Dr. Hanno Sauer (PI)

I am an Associate Professor of philosophy at Utrecht University. My main research topics are in moral psychology and empirically informed meta-ethics. I am interested in whether and how we can bring empirical data from diverse disciplines such as social psychology, neuroscience or cognitive science to bear on questions of normative and/or meta-ethical interest, and what the limits of this approach are.

Contact: h.c.sauer@uu.nl

Dr. Karolina Kudlek (PostDoc)

Prior to joining the project, I completed a PhD in philosophy of technology at the University of Twente. I also hold a master’s and bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Zagreb. My general areas of interest include normative ethics, bioethics, philosophy of technology, and moral psychology. In my previous work, I largely focused on the ethical assessment of new and emerging technologies, such as human and moral bioenhancement. I’m especially interested in how ethical theory can provide guidance for the bioethical debate on improving moral decision-making and behavior.

Charlie Blunden (PhD Student)

I have studied philosophy at the University of Reading, UK, and I have a research master’s degree in philosophy from Utrecht University. I’m interested in the interdisciplinary area between political philosophy, political science, psychology, and economics. I’m particularly interested in problems of ignorance and irrationality in democracies, and in how different institutional environments can scaffold or undermine human cognition and motivation.

Paul Rehren (PhD Student)

Before joining the project, I studied philosophy and physics at Bielefeld University, Germany, and completed a master’s degree in liberal studies at Duke University, USA. I’m interested in various topics in moral psychology, including moral judgment and decision-making, the psychology of punishment, free will, and moral reasoning. I also think a lot about how empirical research can (or can’t) be used in philosophical arguments.

Dr. Cecilie Eriksen (Affiliated Researcher)

I have a master’s degree in philosophy and a PhD in law, both from Aarhus University, Denmark. My main research area is moral philosophy (normative ethics and meta-ethics), and I also have an interest in moral anthropology and legal history. Recently, I have published on the topics of moral change as well as the thinking of K.E. Løgstrup and the later Wittgenstein.

Maarten Peels (Research Intern)

During my bachelor in Philosophy at UU, I took up the topic of politics. Besides taking courses on political philosophy and administrative studies, I followed an internship at the Dutch G1000, an NGO that organizes citizen’s assemblies, after which I wrote my thesis on Spinoza’s free speech. Currently I am following the Master Applied Ethics at UU. I’m interested in topics relating to prehistory, specifically the mental and social development of Homo Sapiens towards the end of the last Ice Age. During my participation in the Moral Progress project I will do multidisciplinary research into the ethics of hunter-gatherers.