Deborah Brown
Professor
School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry
Director
UQ Critical Thinking Project
+61 7 336 52804
Room E313, Forgan Smith Building (1)
During her time in the faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Deb has coordinated a wide range of projects focusing on critical thinking. She has been instrumental in establishing connections and partnerships with many educational organisations, including Education Queensland, the Brisbane School of Distance Education and the Queensland Studies Authority. As part of her role, she works to link the UQCTP into relevant projects within and without the university to maximise outcomes for students in secondary and tertiary education. Deb has established courses and programs in consultation with other schools and faculties in this capacity.
| Featured projects | Duration |
|---|---|
|
Integrating Digital Argument Mapping into Contemporary Pedagogies The University of Queensland |
2017–2019 |
|
Towards Closure on the Animal Pain Debate ARC Discovery Project |
2020–2022 |
|
Organizational Learning and Transformative Capabilities for Maximizing Performance in the Post-COVID 19 Era: A Situated Learning Perspective The University of Queensland |
2021 |
| Supporting Student Cognition Through School-Led Pedagogical Change | 2021 |
|
Enhancing Online Assessment Through a Critical Thinking Focus The University of Queensland |
2022–2023 |
|
Advancing the News Media Literacy of Young Australians The University of Queensland |
2021–2022 |
PhD and MPhil Supervision
- View current and completed supervisions on UQ Researchers.
Publications
Books
Brown, Deborah J. and Normore, Calvin G. (2019). Descartes and the ontology of everyday life. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/oso/9780198836810.001.0001
Brown, D. J. (2006). Descartes and the Passionate Mind. New York: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511554513
Book Chapters
Brown, Deborah (2025). The meaning of "life" in Descartes's natural philosophy. THE CARTESIAN MIND. (pp. 369-385) Taylor and Francis. doi: 10.4324/9780429345487-29
Brown, Deborah J. (2025). Does descartesʼ mind–body union have a real definition?. Definition and Essence from Aristotle to Kant. (pp. 170-191) New York, NY United States: Taylor and Francis. doi: 10.4324/9781003489252-9
Ellerton, Peter, Leibovitch, Yael and Brown, Deborah (2025). Critical thinking. Teaching Middle Years. (pp. 244-256) London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003458586-19
Lodge, Jason M., Ellerton, Peter, Zaphir, Luke and Brown, Deborah (2024). Assessing in the age of AI: is critical thinking the answer?. Artificial intelligence applications in K-12: theories, ethics, and case studies for schools. (pp. 24-37) New York, NY, United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003440192-3
Brown, Deborah J. (2024). Anxiety, curiosity, and the fracturing of the Self: Descartes and Princess Elisabeth. The moral psychology of anxiety. (pp. 41-62) edited by David Rondel and Samir Chopra. Lanham, MD USA: Rowman & Littlefield.
Key, Brian and Brown, Deborah J. (2024). Making sense of plant sense. Philosophy of plant cognition: interdisciplinary perspectives. (pp. 189-209) edited by Gabriele Ferretti, Peter Schulte and Markus Wild. New York, NY, United States: Taylor and Francis. doi: 10.4324/9781003393375-14
Brown, Deborah and Key, Brian (2023). Foundations of human and animal sensory awareness: Descartes and Willis. Reading Descartes: consciousness, body, and reasoning. (pp. 81-99) edited by Andrea Strazzoni and Marco Sgarbi. Florence, Italy: Firenze University Press. doi: 10.36253/979-12-215-0169-8.06
Brown, Deborah (2021). Agency, force, and inertia in Descartes and Hobbes. Reconsidering causal powers: historical and conceptual perspectives. (pp. 94-120) edited by Benjamin Hill, Henrik Lagerlund and Stathis Psillos. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/oso/9780198869528.003.0005
Brown, Deborah and Key, Brian (2020). Descartes’ dualism of mind and body in the development of psychological thought. Oxford research encyclopedia of psychology. (pp. 1-22) edited by Wade E. Pickren. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.486
Brown, Deborah (2019). The metaphysics of Cartesian persons. Mind, body, and morality: new perspectives on Descartes and Spinoza. (pp. 17-36) edited by Martina Reuter and Frans Svensson. New York, NY, United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781351202831-3
Brown, Deborah J. (2018). Animal souls and beast machines: Descartes’s mechanical biology. Animals: a history. (pp. 187-209) edited by Peter Adamson and G. Fay Edwards. New York, United States: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/oso/9780199375967.003.0013
Brown, Deborah (2017). Power and passion in Hobbes, Descartes and Spinoza. The Routledge companion to seventeenth century philosophy. (pp. 334-353) edited by Dan Kaufman. New York, NY, United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315771960-12
Brown, Deborah (2016). Passion. The Cambridge Descartes lexicon. (pp. 563-569) edited by Lawrence Nolan. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511894695.192
Brown, Deborah (2016). Being, formal versus objective. The Cambridge Descartes lexicon. (pp. 60-65) edited by Lawrence Nolan. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511894695.027
Brown, Deborah (2014). The Sixth Meditation: Descartes and the embodied self. The Cambridge Companion to Descartes' Meditations. (pp. 240-257) edited by David Cunning. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CCO9781139088220.013
Normore, Calvin G. and Brown, Deborah J. (2014). On bits and pieces in the history of philosophy. Composition as identity. (pp. 24-43) edited by Cotnoir, A. J. and Baxter, Donald L. M.. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
Brown, Deborah (2013). Understanding interaction revisited. Debates in Modern Philosophy: Essential Readings and Contemporary Responses. (pp. 54-64) Taylor and Francis. doi: 10.4324/9780203078235-4
Brown, Deborah (2013). Descartes and content skepticism. Descartes' Meditations: a critical guide. (pp. 25-42) edited by Karen Detlefsen. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9781139030731.005
Brown, Deborah (2013). Understanding interaction revisited. Debates in modern philosophy: essential readings and contemporary responses. (pp. 54-63) edited by Stewart Duncan and Antonia LoLordo. New York, NY, United States: Routledge.
Brown, Deborah (2012). Agency and attention in Malebranche's Theory of Cognition. Emotion and cognitive life in medieval and early modern philosophy. (pp. 217-233) edited by Martin Pickavé and Lisa Shapiro. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199579914.003.0012
Brown, Deborah J. (2008). Descartes on True and False Ideas. A Companion to Descartes. (pp. 196-215) edited by Janet Broughton and John Carriero. Carlton VIC, Australia: Blackwell Publishing. doi: 10.1002/9780470696439.ch12
Brown, D. J. (2007). Is Descartes' Body a Mode of Mind?. Forming The Mind: Essays on the Internal Senses and the Mind/Body Problem from Avicenna to the Medical Enlightenment. (pp. 263-281) edited by Henrik Lagerlund and Olaf Pluta. The Netherlands: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4020-6084-7_13
Brown, D. J. (2007). Augustine And Descartes On The Function Of Attention In Perceptual Awareness. Consciousness: From Perception To Reflection In The History of Philosophy. (pp. 153-175) edited by S. Heniämaa, V. Läthennemaki and P. Remes. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4020-6082-3_7
Brown, D. J. (2007). Objective being in Descartes: that which we know or that by which we know?. Representation and objects of thought in medieval philosophy. (pp. 135-153) edited by Henrik Lagerlund. Hampshire, United Kingdom: Ashgate Publishing.
Brown, D. J. and de Sousa, R (2003). Descartes on the unity of the self and the passions. Passion and Virtue in Descartes. (pp. 153-173) edited by Williston, Byron, Gombay and Andre. United States: Humanity Books.
Brown, D. J. and Normore, C. (2003). Traces of the body: Cartesian passions. Passion and Virtue in Descartes. (pp. 83-106) edited by Williston, Byron, Gombay and Andre. United States: Humanity Books.
Brown, D. J. (2002). The Rationality of Cartesian Passions. Emotions and Choice from Boethius to Descartes. (pp. 233-251) edited by Henrik Lagerlund and Mikko Yrjönsuuri. Netherlands: Kluwer Academic. doi: 10.1007/978-94-010-0506-7_11
Brown, Deborah (1997). The right method of boy-loving. Love analyzed. (pp. 49-63) edited by Roger E. Lamb. Boulder, CO United States: Westview Press. doi: 10.4324/9780429493485
Journal Articles
Key, Brian and Brown, Deborah J. (2025). How pain fools everyone: An inference to the best explanation. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 177 106317, 106317-177. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106317
Leibovitch, Yael M., Beencke, Andrew, Ellerton, Peter J., McBrien, Craig, Robinson-Taylor, Cara-Lee and Brown, Deborah J. (2025). Teachers’ (evolving) beliefs about critical thinking education during professional learning: a multi-case case study. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 56 101725, 101725. doi: 10.1016/j.tsc.2024.101725
Key, Brian and Brown, Deborah J (2025). Neuroscientific underpinnings of psychosocial factors in chronic pain. Pain Medicine, 26 (5), 290-291. doi: 10.1093/pm/pnaf014
Key, Brian and Brown, Deborah (2025). Thoughts explain but do not cause pain. Pain, 166 (4), 960-960. doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003532
Key, Brian and Brown, Deborah J (2024). Making sense of feelings. Neuroscience of Consciousness, 2024 (1) niae034, niae034. doi: 10.1093/nc/niae034
Normore, George, Leibovitch, Yael M., Brown, Deborah J., Pearson, Samuel, Mazzolo, Claudio, Ellerton, Peter J. and Watt, Glenn (2024). Investigating the impact of critical thinking instruction on writing performance: a multilevel modelling analysis of relative gain data in the Australian National Assessment Program. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 53 101546, 1-16. doi: 10.1016/j.tsc.2024.101546
Brown, Deborah Jean (2023). Nature, Artifice, and Discovery in Descartes’ Mechanical Philosophy. Philosophies, 8 (5) 85, 1-15. doi: 10.3390/philosophies8050085
Zalucki, Oressia, Brown, Deborah J. and Key, Brian (2023). What if worms were sentient? Insights into subjective experience from the Caenorhabditis elegans connectome. Biology and Philosophy, 38 (5) 34, 1-25. doi: 10.1007/s10539-023-09924-y
Brown, Deborah (2023). Introduction. Australasian Philosophical Review, 7 (1), 1-8. doi: 10.1080/24740500.2024.2364397
Brown, Deborah J. and Broad, Jacqueline (2022). The social dimension of generosity in Descartes and Astell. Journal of the History of Philosophy, 60 (3), 409-427. doi: 10.1353/hph.2022.0037
Brown, Deborah J. and Broad, Jacqueline (2022). Petticoat power? Mary Astell's appropriation of heroic virtue for women. Journal of the American Philosophical Association, 9 (2), 1-20. doi: 10.1017/apa.2022.6
Key, Brian, Zalucki, Oressia and Brown, Deborah J. (2022). A first principles approach to subjective experience. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 16 756224, 756224. doi: 10.3389/fnsys.2022.756224
Key, Brian, Zalucki, Oressia and Brown, Deborah J. (2021). Neural design principles for subjective experience: implications for insects. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 15 658037, 1-20. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.658037
Hegazy, Hind, Ellerton, Peter, Campos-Remon, Hannah, Zaphir, Luke, Mazzola, Claudio and Brown, Deborah (2021). Working from theory: developing the bases of teachers’ critical thinking pedagogies through action research. Educational Action Research, 31 (1), 1-16. doi: 10.1080/09650792.2021.1877757
Brown, Deborah J. and Key, Brian (2021). Is absence of evidence of pain ever evidence of absence?. Synthese, 199 (1-2), 3881-3902. doi: 10.1007/s11229-020-02961-0
Brown, Deborah and Key, Brian (2021). Plant sentience, semantics, and the emergentist dilemma. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 28 (1-2), 155-183.
Key, Brian and Brown, Deborah (2020). Minds, morality and midgies. Animal Sentience, 5 (29) 24. doi: 10.51291/2377-7478.1619
Mazzola, Claudio, Kinkead, David, Ellerton, Peter and Brown, Deborah (2020). Reichenbachian common cause clusters. Erkenntnis, 87 (4), 1707-1735. doi: 10.1007/s10670-020-00269-6
Kinkead, Dave, Brown, Deborah, Ellerton, Peter and Mazzola, Claudio (2019). Reasons: a digital argument mapping library for modern browsers. Journal of Open Source Software, 4 (37), 1044. doi: 10.21105/joss.01044
Brown, Deborah (2019). Women and Liberty, 1600-1800: Philosophical Essays. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 97 (3), 1-1. doi: 10.1080/00048402.2018.1561734
Key, Brian and Brown, Deborah (2018). Designing brains for pain: human to mollusc. Frontiers in Physiology, 9 (AUG) 1027, 1027. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2018.01027
Brown, Deborah (2015). Animal automatism and machine intelligence. Res Philosophica, 92 (1), 93-115. doi: 10.11612/resphil.2015.92.1.2
Brown, Deborah J. (2012). Cartesian functional analysis. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 90 (1), 75-92. doi: 10.1080/00048402.2011.566274
Brown, Deborah (2011). The duck's leg: Descartes's intermediate distinction. Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 35 (1), 26-45. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-4975.2011.00215.x
Brown, Deborah J. (2010). Cartesian reflections: essays on Descartes’s philosophy. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 88 (4), 731-734. doi: 10.1080/00048402.2010.481676
Brown, Deborah (2008). Gary Steiner. Descartes as a moral thinker: Christianity, technology, nihilism. JHP Book Series. Amherst, NY: Humanity Books, 2004. Journal of the History of Philosophy, 46 (1), 173-175. doi: 10.5840/ipq200747162
Brown, D. J. (2007). Review of "Descartes Reinvented" - by Tom Sorell. Philosophical Books, 48 (4), 357-359. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0149.2007.00453_1.x
Brown, Deborah (2005). What part of 'know' don't you understand?. The Monist, 88 (1), 11-35. doi: 10.5840/monist20058813
Brown, D. J. (2002). Thomas Aquinas, Saint and Private Investigator. Dialogue, XLI (3), 461-480. doi: 10.1017/S0012217300005229
Brown, D. J. (2001). Aquinas' missing flying man. Sophia, 40 (1), 17-31. doi: 10.1007/BF02894576
Brown, D. J. (2000). Immanence and individuation. The Monist, 83 (1), 22-46. doi: 10.5840/monist20008314
Brown, D. J. (1999). What was new in the Passions of 1649?. Philosophica Fennica, 64, 211-231.
Brown, Deborah J. (1997). Analyticity: an Ockhamist approach. American Philosophical Quarterly, 34 (4), 443-457.
Brown, Deborah (1997). About love: reinventing romance for our times. Dialogue, 36 (2), 430-435. doi: 10.1017/S0012217300009677
Brown, Deborah (1996). A furry tile about mental representation. The Philosophical Quarterly, 46 (185), 448-466.
Brown, Deborah (1996). The puzzle of names in Ockham’s theory of mental language. The Review of Metaphysics, 50 (1), 79-99.
Brown, Deborah (1993). Swampman of La Mancha. Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 23 (3), 327-347.
Conference Paper
Brown, Deborah (2012). Hume and the nominalist tradition. Abingdon, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis. doi: 10.1080/00455091.2012.972125
Video Document
Cruz, Jeffery, Matthews, Kelly, Tangen, Jason, Brown, Deborah and Barkman, Megan (2025). Degrees of disruption: a critical conversation on learning in the age of AI. Connected Conversations in the Library.
Newspaper Article
Brown, Deborah and Key, Brian (2019, 04 23). You look but do not find: why the absence of evidence can be a useful thing The Conversation
Data Collection
Lodge, Jason, Pezaro, Charlotte, Brown, Deborah, Kent, Kirsty, Corbett, Brooklyn and Ellerton, Peter (2019). Detailed list of studies identified in systematic review of published research examining the critical thinking of higher education students. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.14264/uql.2019.964