by Shay Carr
Dr. Lisa Osbeck, professor and interim chair of psychology at the University of West Georgia, discussed her current sabbatical project, “Rational Intuition: Philosophical Roots, Scientific Investigations,” on Wednesday, January 15, in the Ingram Library nook.
The discussion brought together the philosophical history of intuition with more recent philosophy, cognitive science and psychology to understand how intuition is understood and how it is involved in many forms of rational processes. Dr. Osbeck covered a wide range of relevant research, prominent philosophers, psychologists and many other influential scholarly figures in hopes to make new comparisons and dialogue to bring more understanding to a difficult concept.
Dr. Osbeck is a research affiliate of the Georgia Institute of Technology. She is already a published author from a book she wrote after collaborating with ethnographic studies of science laboratories. She worked closely with Georgia Tech colleagues Nancy Nersessian and Wendy Newstetter as well as West Georgia’s Kareen Malone. Their book, Science as Psychology: Sense-Making and Identity in Science Practice, was the 2012 co-winner of the William James Book Award from the Society for General Psychology of the American Psychological Association (APA Division 1). Dr. Osbeck is the associate editor of New Ideas in Psychology and is a member of the American Psychological Association. She is also on the editorial boards of Theory and Psychology and the Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology.
