Jonathan Opie

Research Interests

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

Dr Jonathan Opie

Senior Lecturer

School of Humanities

College of Creative Arts, Design and Humanities

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.

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

Date 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

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 WoS16
2009 O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (2009). The role of representation in computation. Cognitive Processing, 10(1), 53-62.
DOI Scopus25 WoS14 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 PMC6
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 Scopus17 WoS13
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(1), 175-196.
DOI WoS17
1999 O'Brien, G., & Opie, J. (1999). A Connectionist theory of phenomenal experience. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22(1), 127-148.
DOI Scopus111 WoS84 Europe PMC34
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 Scopus31 WoS24
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 Scopus16 WoS6

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

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/.

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

Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
2025 Principal Supervisor The Physical Basis of Consciousness Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Prof Keith Dear
2025 Co-Supervisor Individuals, Identity and Structure: Do structuralist metaphysical accounts of individuals and identity make sense? Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr Brodie Manticos
2025 Co-Supervisor The project studies how human-like Al features influence perceptions of machine consciousness and human behaviors. It develops experimental tools, a mind perception measure, and publishes methods, datasets, and findings to advance understandings of human-Al interaction. Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Oliver Craig Lack
2025 Co-Supervisor Individuals, Identity and Structure: Do structuralist metaphysical accounts of individuals and identity make sense? - Master Full Time Mr Brodie Manticos
2025 Principal Supervisor The Physical Basis of Consciousness Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Prof Keith Dear
2025 Co-Supervisor The project studies how human-like Al features influence perceptions of machine consciousness and human behaviors. It develops experimental tools, a mind perception measure, and publishes methods, datasets, and findings to advance understandings o Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate 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
2024 Co-Supervisor AI and Accountability: Transparency, Explainability, and Accounting for Responsibility
Gaps		 Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Michael Lazarou
2024 Co-Supervisor Investigating Human-AI Interactions: An Empirical Foundation to Understand and Measure Human Perceptions of Machine Consciousness - Master Full Time Mr Oliver Craig Lack
2024 Co-Supervisor Active Inference and Psychiatry Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr Samuel Madsen
2021 Co-Supervisor The Limits of Scientific Knowledge Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr Anthony Ian Bishop
2021 Co-Supervisor The Limits of Scientific Knowledge Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr Anthony Ian Bishop

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
2015 - 2025 Principal Supervisor From the Body to the World: Structural Representation and the Mapping Problem Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Matthew James Nestor
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
2013 - 2025 Principal Supervisor Simulation Space Iconicity in The Evolution of Language and The Human Form. Master of Philosophy Master Part Time Mr Simon John Eddy
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

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