Name: Harry Drummond

Thesis Title: Social Cognition and Aesthetic Experience

Research Interests:
My research investigates the role of social cognition in aesthetics and the philosophy of art, and the implications thereof. For example, I explore whether we can engage in shared aesthetic experiences, whether aesthetic responses to artworks involve empathic mechanisms, whether relational and participatory artworks are founded upon, or are explorations of, selective empathy, and much more! These investigations are underpinned by discussions of 4E cognition and the interaction theory of social cognition.

I am also interested in wider questions regarding the nature of art and the aesthetic, artistic and aesthetic value, the problem of forgery, and the aesthetic-moral interaction debate. A philosophical quest of mine is to defend the artistic status of architecture, and I recently published a paper arguing that architectural value is not one and the same value as the artistic value of architecture, which was awarded the 2021 Debates in Aesthetics Prize. You can find this here: https://debatesinaesthetics.org/debates-in-aesthetics-vol-17-no-1/

Supervisors: Dr. Vid Simoniti (University of Liverpool); Dr. Cain Todd (Lancaster University)

Twitter: @philosohaz // PhilPapers: https://philpeople.org/profiles/harry-drummond