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Ragnar Francén
Professor
Philosophy and Logic unitAbout Ragnar Francén
Professor of practical philosophy. I did my PhD at the University of Gothenburg and in 2008 I defended my thesis (”Metaethical Relativism: Against the Single Analysis Assumption”). After that I did a post doc at Stockholm University (2010-2011), after which I returned to Gothenburg.
Research My research mainly concerns fundamental questions about the nature of normative and moral thought and language, but also some more general questions in philosophy of language. What is it to think, for instance, that an act is morally wrong? Examples:
- In my dissertation and some papers I discuss the plausibility of contextualist and relativist views about moral thought according to which the content of moral beliefs varies from person to person.
- I have developed and defended a radical version of relativism (metaethical pluralism) to the effect that different metaethical analyses of the content of moral beliefs are correct for the moral beliefs of different persons.
- Given contextualism, relativism or pluralism about moral beliefs, how can we understand moral disagreement?
- What is the connection between accepting a moral judgment and being motivated to act in accordance with the judgment? (That is, the issue of motivational internalism vs. externalism.)
Research School NoNo. I'm currently a co-PI of the research school "Norms and Normativity", which is a joint project with Stockholm University (PI: Krister Bykvist) and Uppsala University (co-PI Folke Tersman), funded by the Swedish Research Council. Webpage: https://www.su.se/research-school-nono
Research projects. From 2024 (until 2027) I am the PI of the research project "Free Will Foundations: Metaethical and Methodological Underpinnings of Free Will Theories" (funded by the Swedish Research Council), with Alva Stråge, Manuel Vargas and Gunnar Björnsson as participating researchers. During 2017-2020 my research project "Metaethical Pluralism" had funding from Riksbankens Jubileumfond. 2013-2016 I was involved in the project "Expressivism Generalized: The Scope of Non-Descriptive Thought and on Talk". 2010-2012 I was involved in the "Moral Motivation: Evidence and Relevance".
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The limits of the just-too-different
argument
Ragnar Francén, Victor Moberger
Ratio - 2024 -
Finding
Wrong
Ragnar Francén
Mind - 2023 -
Mananas, flusses and jartles: belief ascriptions in light of peripheral concept
variation
Ragnar Francén
Philosophical Studies - 2022 -
Reconsidering the Meta-ethical Implications of Motivational Internalism and
Externalism
Ragnar Francén
Theoria-a Swedish Journal of Philosophy - 2020 -
Non-Cognitivism and the Classification Account of Moral
Uncertainty
John Eriksson, Ragnar Francén Olinder
Australasian Journal of Philosophy - 2016 -
Enoch’s Defense of Robust Meta-Ethical
Realism
Gunnar Björnsson, Ragnar Francén Olinder
Journal of Moral Philosophy - 2016 -
Some Varieties of Metaethical
Relativism
Ragnar Francén Olinder
Philosophy Compass - 2016 -
Motivational
Internalism
Gunnar Björnsson, Caj Strandberg, Ragnar Francén, John Eriksson, Fredrik Björklund
2015 -
Motivational Internalism: Contemporary
Debates
Gunnar Björnsson, Caj Strandberg, Ragnar Francén, John Eriksson, Fredrik Björklund
Motivational Internalism / edited by Gunnar Björnsson, Caj Strandberg, Ragnar Francén Olinder, John Eriksson, and Fredrik Björklund. - 2015 -
Motivational internalism and folk
intuitions
Gunnar Björnsson, John Eriksson, Caj Strandberg, Ragnar Francén, Fredrik Björklund
Philosophical Psychology - 2015 -
Internalists Beware – we Might all be
Amoralists!
Gunnar Björnsson, Ragnar Francén
Australasian Journal of Philosophy - 2013 -
Moral Relativism, Error-Theory, and Ascriptions of
Mistakes
Ragnar Francén
Journal of Philosophy - 2013 -
Recent Work on Motivational
Internalism
Fredrik Björklund, Gunnar Björnsson, John Eriksson, Ragnar Francén, Caj Strandberg
Analysis - 2012 -
Rescuing Doxastic
Normativism
Ragnar Francén
Theoria - 2012 -
Moral and Metaethical Pluralism: Unity in
Variation
Ragnar Francén
Southern Journal of Philosophy - 2012 -
Svavarsdóttir's
Burden
Ragnar Francén
Philosophia - 2012 -
Moral motivation
pluralism
Ragnar Francén
Journal of Ethics - 2010 -
No deep disagreement for new
relativists
Ragnar Francén
Philosophical Studies - 2010 -
Att kunna skilja mellan rätt och
fel
Ragnar Francén
Tillräknelighet - 2009 -
COMMENT ON ERLER: SPEAKER RELATIVISM AND SEMANTIC
INTUITIONS
Ragnar Francén
Praxis - 2009 -
Metaethical Relativism: Against the Single Analysis
Assumption
Ragnar Francén
2007 -
Om den personliga egalitarismen: replik till
Rabinowicz
Ragnar Francén, Jonas Gren, Niklas Juth
Tidskrift för politisk filosofi - 2005 -
Metaetisk
Metarelativism
Ragnar Francén
Filosofidagarna - 2005 -
Metaethical relativism and motivational
internalism
Ragnar Francén
Dag Westerståhl (ed., with T. Tännsjö), Lectures on Relativism, Philosophical Communications, red series no. 40 - 2005 -
Moralisk oenighet - bara på
ytan?
Ragnar Francén
Humanistdagboken 18 - 2005 -
Om
ojämlikhet
Niklas Juth, Ragnar Francén, Jonas Gren
Tidskrift för politisk filosofi - 2003