Tillmann Vierkant

Dr Tillmann Vierkant is a Professor of Neurophilosophy of Agency and Free Will at the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences (PPLS) at the University of Edinburgh.

His research interests are centered around questions on the nature of mental actions. His monograph on related issues The Tinkering Mind has appeared in October 2022 with Oxford University Press. He has also worked extensively on topics relating to free will and voluntary action in an interdisciplinary context and is part of a multi million dollar project on the Neuro Philosophy of Free Will (see more here ). He has written also on willpower and the extended mind, implicit bias, self-knowledge, mind reading and connections between language evolution and voluntary action. He has also been involved in X phi exploring folk intuitions on freedom and responsibility. and has edited two volumes on the cognitive science challenge to free will, most notably “Decomposing the Will” (OUP).

His newest research interest is in how to bridge responsibility gaps in AI systems using lessons from neuroethics. This interest has led to a cooperation with Prof Shannon Vallor in the UKRI funded project Making Systems Answer.

He is also very keen to promote outreach and impact in philosophy. He has organised the Scottish Oureach and impact prize in philosophy and his Impact Case Study for the REF 2014 was selected by the College as one of its examples of sucessful impact. He is now the impact officer for philosophy.