Understanding Psychological Impossibility

“Understanding Psychological Impossibility” (UPI) will develop the first systematic account of psychological impossibility.

To do this UPI will innovatively combine philosophical theorizing with empirical results from experimental philosophy, and the cognitive and brain sciences.

In three work packages it will develop an 'a priori' account of psychological impossibility (WP1), examine this account using the methods of experimental philosophy (WP2), and then based on these results and normative considerations, such as whether the concept could issue discriminatory or prejudiced judgments, engineer a final account of psychological impossibility (WP3).

UPI will radically improve our understanding of the relationship between people’s options, freedom, and moral responsibility, and provide the theoretical resources for ethical decision making when faced by people who have different affordances for choice and action.

Understanding the way in which people do, or do not, shape their psychology with respect to psychological impossibility will advance our understanding of what happens when things go wrong, and when people develop psychologies that they do not want.

Further, while our psychological impossibility judgments can do a lot of good, shaping our psychologies in a manner that is aligned with the true and good, they can also do a lot of harm.

By understanding why we issue the psychological impossibility judgments that we do, we can then revise that understanding so that we do not prevent people from having access to equal opportunities to pursue their interests and the capacity to develop the kind of psychology that they want.