Devin Sanchez Curry

Specializations

• Philosophy of Mind
• History and Philosophy of Science

Research Interests

Most of Dr. Curry's writing investigates mental phenomena—such as beliefs, values, and intelligence—that both lay people and cognitive scientists invoke in order to mark differences between creatures with minds. These phenomena provoke several fascinating questions. What are the similarities and dissimilarities between lay and scientific approaches to understanding people (and other animals)? How do the two inform one another? Are the mental phenomena that feature in lay discourse identical to the phenomena studied by psychologists or neuroscientists? If not, how do they relate? How do social practices of mental state attribution influence people's actual mental states? And are the differences between people—e.g. in what they believe or value, or in how smart they are—of particular import to the metaphysics of mind? What about the differences between people and other minded animals? Dr. Curry pursues answers to these questions via both systematic and historical research in the philosophy of psychology.