Ellen Nora Burns

5th Year Graduate Student | Ph.D. program in Philosophy

My main research interests are in the contemporary philosophy of mind. I am particularly interested in exploring how Chomsky’s work on generative grammar can inform how we approach questions about the mind in philosophy. My dissertation is on the mind-body problem. It begins with Chomsky’s argument that the mind-body problem currently resists formulation because we have no concept of a ‘body’, and explores, if Chomsky is right, how we might re-frame contemporary mind-body debates (Cartesian in essence) which — accepting the traditional categories ‘mind’ and ‘body’ — centre around whether core aspects of the mind, such as consciousness, can be understood in scientific terms.