I welcome applications for students to come to Edinburgh for PhD supervision with me. In Edinburgh, we have a large and vibrant PhD community (2nd only to Oxford in size), with strength in philosophy of cognitive science. We have a good placement record for our PhD students. Here is information about how to apply and scholarships.
If you are not ready to start a PhD, you should consider our taught MSc in Mind, Language and Embodied Cognition (MLEC). The MLEC is a unique interdisciplinary MSc course based in Edinburgh Philosophy. Around 30 students take the course each year. The programme has a high standing internationally and high levels of student satisfaction. Applicants may hold first degrees in philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, AI, anthropology, and related disciplines.
Currently, I supervise the following PhD students:
Primary supervisor
Secondary supervisor



Past students
2021 | George Deane | The shape of subjectivity: An active inference approach to consciousness and altered self-experience |
2021 | Julian Hauser | Where do I end? Self-models and the representation of our boundaries |
2020 | Luke Kersten | Wide computation: A mechanistic account |
2020 | Nina Poth | categorisation, Bayesian inference and psychological similarity |
2020 | Nicola Damassino | The questioning Turing Test |
2018 | Mark Miller | The entangled predictive brain: Emotion, prediction and embodied cognition |
2018 | Daniel Calder | Predictive processing and mental representation |
2017 | José Araya | Emotion and predictive processing: Emotions as perceptions |
2017 | Sarah Lane Ritchie | With God in mind: Divine action and the naturalisation of consciousness |
2016 | Robert O’Shaughnessy | A concept is a container |
2015 | Sam Baird | Internalism and the explanatory role of narrow content |
2014 | Mario Villalobos | The biological roots of cognition and the social origins of mind |
2014 | David Des Roches-Dueck | Diamonds and corkscrews: A hybrid account of realization |
2013 | Richard Stöckle-Schobel | Concept learning challenged |
2013 | Francesca Rossi | Explaining cognitive behaviour: A neurocomputational perspective |
2012 | Spyros Orestis-Palermos | Extending cognition in epistemology: Towards an individualistic social epistemology |
2012 | Peter Fazekas | Tagging the world: Descrying consciousness in cognitive processes |
2012 | John Bray | Being responsible: Why the self matters in ascribing responsibility for action (M.Phil.) |
2011 | Evan Butts | Epistemology and mind extension |
2021 | George Deane | The shape of subjectivity: An active inference approach to consciousness and altered self-experience |
2021 | Julian Hauser |
Where do I end? Self-models and the representation of our boundaries
Postdoc at Logos group, University of Barcelona
|
2020 | Luke Kersten |
Wide computation: A mechanistic account
Postdoc at the Department of Philosophy at Ruhr University Bochum
|
2020 | Nina Poth |
categorisation, Bayesian inference and psychological similarity
Postdoc at the Department of Philosophy at Ruhr University Bochum
|
2020 | Nicola Damassino | The questioning Turing Test |
2018 | Mark Miller |
The entangled predictive brain: Emotion, prediction and embodied cognition
Assistant Professor at the Hokkaido University’s Center for Human Nature, Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience
|
2018 | Daniel Calder | Predictive processing and mental representation |
2017 | José Araya |
Emotion and predictive processing: Emotions as perceptions
Lecturer in Philosophy and Psychology, Universidad de Talca, Chile
|
2017 | Sarah Lane Ritchie |
With God in mind: Divine action and the naturalisation of consciousness
Lecturer in Theology and Science, University of Edinburgh
|
2016 | Robert O’Shaughnessy | A concept is a container |
2015 | Sam Baird | Internalism and the explanatory role of narrow content |
2014 | Mario Villalobos |
The biological roots of cognition and the social origins of mind
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Universidad de Tarapacá, Chile
|
2014 | David Des Roches-Dueck | Diamonds and corkscrews: A hybrid account of realization |
2013 | Richard Stöckle-Schobel |
Concept learning challenged
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Ruhr-Universitat Bochum
|
2013 | Francesca Rossi |
Explaining cognitive behaviour: A neurocomputational perspective
Research Fellow, Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria, Politecnico di Milano
|
2012 | Spyros Orestis-Palermos |
Extending cognition in epistemology: Towards an individualistic social epistemology
Lecturer in Philosophy, Cardiff University
|
2012 | Peter Fazekas |
Tagging the world: Descrying consciousness in cognitive processes
Postdoctoral research fellow in philosophy and cognitive neuroscience, Aarhus University
|
2012 | John Bray | Being responsible: Why the self matters in ascribing responsibility for action (M.Phil.) |
2011 | Evan Butts |
Epistemology and mind extension
Lecturer in Philosophy, East Tennessee State University
|