Group Thinking: New Foundations

A new project aims to transform an award of 1,997,997 euros to Robbie Williams (PI) for “Group Thinking: new foundations"

The project will take place between March 2019 and February 2024, and examines the metaphysics of collective belief and desire and their theoretical role inside and outside philosophy. The project team includes Heather Logue, Thomas Brouwer and Daniel Elstein and will be recruiting two 4-year postdoctoral researchers and two PhD students to start in September 2019. 

This project aims to transform understanding of collective representation, its nature, and its significance. It seeks to reveal the underlying unity between the facts that constitute the beliefs and desires of individuals, and the facts that constitute the beliefs and desires of groups. Claims about 'the will of the people' are a central and hotly contested part of public discourse, and this project will bring rigour to such talk by identifying the facts that must be checked to determine whether the claims are right or wrong.