Social Sciences

Professor Nagireddy Neelakanteswar Reddy has interdisciplinary interests in both philosophy and psychology. His academic journey reflects this passion: he began with a BA in Psychology and Philosophy, followed by an MA in Philosophy from the University of Hyderabad (and completed coursework for an MA in Psychology at Andhra University). He furthered his studies in human behaviour with an MPhil in Cognitive Science from the University of Hyderabad and completed his PhD in Cognitive Science at IIT Gandhinagar.

His research investigates the implications of an evolutionary, naturalistic framework for understanding existential issues in psychology, with a particular focus on psychological processes such as free will, happiness, and the search for life’s purpose. He also conducts experimental studies, especially on folk-psychological views (and the heuristics and biases in thinking and reasoning) associated with the processes of free will, happiness, and the purpose of life.

Professor Nagireddy Neelakanteswar Reddy's MPhil work developed an analogy between biological evolutionary processes and epistemic processes. His PhD research addressed theoretical, philosophical, and metascientific issues related to the construct of the 'sense of agency.' Subsequently, his post-PhD work explored topics in sensory-perceptual processes, such as cognitive penetration and multisensory integration. Currently, he is focusing on the implications of evolutionary perspectives for existential issues in psychology.

• Reddy, N.N (2022). Non-Motor Cues do not Generate the Perception of Self-Agency: A Critique of Cue-Integration, Consciousness and Cognition, 103.
• Reddy, N.N (2022). The Implicit Sense of Agency Is Not a Perceptual Effect but Is a Judgment Effect, Cognitive Processing, 23. 1-13.
• Reddy, N.N (2021). Cognitive Penetration Is an Instance of Experimental Confounding ― Due to the Operationalization of Perception As a Magnitude Estimation (Rather Than As a Category Identification), The Journal of Mind and Behavior, 42(1). 73-98. 
• Reddy, N.N (2020). The Explicit Sense of Agency ― as Operationalized in Experimental Paradigms ― is not a Feeling, but Is a Judgment, The Journal of Mind and Behavior, 41(3&4). 177-210.
   

• PSY101 Introduction to Psychology
• PSY205 Evolutionary Psychology
• PHI235 Philosophy of Psychology
• PSY325 Thinking and Reasoning
• PSY405 Drivers of Psychological Science