I’m a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy of Mind and Cognition at the University of Edinburgh, and a Humboldt Experienced Research Fellow at Ruhr Universität, Bochum.
My research focuses on social cognition and in particular how we think about other people. It's clear that we're very good at understanding other people's behaviours and intentions, even people we've never met before, and I'm interested in understanding how we do it. I have an inter-disciplinary approach and draw on work from developmental psychology, anthropology and neuroscience to support philosophical ideas.
I am also researching the current replication 'crisis' afflicting psychology. There are so many philosophical angles that remain under-explored: how we conceive of data; the inescapable role of theories in shaping experiments; gaining a better understanding of which sorts of psychological phenomena should replicate, and how. There is an unfortunate tendency to associate 'does not replicate' with 'bad science': a connection that philosophers of science have a responsibility to challenge both in public and academic spheres. I am PI on a BA/Leverhulme project exploring these issues.
I'm an experienced lecturer at both undergraduate and post-graduate levels, and I lecture in two of the University of Edinburgh's MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course): Introduction to Philosophy, and Philosophy and the Sciences. I am programme director of the UK's first online graduate course in philosophy, based here at Edinburgh. You can find out more about my online activities under eLearning.
I completed my PhD at the University of Sheffield (2011), and before that I read Philosophy and English Literature (BA Hons) at St John's College, Durham University.
My email address is j.s.lavelle at ed.ac.uk. I work part-time so please be patient if I do not reply to your email straight away!
Although my full name is Jane Suilin Lavelle, the only person who uses that epithet is my mother when she’s annoyed with me. To everyone else I’m Suilin.