PhD Candidate · Philosophy · Purdue University
Gavin
Robert
Foster
I work on the evolution and development of social cognition: how humans and other animals come to represent minds, knowledge, and desire. My research spans philosophy of mind and cognitive science, comparative and developmental psychology, and Kant's theoretical philosophy.
Affiliate, Social and Cognitive Origins Group
Department of Psychology & Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University
Selected Publications
Metarepresentation and the puzzle of desire-attribution
Foster, G. R., & Westra, E.
Do dogs rationally infer the causes of failed actions?
Bastos, A. P. M., Foster, G. R., & Krupenye, C.
Research Areas
Theory of Mind & Mindreading
How humans and other animals attribute knowledge, belief, and desire: the logical problem of mindreading and factive accounts of knowledge attribution in primates.
Comparative & Developmental Cognition
Empirical and conceptual research on animal minds, from monkeys and great apes to dogs and human infants, including hands-on experimental work in comparative psychology.
Norm Psychology
Whether non-human primates are genuinely normative creatures. I argue that the absence of third-party punishment among primates is no good reason to deny them a norm psychology, since even humans often sustain social norms without it.
Bounded Rationality
Groundwork for a bounded epistemic non-consequentialism that is Kantian in spirit, applying Kantian epistemology to the philosophy of inquiry while taking seriously the boundedness of human cognition.
Kant on Moral Psychology & Education
A "synthetic Kantian" reconstruction of Kant's moral psychology and education, reconciling his account of childhood and moral development with contemporary developmental and moral psychology.
Get in Touch
I'm always happy to discuss research, collaboration, or questions about my work.
foste362 AT purdue DOT edu