Agency, Rationality, and Epistemic Defeat: ARED
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Stirling
Department Name: Philosophy
Abstract
Can animals and infants form and revise beliefs in a rational way just like adult humans? What is the relation between human and animal rational agency? While philosophers often deny that infants and animals may properly be said to be rational, on the grounds that they appear to lack the ability to assess their reasons for belief and action, cognitive scientists show little hesitation in describing infants and animals as rational agents in roughly the same sense that pertains to human adults.
ARED aims to create a conceptual framework common to philosophy and cognitive science by developing a characterization of epistemic agency and rationality that applies to all putative rational agents: human adults, infants, non-human animals, and the idealized subjects of many philosophical theories. It will integrate the original philosophical framework with new empirical research on the cognition of non-linguistic creatures that will seek evidence of forms of reflective agency in non-linguistic creatures. Should the experiments prove successful, they would support the ground-breaking hypothesis that the difference between human and animal rationality is a difference of degree, not kind.
The philosophical part of the project will focus on how counterevidence mandates belief revision (rather than on how evidence supports belief). One important feature of the research will be the consideration of the acquisition of the ability to process so-called "undermining defeaters"--counterevidence suggesting that one's beliefs were not properly formed--as the crucial step in moving from unreflective to reflective agency. It will be argued that that is also the crucial link in understanding the relation between human and animal rationality. The empirical part of the project will seek evidence for the existence of a capacity to process undermining defeaters in non-linguistic children, pigs and dogs. Finding such evidence would support the claim that at least some non-linguistic agents are capable of forms of reflective agency very similar to those of adult humans.
The philosophical and the empirical part will inform each other, and the experiments will be designed in the light of discussions involving philosophers, psychologists and ethologists based in Stirling and Vienna. Most of the philosophical work will be done at the University of Stirling, while the empirical studies will happen in Stirling (on infants), and at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna (on animals).
ARED will contribute to the definition of an hitherto neglected area of interdisciplinary research on knowledge and cognition where epistemology meets developmental psychology and ethology, and it may have a wide range of possible applications beyond academia. The experiments on the cognition of pigs and dogs will deliver information relevant for the assessment of welfare in pig-farming and new techniques in dog-training. Evidence relevant to the question of how close animal rationality is to human rationality is important evidence relevant to ongoing debates about animal rights.
ARED aims to create a conceptual framework common to philosophy and cognitive science by developing a characterization of epistemic agency and rationality that applies to all putative rational agents: human adults, infants, non-human animals, and the idealized subjects of many philosophical theories. It will integrate the original philosophical framework with new empirical research on the cognition of non-linguistic creatures that will seek evidence of forms of reflective agency in non-linguistic creatures. Should the experiments prove successful, they would support the ground-breaking hypothesis that the difference between human and animal rationality is a difference of degree, not kind.
The philosophical part of the project will focus on how counterevidence mandates belief revision (rather than on how evidence supports belief). One important feature of the research will be the consideration of the acquisition of the ability to process so-called "undermining defeaters"--counterevidence suggesting that one's beliefs were not properly formed--as the crucial step in moving from unreflective to reflective agency. It will be argued that that is also the crucial link in understanding the relation between human and animal rationality. The empirical part of the project will seek evidence for the existence of a capacity to process undermining defeaters in non-linguistic children, pigs and dogs. Finding such evidence would support the claim that at least some non-linguistic agents are capable of forms of reflective agency very similar to those of adult humans.
The philosophical and the empirical part will inform each other, and the experiments will be designed in the light of discussions involving philosophers, psychologists and ethologists based in Stirling and Vienna. Most of the philosophical work will be done at the University of Stirling, while the empirical studies will happen in Stirling (on infants), and at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna (on animals).
ARED will contribute to the definition of an hitherto neglected area of interdisciplinary research on knowledge and cognition where epistemology meets developmental psychology and ethology, and it may have a wide range of possible applications beyond academia. The experiments on the cognition of pigs and dogs will deliver information relevant for the assessment of welfare in pig-farming and new techniques in dog-training. Evidence relevant to the question of how close animal rationality is to human rationality is important evidence relevant to ongoing debates about animal rights.
Planned Impact
While most people would acknowledge that animals are able to act in ways that satisfy their needs, they would still insist that our cognitive lives are so far detached from ours that they cannot count as fully rational and moral agents. ARED's investigation on epistemic agency has the potential to change the way we think of animals in these respects. By investigating whether non-linguistic creatures are capable of some form of reflective thinking, ARED will investigate directly the link between human and animal rationality, and it could show that animals engage in the same sort of cognitive endeavors that adult humans do (albeit at a different level of complexity). If so, the difference between human and animal rationality will be a difference of degree, not kind.
ARED will execute experiments on the cognitive abilities of pigs and dogs which will also be highly relevant for reviewing welfare in pig-farming and, possibly, inspire new techniques of dog-training. A number of associations of professionals working with animals will be involved in the research through practitioner workshops, and dialogue throughout the project, such as: SSPCA, World Animal Protection UK, National Farmers Union, British Veterinary Association, Nonhuman Rights Project, the UK Center for Animal Law, civil servants (from the office of the Chief Veterinary Officer and Minister of Agriculture, UK), Austrian Veterinary Association (VOEK), Austrian Pig Breeders Association, the National Pig Association, Association of Pet Dog Trainers, the British Institute of Professional Dog Trainers, and the Association of Professional Dog Trainers.
In addition, ARED's investigation on epistemic agency and the normativity of belief-revision will attract the attention of the general public with an interest for philosophy and science. To engage this sector of society a series of eight Cafes Philosophiques and four public lectures will be organized at the Blackwell bookshop and Royal Society of Edinburgh, respectively. These will have as their broad topic "Animal and Human Minds", and will be programmed so as to reflect the more specific project themes and questions, while finding innovative and engaging ways of introducing them. The Cafe Philosophique will involve informal discussions with the public led by an expert, while the public lectures will have a more traditional structure with a 45 minutes presentation and formal Q&A session.
ARED will execute experiments on the cognitive abilities of pigs and dogs which will also be highly relevant for reviewing welfare in pig-farming and, possibly, inspire new techniques of dog-training. A number of associations of professionals working with animals will be involved in the research through practitioner workshops, and dialogue throughout the project, such as: SSPCA, World Animal Protection UK, National Farmers Union, British Veterinary Association, Nonhuman Rights Project, the UK Center for Animal Law, civil servants (from the office of the Chief Veterinary Officer and Minister of Agriculture, UK), Austrian Veterinary Association (VOEK), Austrian Pig Breeders Association, the National Pig Association, Association of Pet Dog Trainers, the British Institute of Professional Dog Trainers, and the Association of Professional Dog Trainers.
In addition, ARED's investigation on epistemic agency and the normativity of belief-revision will attract the attention of the general public with an interest for philosophy and science. To engage this sector of society a series of eight Cafes Philosophiques and four public lectures will be organized at the Blackwell bookshop and Royal Society of Edinburgh, respectively. These will have as their broad topic "Animal and Human Minds", and will be programmed so as to reflect the more specific project themes and questions, while finding innovative and engaging ways of introducing them. The Cafe Philosophique will involve informal discussions with the public led by an expert, while the public lectures will have a more traditional structure with a 45 minutes presentation and formal Q&A session.
People |
ORCID iD |
Giacomo Melis (Principal Investigator / Fellow) |
Publications



Blakey KH
(2022)
Taking account of others' goals in social information use: Developmental changes in 3- to 7-year-old children.
in Journal of experimental child psychology

Blakey KH
Assessing capacities for reflective belief revision in 2-year-old children, dogs, and pigs
in Under review

Blakey KH
(2022)
Children transition from simple associations to explicitly reasoned social learning strategies between age four and eight.
in Scientific reports

Blakey KH
(2021)
Development of strategic social information seeking: Implications for cumulative culture.
in PloS one

Melis G
(2023)
Normative Defeaters and the Alleged Impossibility of Mere Animal Knowledge for Reflective Subjects
in Philosophia

Melis G
Epistemic Rationality Begins Unreflectively
in Under Review

Melis G
(2024)
Are Humans the Only Rational Animals?
in The Philosophical Quarterly

Melis G
(2024)
Rationality and reflection in human and non-human animals
Description | ARED has two broad research aims. The first is to develop a theory of rational belief-revision that applies to human and non-human animals. The second is to test empirically whether some presumed unreflective subjects (young children, dogs and pigs) are capable of basic forms of reflective thought. The theory is being articulated in several publications. Here's a list of those published or accepted so far. Melis (2023) offers a confutation of descriptions of unreflective and reflective knowledge as mutually exclusive. Melis and Monsó (2023) clarifies the difference between unreflective and reflective rational belief-revision and argues that non-verbal subjects may be capable of both. Melis (Forthcoming) highlights the significance of child development to understand the relation between unreflective and reflective rationality. The article outlining the first round of experiment is currently under review. |
Exploitation Route | In academia, ARED shows how traditionally "armchair" disciplines like analytic epistemology can fruitfully cooperate with empirical research. Empirical and philosophical arguments provided by ARED support the view that human and animal rationality do not differ in kind. This is significant beyond academia, as it suggests replacing the current framework where animals merely have the right to be spared from unnecessary pain with one where they are owed respect for their dignity and autonomy. This in turn is relevant to assess practices like intensive farming, which also happen to be one the main drivers of climate change. ARED's work contributes to re-imagine humans' place in the natural world by acknowledging that we are embedded in it and not above or separate from it. |
Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Creative Economy Environment Government Democracy and Justice Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
Description | It's a bit early to say, but there are signs that in academia ARED is inspiring interactions between epistemology and empirical science. One example is the recently established Empirical Epistemology Network, an organization aimed at bringing together epistemologists and empirical researchers from various disciplines. It is partly run by ARED researchers and it will organize two interdisciplinary workshops in 2024. At a societal level, ARED has been engaging with organizations of practitioners such as OneKind, the Scottish SPCA, Battersea. Paws for Project, and APDT UK. We are exploring whether ARED's research on human and animal minds may be relevant for their work. A series of public lectures and other engagements have generated discussion with the public on humans' place in the animal world. |
First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
Impact Types | Cultural Societal |
Description | Postgraduate teaching |
Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
Impact | The collaboration had played a role in the creation of a psychology and philosophy cluster for postgraduate research at the University of Stirling. The research cluster is called "Reasoning, Risk and Rationality", and it is part of the offer for fully funded PhD opportunity of the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Stirling. |
URL | https://www.stir.ac.uk/research/research-degrees/institute-for-advanced-studies-studentships/deployi... |
Description | Plus Funds |
Amount | £23,738 (GBP) |
Funding ID | C17089_PF-024 |
Organisation | United Kingdom Research and Innovation |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2024 |
End | 10/2024 |
Title | Empirical study of reflective belief revision in children, dogs and pigs |
Description | This dataset was collected as part of an original empirical research study conducted with children, dogs and pigs as part of the ARED project. Accompanying documentation: The OSF project that this dataset is part of contains a data dictionary, the materials used to collect the data and the R script used for analysis for the resultant paper. DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/QR6NE License: CC-By Attribution 4.0 International |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | These data form the basis of a paper that is due to be submitted for publication. |
URL | https://osf.io/qr6ne/ |
Title | The role of explicit feedback in adults reflective belief revision |
Description | This dataset was collected as part of an original empirical research study conducted with adult participants as part of the ARED project. Accompanying documentation: The OSF project that this dataset is part of contains a data dictionary and the materials used to collect the data. the R script used for analysis for the resultant paper will be uploaded prior to submission for publication. DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/XHE8T License: CC-By Attribution 4.0 International |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2024 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | These data form the basis of a paper that will soon be submitted for publication. |
URL | https://osf.io/xhe8t/ |
Description | Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna |
Organisation | University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna |
Department | Messerli Research Institute for Human-Animal Interaction |
Country | Austria |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | ARED's team develops the cognitive experiments to be run with human children, pigs and dogs, plus the theoretical framework underlying them. This intellectual input is central for the experiments with pigs and dogs which are being run at the Messerli Research Institute. Our partners at the Messerli will also have access to data concerning the experimenst with children which are being run in Stirling, and they benefit from taking part in all of the project's activities (seminars, workshops, etc.) |
Collaborator Contribution | ARED is an interdisciplary project involing philosophy, developmental psychology and animal cognition. The contibution of animal cognition is provided primarily from our partners at the Messerli Research Institute. They help to shape the theoretical framework underlying the cognitive experiments, the design of the experiments themselves, the topics to be discussed in research seminars, and the organization of the project's workshops. |
Impact | Epistemic Thinking: First and HIgher-Order ARED Workshop (organization) Twitter Account Project Website Student Engagement and Input Minutes Core Team Meetings |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | ARED Workshop 2 Presentation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Kirsten Blakey gave a presentation entitled "Reimagining metacognition: The transition from unreflective to reflective thinking" which included outlining a new framework which the ARED team had been working on. The discussion which followed provided very helpful feedback about the framework and highlighted areas that needed to be worked on further before submitting a manuscript on this topic for publication. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://ared.stir.ac.uk/events/ |
Description | ARED Workshop Presentation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Kirsten Blakey and Giacomo Melis made a joint presentation entitled "In search of reflective thinking in non-linguistic agents: an outline of interdisciplinary work in progress". The discussion which followed provided very helpful feedback to improve both the philosophical and empirical dimensions of ARED's work in progress. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://ared.stir.ac.uk/events/ |
Description | ARED workshop 2: Rational agency, reflection and the varieties of metacognition |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | In its second workshop, ARED aimed to promote the dialogue between the philosophical and empirical study of the mind and rationality by bringing together researchers from different disciplines who are working on the broad themes of rational agency, reflection and metacognition. The event was held at the Messerli Research Institute in Vienna with more than 30 attendees. Below is copied the list of speakers and talk titles. Hannes Rakoczy: The Early Development of Taking and Giving Reasons Eva Schmidt: The Reasons of AI Systems Hanna Schleihauf: Seeking, Evaluating, and Sharing Information - An Evolutionary and Cross-cultural Perspective Preston Stovall: Reflective Single-Minded Agency as the Font of the Transformative Power of Rationality Lieke Asma: Reasons as Actions and Faulty Practical Reasoning Kirsten Blakey: Reimagining Metacognition: The Transition from Unreflective to Basic Reflective Thinking Cathal O'Madagain: Ways of Reasoning in Humans and Other Animals Celeste Kidd: The role of uncertainty in guiding learning and belief formation |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://ared.stir.ac.uk/events/ |
Description | ARED workshop III: Propositional Thought and Truth-Functional Reasoning |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The third ARED workshop brought together philosophers, developmental psychologists, and comparative psychologists to discuss the extent or propositional thought and truth-functional reasoning in non-human animals and very young children. This is a topic that is important for ARED's research and that welcomes multidisciplinary perspectives. We are delighted with the progress of our mission to build bridges between disciplines, and we are now developing a strong network for future collaborations. Indeed, some plans for future events involving speakers at the workshop are being made: for example, Josep Call is due to return to Stirling on June 6 for an in-depth workshop on some of his work. The event was held at the University of Stirling on February 1-2 2024 with the participation of around 50 international researchers (about 25 in person and the rest online). The speakers were: Josep Call (St Andrews), Laura Danon (Cordoba, Argentina), Brian Leahy (Harvard), Hans-Johann Glock (Zurich), Angela Nyhout (Kent), Roman Feiman (Brown), Mark Rowlands (Miami). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
URL | https://ared.stir.ac.uk/events/ |
Description | BCCCD 23 - Poster presentation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Kirsten Blakey presented a poster on the empirical side of the ARED project titled "Searching for reflective belief revision in 2-year-olds" at the Budapest CEU Conference on Cognitive Development (BCCCD), Hungary. Conference attendees showed a lot of interest in the ARED project, the methods being used in the empirical studies and the emerging results. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://bcccd.org/ |
Description | BCCCD24 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Kirsten Blakey gave a presentation entitled "Assessing capacities for basic reflective thinking in 2-year-olds, dogs, and pigs" which outlined the empirical research that has been conducted over the course of the project. The feedback from researchers from a number of different labs was very positive and the Q&A session provided a couple of points to address in the discussion section of the manuscript which is in preparation for submission. The talk was also recorded and can be viewed on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRQLq8WK2ug). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
URL | https://bcccd.org/ |
Description | BERG 2021 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Giacomo Melis gave a talk at the Behaviour and Evolution Research Group of the University of Stirling. The talk was entitled "Are Humans the only Rational Animals?", and its main goal was to begin to build bridges between disciplines by clarifying to an audience of empirical researchers on animal cognition why many philosophers think that rationality is a property that applies only to humans. About 20 people attended the presentation, which generated a lively discussion. Several participants got in touch later with Giacomo to follow up on some points made in the Q&A, and to express interest in the ongoing research. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.facebook.com/bergstirling/photos/a.1435958830041059/2561853910784873/ |
Description | Behaviour and Evolution Research Group talk |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Kirsten Blakey gave a talk "Assessing capacities for reflective belief revision in 2-year-olds, dogs, and pigs" at the Behaviour and Evolution Research Group meeting at the University of Stirling. The presentation was intended to describe the empirical research that has been conducted over the course of the project and to get feedback on the results. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
Description | Bridging the Technological Gap Workshop - poster presentation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Kirsten Blakey presented a poster on the empirical side of the ARED project titled "Searching for reflective belief revision in human infants and non-human animals" at a interdisciplinary workshop 'Bridging the Technological Gap - Spreading technological innovations in the study of the human and non-human mind', Goettingen, Germany. Workshop attendees were very interested in the interdisciplinarity of the ARED project and there were some very interesting discussions about the empirical methodology of the studies with pigs, dogs and children. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.primate-cognition.eu/de/veranstaltungen/bridging-the-technological-gap-workshop.html |
Description | Cafe Philosophique Stirling Science Festival 2023 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | On October 11 2023 Giacomo Melis led a Cafe Philosophique on the relation between human and animal minds. A ten minutes presentation was followed by about an hour of discussion with the participants moderated by Giacomo. Some pictures are available on the ARED website: https://ared.stir.ac.uk/engagement/ |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://stirlingevents.org/tolbooth-event/stirling-science-festival/ |
Description | Comparative cognition seminar 2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Kirsten Blakey gave a talk at the Comparative Cognition group seminar at the Messerli Research Institute, Vienna. The talk was entitled "Developing cumulative culture: A transition from simple associations to explicitly reasoned social learning strategies" and involved discussing the use of comparative research methods in developmental psychology research with researchers who primarily work with non-human animals. About 40 people attended the talk, which generated a lengthy Q&A session. The Q&A included an interesting discussion on the differences in running studies with verbal (human) participants vs. non-human animals. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Culture Conference 2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Kirsten Blakey gave a presentation at the Culture Conference held in Zurich. The Culture Conference brings together international researchers working in fields such as Psychology, Linguistics, Philosophy, Biology and Anthropology. Kirsten's talk was entitled "Do children take others' goals into account in social information use?". The talk prompted questions and discussion about the importance of reporting research findings which contradict many of those in the literature, which is relevant to the goals of this project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | ESPP 2023 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Giacomo Melis gave a talk at the 30th meeting of the European Society for Philosophy and Psychology in Prague. The talk was entitled "Rational belief-formation and reflection in human and non-human animals." It continued the defence of the idea that there is a genuine notion of personal-level rationality that applies to non-human animals, which has been the focus of a previous talk at the Pamba inaugural meeting, and it is at centre of two forthcoming publications by Giacomo. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.espp23.cz/ |
Description | ESPP 2023 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Kirsten Blakey gave a presentation entitled "Reimagining metacognition: The transition from unreflective to reflective epistemic thinking" which outlined the new framework which the ARED team had been working on. The Q&A session provided a couple of interesting avenues to address in writing up the manuscript for publication. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.espp23.cz/ |
Description | ESPP-SPP Symposium |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | ARED was selected to run a symposium on epistemic rationality in very young children and non-human animals at the joint conference of the European and American Societies for Philosophy and Psychology. The four presentations made by ARED members, followed by Q&A with psychologists and philosophers, were an excellent opportunity to gather feedback on the project's work in progress with respect to both its philosophical and empirical components. The speakers were Giacomo Melis, Kirsten Blakey, Kea Amelung, Zsófia Virányi. Developing insights coming from the study of epistemic defeaters, Melis argued that reflective rational belief-revision is epistemically grounded in unreflective responsiveness to epistemic reasons, and that this opens the possibility of basic forms of reflective thinking in some non-linguistic agents. In dialogue with Melis' proposal, Blakey's illustrated work in progress on using a social task to test empirically the conjecture that very young children and some non-human animals may be capable of the basic form of reflective thinking instantiated in responding to some undermining defeaters. Amelung extended the empirical reach of the discussion by outlining related on-going comparative research on the ability of pigs and dogs to assess the reliability of different human informants. Joining the theoretical and empirical perspectives, Virányi critically examined the question whether non-social tasks may offer advantages over social ones in testing non-linguistic agents' ability to reason about the reliability of a source of evidence. The discussion which ensued prompted us to consider the development of a non-social task to test for basic reflective thinking in non-linguistic subjects. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QrzWqSc3vgGb5Hjm0reADxLLhNs5viWa/view |
Description | Epistemic Agency: ARED workshop I |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The first ARED interdisciplinary workshop brought together outstanding philosophers, developmental psychologists, and researchers on animal cognition in a debate on the nature of epistemic agency and rationality. The purpose of the workshop was twofold. First, we aimed to begin a novel interdisciplanary dialogue at the overlap between epistemology, developmental psychology and animal cognition. Second, we were looking for feedback on ARED's own work in progress in both the philosophical and empirical realms. Both goals have been reached to a high degree of success: the discussions were lively and have crossed disciplianry boundaries, and we have received helpful comments on our work. The event was held at the University of Stirling in hybrid format and the participation of over 50 researchers from all over the world. Below is copied the list of speakers and talk titles. Monday January 17: starting time 1:50 pm GMT (2:50 pm CET, 5:50 am PST, 8:50 am EST) 1:50 - 2:00 Welcome 2:00 - 3:20 Agnes Kovacs (CEU): "Flexible update and revision of others' mental states in early development" 3:40 - 5:00 Josef Perner (Salzburg): "Mental Files Join Teleology" 5:20 - 7:00 Hannah Ginsborg (Berkeley): "Non-rational agency in concept-acquisition and language-learning" Tuesday January 18: starting time 3:40 pm GMT (4:40pm CET, 7:40am PST, 10:40am EST) 3:40 - 5:00 Kirsten Blakey & Giacomo Melis (Stirling): "In search of reflective thinking in non-linguistic agents" 5:20 - 7:00 Matthew Boyle (Chicago): "Reflection and rationality" Wednesday January 19 starting time 2pm GMT (3pm CET, 6am PST, 9am EST) 2:00 - 3:20 Ludwig Huber (Messerli, Vienna): "The concept of seeing in dogs" 3:40 - 5:00 Christoph Voelter (Messerli, Vienna): "Do nonhuman animals seek explanations?" 5:20 - 7:00 Hilary Kornblith (Amherst): "Doubts about epistemic agency" |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://ared.stir.ac.uk/events/ |
Description | European Epistemology Network Meeting |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Giacomo Melis gave a talk at the European Epistemology Network Meeting 2022 entitled "Justification, Excuses, and the Epistemic Status of the Beliefs of Victims of Sceptical Scenarios." About 20 professional philosophers joined the discussion, which focused on different epistemic states, such as knowledge, justification, and excuses. The question whether being in such states requires subjects to be aware of being in them is central for the debate on human and animal rationality. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | http://www.europeanepistemology.net/events.html |
Description | Glasgow Science Festival 2023 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | The ARED team held the event "Human and animal minds" over two days at the Glasgow Science Festival 2023. The event was held at the Botanic Gardens in Glasgow and was very well attended by families, on the first day more than 1000 people attended. The event was designed to engage children and adults with questions related to the topics within the project, while adults engaged with some of the more challenging questions through discussion with the ARED team, children were encouraged to think about the relation between human and animal minds though drawing and sorting activities. We had many interesting conversations with the public and several people asked about where to find more information about the empirical results when they are available. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.gla.ac.uk/events/sciencefestival/gsf2023/forward/botanics/headline_918988_en.html |
Description | Happy-Fellow Canine Conference 2023 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Happy-Fellow® Coaching & Consulting organized the two-day Canine Conference 2023 where dog professionals and the interested public could hear about the most recent findings of dog behavioural and cognitive research from 4 international experts. The conference took place in Puchberg, Austria, from 24 to 25 June 2023. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | http://canine.at/index.php/en/ |
Description | Joint Session 2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Giacomo Melis gave a talk at the Joint Session of the Mind Association and the Aristotelian Society 2022, which was entitled "The relation between reflective and unreflective responsiveness to epistemic reasons." Some work in progress on the relationship between first-order and higher-order epistemic thinking was debated with an audience composed by philosophers. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://jointsession2022.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk |
Description | L' Arborense |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Giacomo Melis was interviewed by the Italian newspaper L' Arborense on the 22nd issue of the year 2022, which was published on June 19 2022. The interview concerned Giacomo's work for ARED and his personal and intellectual development. It can be found on page 15 of the relevant issue. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.arborense.it/incontri/1413-giacomo-melis-un-antropologo-in-scozia.html |
Description | LCICD 2022 - poster presentation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Kirsten Blakey presented a poster on the empirical side of the ARED project titled "Searching for reflective belief revision in 2-year-olds" at the Lancaster Conference on Child and Infant Development (LCICD), UK. Conference attendees showed a lot of interest in the ARED project and the methods being used in the empirical studies. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Messerli Workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Giacomo Melis and Professor Ludwig Huber were the main speakers at an interdisciplinary workshop on human and animal rationality held at the Messerli Research Institute of April 1 2022. The participants were mainly philosophers and researchers in animal cognition. The lively debate centred around the variety of notions of rationality and the issue of which is the right one to assess the claim that humans are the only rational animals. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Metacognition: New Developments and Challenges Conference, University of London, U.K. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Giacomo Melis gave a presentation at the international conference on metacognition, a topic closely related to the project's research. The talk was entitled ""Epistemic higher-order thinking and non-metarepresentational metacognition". The presentation was selected among the many submissions received by the organizers, with only six slots available for contributed talks. It was a welcome opportunity to gather initial feedback on the project's main ideas and to begin to disseminate them to an international and interdisciplinary audience. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | http://www.nicholasshea.co.uk/conference/ |
Description | Metacognition: New Developments and Challenges Conference, University of London, U.K. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Kirsten Blakey gave a presentation at the international conference on metacognition, which is a topic closely related to the project's research. Kirsten's talk was entitled "Capacities for explicit metacognition may facilitate distinctively human cumulative culture". This presentation was one of only six presentations selected from the submissions received by the organizers to give a contributed talk. The talk prompted discussion of the differences between implicit and explicit metacognition in human children relative to non-human animals which was highly relevant to the goals of this project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | http://www.nicholasshea.co.uk/conference/ |
Description | Pamba Inaugural Meeting |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Giacomo Melis gave a talk at the inaugural meeting of the Philosophy of Animal Minds and Behaviour Association (Pamba) in Madrid. The talk was entitled "Rational belief-formation and reflection in human and non-human animals," and it was one of only two presentations in the whole conference focusing on responsiveness to reasons in animals. It sparked a lively debate in relation to the originality of the approach to the study of animal cognition, which puts it in direct dialogue with traditional philosophical theories of rationality. Its originality notwithstanding, the presentation was well placed in a conference which raised numerous challenges (including from other FLF holders) to the notion of human uniqueness with respect to rationality, intelligence and cognition. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.the-pamba.com/events-1/inaugural-meeting-of-pamba |
Description | Podium Discussion "How intelligent is artificial intelligence?" |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Organized in frame of the TUesday Lounge of the Technical University of Vienna, on 13 June 2023, seven experts exchanged views and answered questions of a large audience on the potentials of artificial intelligence, with special attention to the question how intelligent AI is and how this question can be empirically addressed. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.tuwien.at/vision/rueckblick-2014-2023 |
Description | Poster presentation at FLF conference 2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Giacomo Melis presented a poster on ARED's work at the FLF conference. The poster sparked discussion with researchers in diverse fields, such as linguistics, sociology, antheopology informatics, environmental studies, economics, medicine, and more. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Project website |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | In the project website we introduce the research team and the scientific board (with links to their personal webpages), and we advertise the project's research, workshops and various activities. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://ared.stir.ac.uk/ |
Description | Psychology Kindergarten Open Day |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Kirsten Blakey ran a stall at the Psychology Kindergarten Open Day at the University of Stirling which was aimed at engaging with the general public and parents/carers of the children who attend or may attend the Kindergarten in the research studies that are being conducted with the children. Kirsten had lots of conversations about the ARED research project and showed short video clips of the study in action. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Psychology Kindergarten Research Booklet |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | The Psychology Kindergarten at the University of Stirling produces an annual research booklet that contains summaries of the research studies that have taken place in the Kindergarten for parents/carers and the general public. Kirsten Blakey and students Chantal Obro, Rebekka Lowe and Brina Recelj produced a summary of the pilot study for the ARED project that took place in 2021 which was published in the research booklet in June 2022. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Psychology Kindergarten Research Open Day |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | May 2021: Kirsten Blakey gave a talk at the Psychology Kindergarten Research Open Day at the University of Stirling, which was entitled "Development of strategic social information seeking". The main aim of the presentation was to promote research in the Psychology Kindergarten through explaining previous research studies that had been conducted using it's facilities and outlining the research studies that were due to take place in the coming months. This included the initial pilot studies for the ARED project. Between 20 and 30 people attended the virtual presentation, which generated many questions about the practicalities and benefits of running a research study using the facilities available in the Psychology Kindergarten at the University of Stirling. May 2022: Kirsten Blakey and Chantal Obro (student) gave a joint presentation at the Psychology Kindergarten Research Open Day at the University of Stirling. The talk aimed to present the results of the ARED pilot study that was conducted with the children in the Kindergarten in late 2021. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |
Description | Public lecture - Ludwig Huber |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Professor Ludwig Huber gave a public lecture titled "The rational animal: Tracing steps in cognitive biology". This prompted a series of lengthy questions from the public who seemed to be very interested in the topic. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://ared.stir.ac.uk/public-engagement/ |
Description | Reflective belief revision in pet dogs, Kune Kune pigs and human infants? |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Kinga Kovacs made a presentation at the Canine Science Forum 2023, which was held in Budapest between July 11 and July 14 2023. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://csf2023.elte.hu/index.html |
Description | STV news interview |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | STV news interviewed Kirsten Blakey as part of the news report on the opening of the University of Stirling's new Lifespan Research Lab. The interview concerned how the new equipment in the laboratory could be used to advance assessment of cognitive abilities in young children. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://news.stv.tv/v/new-stirling-uni-lab-peers-inside-the-minds-of-toddlers |
Description | Second ARED Public Lecture |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | On October 13, Professor Erica Fudge (Strathclyde) gave a public lecture entitled "What were the animals thinking?", which was organized by ARED in collaboration with the Stirling Science Festival. The lecture discussed humans' characterization of animals with a focus on the early modern period, and it was followed by a lively discussion involving both established researchers and the general public. The lecture has been recorded and will be made available on the ARED website. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://stirlingevents.org/tolbooth-event/stirling-science-festival/ |
Description | Stirling Philosophy Work in Progress Seminar 2021 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Giacomo Melis gave a talk at the Stirling Philosophy work in progress seminar on September 23 2021. The presentation was entitled "Epistemic thinking: First and higher-order" and the goal was to obtain feedback on work in progress. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Stirling Practitioner workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | On November 30 2023, the first ARED practitioner workshop was held in Stirling. The event provided a venue for organizations and researchers with an interest in animals minds and welfare to present and discuss their work. The main goals were: (i) identify areas of overlap between the work presented by the different participants; (ii) assess the scope for potential fruitful collaboration in said areas; (iii) attempt the formulation of preliminary research questions or impact-case for each identified area of overlap. We had talks from Zsofia Viranyi for ARED and from representatives of the following organizations: Scottish SPCA, OneKind, Battersea, Association of Pet Dog Trainers, Paws for Progress from the UK, and Gut Aiderbichl from Austria. About 50 people attended, including a dozen or so online. A general question that emerged in discussion and which may inspire possible future collaborations was: 'How can understanding animal minds help us to improve their welfare in rescue centres, in homes, through public education campaigns, and through changes in legislation? While the question has many facets and does not admit of easy answers, we can envisage a way to address it. Roughly, the study of the cognitive dimension, especially if it happened to provide evidence of reflective thought (as ARED aims to do), may bring new arguments to the effect that animals have a rational and moral standing comparable to that of humans. If so, welfare centres need to pay attention to the cognitive lives of animals as well as making sure that their more physical needs are satisfied, and legislators ought to revise the way they think about animal rights. However, for the moment, we are happy to have established ties with the organizations mentioned, which we aim to cultivate in relation to future public engagements and on-going knowledge-exchanges. We plan to continue the conversation with a similar event to be held in Austria in the spring. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://ared.stir.ac.uk/events/ |
Description | Stirling Science Festival Family Day |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | The ARED team the event "Discover the power of teamwork in research!" at Stirling Science Festival's family day on 1th October 2023. The event was held at the Albert Halls in Stirling and was very well attended by local families. This event gave us the perfect opportunity to demonstrate the power of interdisciplinary research. We spent the day offering families the chance to work together to build spaghetti towers and complete puzzles to show how we can bring together experts from different fields to tackle challenging questions. We were also able to recruit participants for our next experimental study through distributing flyers to parents. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://stirlingevents.org/festival/science-festival/ |
Description | Stirling Work in Progress Seminar 2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Giacomo Melis made a presentation at the Stirling Work in Progress Philosophy Seminar. The presentation was entitled "Rationality and reflection in human and non-human animals," and its main purpose was to gather feedback on a paper due to appear on a OUP volume in the Foundations of Human Cognition series. The discussion led to some adjustments in the manuscript. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Striling Philosophy Society 2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | Giacomo Melis gave a talk at the Stirling Philosophy Society on the relation between human and animal rationality on March 18 2022. The event provided an opportunity to illustrate the project's vision to future philosophers and researchers. One year on, some of them are still engaging with it. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Third ARED Public Lecture: Mark Rowlands |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | On January 31 Professor Mark Rowlands (University of Miami) gave a public lecture entitled "World on Fire." The lecture discussed the importance of animal farming in confronting three major crises: climate change, extinction, and infectious diseases. About 50 people attended the lecture, including general public, students, local researchers and international researchers. The presentation was followed by a lively discussion, and is now available on the ARED website. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
URL | https://ared.stir.ac.uk/engagement/ |
Description | Twitter account |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This is the project's twiiter account: @aredproject. We use it to promote the project's research and events. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Two-day seminar by Zsófia Virányi for dog professionals |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Doggo.nl organized a two-day seminar in the Netherlands where Zsófia Virányi shared information with ca. 80 dog professionals about recent research on dog cognition, social behaviour and relationships. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.doggo.nl/doggo-seminars/seminar-zsofia-viranyi/ |
Description | Unione Sarda |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Some weeks after the FLF award was announced, the main Sardinian daily newspaper (L'Unione sarda, about 40000 copies printed daily) interviewed Giacomo Melis. The interview resulted in an article dedicated to Giacomo and ARED. The article occupied 3/4 of a page and included a large photo. The article triggered interest in the general public and likely resulted in a later invitation to give a public lecture at a branch of the University of Third Age in Italy. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
Description | Why and How We Give and Ask for Reasons Conference, University of Hradec Králové, Czech Republic. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Giacomo Melis gave a presentation at a high profile international conference on the practice of giving and asking for reasons. This is a topic closely related to that of responding to reasons, which is a primary focus of the project. Giacomo's presentation was entitled "Epistemic higher-order thinking and responsiveness to reasons in non-linguistic agents". The debate that followed it offered many opportunies the refine the view under development, and to test some of the core insighst of the project (e.g. that linguistic abilities are not necessary for taking evaluative attitudes which are central to reflective responsiveness to reasons). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | http://expro.peregrin.cz/conf.html |