The Philosophy of Psychedelics

L-R: Chris Letheby, Paul Liknaitzky

Dr Chris Letheby is a lecturer in philosophy at The University of Western Australia. His areas of specialisation are philosophy of mind, philosophy of cognitive science, and philosophy of neuroscience. His research interests include the causal mechanisms and epistemic status of transformative spiritual practices, the possibility of a "naturalistic spirituality", and the nature of self-awareness. 

To this end, Chris’s  research to date has focused mainly on the use of classic psychedelic drugs in neuroscience and psychiatry. In several articles and a book, he has argued that a traditional conception of psychedelics as agents of insight and spirituality can be reconciled with naturalis - the philosophical position that the natural world is all there is. He takes a neurophilosophical approach, grounding his analyses in scientific findings, and has engaged in several interdisciplinary collaborations with neuroscientists and psychologists. 

At an event held at the Brain Park earlier this month, hosted by Dr Paul Liknaitzky, Chris talked of Physicalism and Psychedelic Consciousness and the “controlled hallucination” view of conscious experience.

PhD Student Internships: Expanding Your Career Options

At the recent information session on PhD student internships run by our Faculty Graduate Research Office, we learned about the potential for PhD students to spend up to 3 months working with Industry to expand their training experiences during the course of their candidature.

RESEARCH END USERS now includes Hospitals and publicly funded research organisations (e.g. CSIRO) to be considered as a Research end-user (REU) for purposes of undertaking a Research Internship.

The information about this is available and updated on the sites accessible to staff and to students. The slides which were presented by Associate Dean Priscilla Johanesen can be viewed here.

Although Medical Research Institutes (i.e. Hudson Institute of Medical Research) and Monash's own Centres and Institutes (Turner, MIPS, BDI, MSDI etc) are excluded as REUs, the option to pursue an internship within a Hospital or publicly funded research organisation will be of relevance to many in our student cohort.

Key reminders

• You must lodge an intention to undertake an internship within 15 months of commencing your candidature and must pass confirmation to undertake this.
• The 3 month internship reduces your Doctoral Training requirement by half. (eg. total of 60hrs of professional development) 
• You must complete this within your period of candidature.
• Individual candidates are responsible for managing this and have supervisory support.