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Dr. O. Rosas
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dr. Omar Rosas Department of Philosophy University of Twente Postbox 217 7500 AE Enschede The Netherlands Telephone: +31 53 489-2308 |
Background Omar Rosas is associate researcher in philosophy at the Center for the Philosophy of Technology and Engineering Science (CEPTES), University of Twente. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy in 2005 at the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium) and did a specialization in psychology (Neurosciences and Emotions) in 2006 also at the Catholic University of Louvain. He is a member of the interdisciplinary project “Ethics, Behavior, and Evolution” at the National University of Colombia. His thesis presented an articulation of philosophical and psychological approaches to the role of emotions in moral agency and moral judgment. This articulation is conceived as a critique of contemporary views stemming from the cognitivism/non-cognitivism debate, which focuses principally on the role of beliefs and desires in people’s moral actions and judgments, and tends to underestimate the role affective experiences may play in everyday activities of making moral judgments and acting morally. His principal focus is on the cognitive and normative dimensions of emotions and sentiments, and how they in-form moral beliefs, decision making, and agency. He is also interested in the philosophy of mind, modern Critical Theory (particularly Walter Benjamin’s work), and semiotics (Charles Peirce’s work). |
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Research My research activities at the University of Twente are part of the international research project “Evaluating the Cultural Quality of New Media”, leaded by Dr. Philip Brey (VICI Project) which is aimed at building a normative framework to examine the impact of Virtual Reality technologies on the Good Life and the Good Society. I’m principally concerned with the subproject “The Quality of Virtual Environments and Tools”. My approach to Virtual Environments and Tools draws basically on three sources: Ecological Psychology (especially, J. J. Gibson’s ecological approach to perception), contemporary theories of Agency (especially, Joseph Raz’s and Albert Bandura’s views of human agency), and normative conceptions of well-being and the quality of life (Joseph Raz’s account of values and Amartya Sen’s account of capabilities). Such an approach is intended to put forward a normative framework to qualitatively evaluate the impact of virtual reality technologies on human perception and action by putting a special emphasis on how these technologies affect the way people appraise cognitively, affectively, and behaviorally the differences between real and virtual perception, real and virtual agency, as well as with how these perceived differences may bring about significant changes in people’s conceptions of the Good Life and the Good Society. |
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Publications & Work in Progress Rosas, O. (2008). On the Ecological/Representational Structure of Virtual Environments. In A. Briggle, K. Waelbers & P. Brey (Eds), Current Issues in Computing and Philosophy (pp. 13-23). Amsterdam, IOS Press. Rosas, O. (2007). De ecologische dimensie van dans. Wijsgerig Perspectief, 47(3): 39-50. “Walter Benjamin: History of the experience and the Experience of History”, Argumentos 35/36 (Original version in Spanish). “Sobre la percepción”, Spanish translation of Walter Benjamin’s: “Über die Wahrnehmung “, in http://www.wbenjamin.org “Evolution and Culture”, Al Margen, 7-8, 2003, pp. 5-27. (Original version in Spanish). Virtual Perception and Virtual Agency (in progress) Moral Agency in Virtual Environments (in progress). Emotions and Sentiments (in progress) Normativity and Ecological Rationality (in progress) |
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