Dr Alex David Carter

University of Cambridge Professional and Continuing Education (PACE) Teaching Officer and Academic Director for Philosophy and Interdisciplinary Studies; Bye-Fellow Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge

Biography

I am Associate Professor for Philosophy and Interdisciplinary Studies at PACE where I oversee courses in philosophy and creativity theory, and deliver courses that develop students’ research skills. I also take a leading role in the development of students’ skills at Fitzwilliam College where I am a Fellow and College Lecturer.

I was awarded my PhD in Philosophy by the University of Essex in 2015. It was at Essex that I first fell in love with teaching philosophy and where I developed my philosophy of teaching—to get students to feel the "pain of the problem". That is, I encourage students to acknowledge and appreciate the very real ways in which philosophical problems affect our lives, not abstractly but personally. For instance, rejecting Descartes’ “old fashioned” arguments is not just a problem for Descartes—it is a problem for my students, here and now, who believe that they have a mind and a body and that the two are separate. This approach is especially popular with learners at PACE who revel in the opportunity to be more open-minded, more creative and more inquisitive. I always marvel at how willing adult learners are to upend even their most fervently held beliefs. This leads either to a renewed commitment to the beliefs with which they started (“My mind and body ARE separate!”) or to a sense of wonder and a willingness to keep asking questions (“What if I don’t HAVE a mind?’).

Research topics

My PhD centred on free will and on the more surprising elements of Wittgenstein’s “Lectures on the Freedom of the Will”. I also apply Wittgenstein’s philosophy to a wide range of other subjects including sport, humour and philosophy as therapy. As a Wittgensteinian philosopher, I also take a particular interest in his views concerning religious belief. I have a related interest in Simone Weil’s non-apologetic theology, which informs my research into creativity theory, due to her emphasis on (de)creation through renunciation. Most recently, I have been researching the (im)possibility of creative AI. Using Merleau-Ponty’s idea that bio-logical intelligence provides a ‘genius for ambiguity’, I maintain that a truly creative AI is impossible.

Publications

Conference papers

“The Paradox of Spontaneity and the ‘Genius for Ambiguity’”, IICCIE 2022 conference, Keynote., 2022

Electronic articles