Geography of Philosophy
Edouard Machery, Distinguished Professor and director of Pitt’s Center for Philosophy of Science, leads a global network of scholars exploring the world of thought and culture. The Geography of Philosophy Project, funded by the John Templeton Foundation, allows teams of researchers in Eastern Europe, Ecuador, India, Japan, Morocco, Peru, South Africa and South Korea to explore philosophical ideas by asking a set of questions regarding subjects like truth and decision making.
“We’re concerned with the fact that philosophers have mostly assumed that concepts of knowledge, understanding and wisdom are universal,” says Machery. “We know those concepts are of central importance in Western culture. But it is not clear whether this is universally true and whether people in other cultures conceive [of] these concepts similarly.”
“Our research may identify the conceptual differences that contribute to instances of miscommunications between religions and cultures,” Machery explains. “Misunderstandings are sometimes based on what we believe to be default concepts—people assuming everyone thinks like them.
“By mapping what is universal and what is not, we can begin to improve communication across groups.”