Dr Jonathan Opie

Senior Lecturer

School of Humanities

Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.

Jon studied theoretical physics and then philosophy at Flinders University. After completing his PhD at Adelaide (thesis, Consciousness: A Connectionist Perspective) he took up an ARC Postdoc, before joining the teaching staff here. His primary research interests are in the philosophy of mind, cognitive science, and the philosophy of science. He was a member of the McDonnell Project in Philosophy and the Neurosciences.

Between 2008-2011 Jon headed an ARC Discovery project exploring the biological foundations of cognition. See the Cognitive Biology website (below) for more information.

Jon teaches Mind and World, Introduction to Logic, Cognitive Science, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Mind, and Logic, Truth & Reason.

Career
Publications
Supervision
Contact

Appointments

Date	Position	Institution name
2001 - ongoing	Senior Lecturer	University of Adelaide
1999 - 2001	ARC Postdoctoral Fellow	University of Adelaide
1997 - 1997	Lecturer	University of Canterbury
1988 - 1993	Tutor	Flinders University

Education

Institution name	Country	Title
Flinders University of South Australia	Australia	BSc (Hons) 1985
Flinders University of South Australia	Australia	BA (Hons) 1992
University of Adelaide	Australia	PhD 1998

Research Interests

History and Philosophy of Science Neurocognitive Patterns and Neural Networks Psychology and Cognitive Sciences

Journals

Year	Citation
2015	O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (2015). Intentionality lite or analog content? A response to Hutto and Satne. Philosophia, 43(3), 723-729. DOI Scopus17 WoS15
2009	O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (2009). The role of representation in computation. Cognitive Processing, 10(1), 53-62. DOI Scopus24 WoS13 Europe PMC2
2006	Opie, J. (2006). The next step, or a misstep?. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10(4), 144-145. DOI
2006	O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (2006). How do connectionist networks compute?. Cognitive Processing, 7(1), 30-41. DOI Scopus29 Europe PMC5
2004	O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (2004). Vehicle, process, and hybrid theories of consciousness - Response. BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES, 27(2), 303-305.
2004	O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (2004). Vehicle, process, and hybrid theories of consciousness. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 27(2), 303-305. DOI
2004	Opie, J. (2004). Beyond the fringe. Psyche, 10(1), www 1-www 7.
2003	O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (2003). The computational baby, the classical bathwater, and the middle way. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 25(3), 348-349. DOI
2002	O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (2002). The computational baby, the classical bathwater, and the middle way. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 25(3), 348-349. DOI
2002	O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (2002). Language and thought. Language & Communication, 22(3), 209. DOI
2002	O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (2002). Internalizing communication. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 25(6), 694-695. DOI Scopus3 WoS4
2002	O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (2002). Radical connectionism: thinking with (not in) language. Language & Communication, 22(3), 313-329. DOI Scopus15 WoS12
2001	O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (2001). Sins of omission and commission. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24(5), 997-998. DOI Scopus3 WoS3
2001	O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (2001). Functional resemblance and the internalization of rules. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24(4), 695-696. DOI Scopus1
2001	O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (2001). Connectionist vehicles, structural resemblance, and the phenomenal mind. Communication & Cognition, 34(1/2), 13-38.
2000	O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (2000). Disunity defended: a reply to Bayne. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 78(2), 255-263. DOI Scopus9 WoS7
1999	Opie, J. (1999). Gestalt theories of cognitive representation and processing. Psycoloquy, 10(21), Article 6. Scopus9
1999	O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (1999). Putting content into a vehicle theory of consciousness. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22, 175-196.
1999	O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (1999). A Connectionist theory of phenomenal experience. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22(1), 127-148. DOI Scopus104 WoS80 Europe PMC25
1999	O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (1999). What's really doing the work here? Knowledge representation or the Higher-Order Thought theory of Consciousness?. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22(5), 778-779. DOI
1999	O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (1999). A Defense of Cartesian Materialism. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 59(4), 939-963. DOI WoS5
1999	O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (1999). Finding a place for experience in the physical-relational structure of the brain. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22(6), 996-997. DOI
1998	Opie, J. (1998). Connectionist modelling strategies. Psycoloquy, 9(30), Article27. Scopus2
1998	O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (1998). The Disunity of Consciousness. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 76(3), 378-395. DOI Scopus27 WoS21
1997	O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (1997). Cognitive science and phenomenal consciousness: A dilemma, and how to avoid it. Philosophical Psychology, 10(3), 269-286. DOI Scopus15 WoS6

Book Chapters

Year	Citation
2015	O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (2015). A schizophrenic defense of a vehicle theory of consciousness. In R. Gennaro (Ed.), Disturbed Consciousness: New Essays on Psychopathology and Theories of Consciousness (pp. 265-292). United States of America: MIT Press. DOI
2015	Opie, J., & O'Brien, G. (2015). The structure of phenomenal consciousness. In S. Miller (Ed.), The Constitution of Phenomenal Consciousness: Toward a Science and Theory (pp. 445-464). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing. DOI
2011	O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (2011). Representation in Analog Computation. In A. Newen, A. Bartels, & E. Jung (Eds.), Knowledge and Representation (1 ed., pp. 109-127). Germany: Mentis.
2010	Opie, J. (2010). Consciousness. In G. Oppy (Ed.), A Companion to Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand (pp. 18-21). Clayton, Victoria, Australia: Monash University Press.
2009	O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (2009). Vehicles of consciousness. In T. Bayne, A. Cleeremans, & P. Wilken (Eds.), The Oxford companion to consciousness (pp. 655). New York, USA: Oxford University Press.
2004	O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (2004). Notes towards a structuralist theory of mental representation. In H. Clapin, P. Staines, & P. Slezak (Eds.), Representation in mind - New approaches to mental representation (pp. 1-20). Sara Burgerhartstraat 25, PO Box 211, 1000 AE Amsterdam: Elsevier. DOI
2003	O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (2003). The multiplicity of consciousness and the emergence of self. In T. Kircher, & A. David (Eds.), The self in neuroscience and psychiatry (pp. 107-120). The Edinburgh Bldg, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK: Cambridge University Press. DOI

Conference Papers

Year	Citation
2010	Opie, J. (2010). Levels and explanations. In Proceedings of the 9th Conference of the Australasian Society for Cognitive Science (pp. 270-276). Sydney: Australian Society for Cognitive Science. DOI
2007	Lyon, P., & Opie, J. (2007). Prolegomena for a cognitive biology. In Proceedings of the 2007 Meeting of International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology, University of Exeter. Exeter, UK.
2000	Zeki, S. (2000). The disunity of consciousness.. In CONSCIOUSNESS AND COGNITION Vol. 9 (pp. S30). ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE. WoS3

Curated or Produced Public Exhibition or Events

Year	Citation
2021	Opie, J., Lancer, B., Whiffen, T., & Hajdu, T. (2021). AI Agents: Jon Opie & Ben Lancer - What Makes a Creative Mind a Mind at All? (No. Of Pieces: 38 minutes) [podcast]. online: https://omny.fm/.

Theses

Year Citation

1998 Opie, J. P. (1998). Consciousness: a connectionist perspective. (PhD Thesis, Thesis (Ph.D.)--Department of Philosophy, 1998.).

Year	Citation
1998	Opie, J. P. (1998). Consciousness: a connectionist perspective. (PhD Thesis, Thesis (Ph.D.)--Department of Philosophy, 1998.).

Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

Date	Role	Research Topic	Program	Degree Type	Student Load	Student Name
2024	Co-Supervisor	Investigating Human-AI Interactions: An Empirical Foundation to Understand and Measure Human Perceptions of Machine Consciousness	Master of Philosophy (Medical Science)	Master	Full Time	Mr Oliver Craig Lack
2024	Co-Supervisor	Active Inference and Psychiatry	Master of Philosophy	Master	Full Time	Mr Samuel Madsen
2024	Co-Supervisor	AI and Accountability: Transparency, Explainability, and Accounting for Responsibility Gaps	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Mr Michael Lazarou
2021	Co-Supervisor	The Limits of Scientific Knowledge	Master of Philosophy	Master	Full Time	Mr Anthony Ian Bishop
2015	Principal Supervisor	A Structuralist Account of Dynamical Mental Representation in Recurrent Connectionist Networks	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Part Time	Matthew James Nestor

Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

Date	Role	Research Topic	Program	Degree Type	Student Load	Student Name
2023 - 2023	Principal Supervisor	Representation in Neural Networks	Master of Philosophy	Master	Full Time	Mr Adam Townsend
2016 - 2019	Principal Supervisor	The Role of Analog Computation in Path Integrating Behaviour of the Desert Ant: A Defence of the Explanatory Credentials of Connectionism in Cognitive Science	Master of Philosophy	Master	Full Time	Robert Peter Farquharson
2015 - 2017	Principal Supervisor	Emergence and Experience : Systemic Emergence and the Prospects for a Mechanistic Explanation of the Existence of Experience	Master of Philosophy	Master	Full Time	Mr Andrew Kenneth McKilliam
2013 - 2017	Co-Supervisor	The Philosophy of Psychedelic Transformation	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Dr Christopher Edward Ross Letheby
2013 - 2016	Principal Supervisor	Realist and Anti-Realist Approaches in Philosophy of Science: Perspective and Representational Pluralism in Scientific Discovery	Master of Philosophy	Master	Full Time	Mr Mark Coleman
2011 - 2013	Principal Supervisor	Understanding is Simulating: a Defence of Embodied Linguistic Comprehension	Master of Philosophy	Master	Full Time	Dr Christopher Edward Ross Letheby
2010 - 2014	Principal Supervisor	Constructing Time: Temporal Experience and its Future Directed Aspects	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Dr Diane Rose Stringer
2005 - 2009	Principal Supervisor	The Science of Social Reasoning and Decision Making: Foundations of a New Social-Liberal Theory	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Full Time	Mr Matt Fisher
2002 - 2007	Co-Supervisor	Emergence, Colour and the Knowledge Argument: So What if Mary Didn't Know	Doctor of Philosophy	Doctorate	Part Time	Ms Elizabeth Schier
1999 - 2004	Principal Supervisor	Mind as Creative Organization: The nature and development of human cognition as a creative process	Master of Arts	Master	Part Time	Mr Matt Fisher

Position: Senior Lecturer
Phone: 83133815
Email: jonathan.opie@adelaide.edu.au
Fax: 83134341
Campus: North Terrace
Building: Napier, floor 7
Org Unit: School of Humanities

Dr Jonathan Opie

Appointments

Education

Research Interests

Journals

Book Chapters

Conference Papers

Curated or Produced Public Exhibition or Events

Theses

Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

Connect With Me

External Profiles

Other Links