia in Philosophy
Institut für Philosophie, Friedrich Schiller Universität Jena, Germany, July 2018.
(*An abstract is posted on Imperfect Cognitions, December 2017)
Delusional beliefs and the origin of their contents.
King’s College London, London, UK, November 2017.
Respondent: Jørgen Dyrstad
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