Keith Frankish BA (Open), MA (Sheffield), PhD (Sheffield)
Senior Lecturer

Keith Frankish joined the Open University in 1999. Himself a graduate of the OU, Keith went on to do postgraduate work at the University of Sheffield, where he also held a Temporary Lectureship.

Keith’s main research interests lie in philosophy of psychology and philosophy of mind, with a particular focus on the nature of conscious thought and experience. His early work was on folk psychology, which, he argued, has two different strands, corresponding to two distinct levels of mentality (Mind and Supermind, CUP, 2004). His current research has two focuses: dual-process theories of reasoning and the cognitive science of psychopathology. He has recently edited a major collection of papers on dual process theories, in collaboration with Professor Jonathan Evans (In Two Minds, Dual Processes and Beyond, OUP, 2009), and is exploring the implications of a two-level conception of the mind for the understanding of psychotic delusions. In addition, he has recently published papers on doxastic voluntarism and the metaphysics of consciousness, and is currently editing two volumes in the 'Cambridge Handbooks' series, in collaboration with William Ramsey of the University of Nevada (The Cambridge Handbook of Artificial Intelligence and The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Science, both CUP, 2009). Keith also has research interests in the areas of epistemology, philosophy of language, and philosophical logic.

For details of Keith's publications and online versions of some of them, see his publications page.

Keith is a strong believer in the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration. At Sheffield he was also closely involved in the work of the Hang Seng Centre for Cognitive Studies, and was co-editor of the interdisciplinary web journal Connexions. He is Director of the OU’s Mind, Meaning, and Rationality Research Group and recently planned and co-organized a major interdisciplinary research conference on dual-process theories of reasoning and rationality. He is currently engaged in collaboration with Professor Jonathan Evans of the University of Plymouth, exploring aspects of dual-system theory. Keith is also co-owner of a weblog on evolutionary topics, called ‘Evolving Ideas’.

Since joining the OU, Keith has worked on a number of courses. He served on the proto course team for A207 From Enlightenment to Romanticism c.1789-1830, prepared a block on folk psychology for the University’s MA in Philosophy, and wrote a book on consciousness for the third-level course AA308 Thought and Experience: Themes in the Philosophy of Mind. He has served as Deputy Chair of A211 Philosophy and the Human Situation and taught at residential schools for A103 An Introduction to the Humanities and AA301 Philosophy of the Arts. He is currently Chair of AA308. On the administrative front, he has served on the Arts Faculty’s Courses and Awards Committee, IT Development Committee, and New Media Committee, and is currently the Philosophy Department’s representative on the Faculty Research Committee.

Keith is on leave during 2008-2009 and is a Visiting Researcher at the University of Crete.

Keith's CV is available here (pdf format).

Keith also has a webpage on academia.edu.

Email: k dot frankish at open dot ac dot uk

Last updated January 2009