Research
Interests


John J. Furedy

Emeritus
Professor of Psychology
University of Toronto

B.A. (Double Honours)
M.A., Ph. D.
University of Sydney
furedy@psych.utoronto.ca

 

Gantt Memorial Lecture to Pavlovian Society in October, 2000, with overhead picture of Australian philosopher John Anderson. For published, written version of this lecture, see http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/~furedy/Papers/sd/ganitl71.htm. For a note on Anderson and disinterestedness, see Appendix at the end of this paper. For a recent summary of his significance for Australian culture, see http://www.ephilosopher.com/article691.html.

Current (Post-Retirement) Appointments and
Active Organizational Connections

CURRENT APPOINTMENTS
(as of July 1, 2005)

Emeritus Professor of Psychology, University of Toronto (2005)

Adjunct Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Bond University, Australia; web address is: http://www.bond.edu.au/hss/psychology/resources.htm; see Staff

Status Only Cross Appointment, Center for Brain Research, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey (1997, for collaborative biobehavioral research); center's web address is: http://med.ege.edu.tr/~eubam/; see International Collaboration section.

Affiliated Professor, University of Haifa, Israel (2005); university's
web address is: http://www.haifa.ac.il/; for list of affiliate professors, see http://boycottnews.haifa.ac.il/html/html_eng/professors.htm*

International Advisory Board for Academic Freedom of Bar-Ilan University. Israel (2005); web address is: http://www.biu.ac.il/rector/academic_freedom/index.htm*

*Haifa and Bar-Ilan appointments primarily motivated by anti-academic, anti-Semitic, and politicized 2005 boycott activities by the executive of the British Association of University Teachers (BAUT). a trade union of British sub-professorial staff (for four recent May, 2005 evaluations of this executive's activities, see "BRITS BURNING BOOKS", "WAR BY OTHER MEANS", "CAUT BY SURPRISE", and "OPENLY EXPRESSED LOATHING FOR ISRAEL AND JEWS AMONG A LARGE SWATH OF BRITAIN'S ELITES IS CAUSE FOR CONCERN"

However, I expect to engage in future academic ties with these universities in the future, and in that sense am grateful to the BAUT for giving me the opportunity to make academic contacts which I might otherwise not have made without the help of BAUT’s executive.

ACTIVE ORGANIZATIONAL CONNECTIONS

Anti-polygraph web organization; for web address see: http://www.antipolygraph.org

Centre for Study of Civic Renewal; Member of Editorial Advisory Board; for web address, see: http://www.civicrenewalonline.org/staff.html

Pavlovian Society; historical and theoretical writings; for web address see: http://www.pavlovian.org/

Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship; past president and board member; presently informal adviser; for web address, see: http://www.safs.ca; for 2004 tribute from current president, see http://www.safs.ca/Oct2005/tribute.html.

I have been Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto since 1975. I have been on the faculty since 1967, occupying same office until 2005. For cuttings that decorated my door see: "formerly on door" of Sidney Smith Office (4024) at the Univeristy of Toronto, an office occupied continuously from 1967-2005 (a deparmental record of longest stay in the same office). For 1978 photo of a memorable "Knowledge is Power" Faculty Retreat, see Faculty Retreat. .All my degrees are from the University of Sydney (PhD in psychology, and a 1st class hnrs BA in philosophy), where I received an education that stressed disinterested critical thinking and intellectual freedom. After two years as a visiting faculty member at Indiana University, I joined the faculty at Toronto, where I have been until the present. During that period I ran a psychophysiology lab until 1995 funded mainly by the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, where I had undergraduate and graduate student collabotors, as well as some post-doctoral fellows (for some photos of some of these collaborators, many of them taken during our annual fall cycling party, see Collaborators). From 1995 to the present I ran a "merit vs. equity" lab funded mainly by the Donner Canadian Foundation of Canada by grants awarded to combat political correctness in universities. The main empirical aspect of this work (that I shall be continuing) is referred to in the last two sentences of the last paragraph of this home pageOn my retirement (for picture at university retirement ceremony with the president, the Honorable Iacobucci see "Odd Couple"; for video with sounde of June 16 departmental retirement reception, see "Furedy Party") in July 2005 (for a commentary in the UofT Bulletin, see "Prolific Pen"), my wife Christine and I (see 05picture) will move back to Sydney where we will continue our various interests through collaboration with both local and overseas (mostly via email) individuals and organizations.

My long term interests (expressed in over 300 publications) encompass various areas in psychophysiology (including such purported applications as lie detection and biofeedback - on the former my position corresponds to that taken on www.antipolygraph.org), philosophy of science applied to psychology as a scientific discipline, and the misue of the information processing, computer metaphor in current cognitive psychology. I also hold a status-only cross-appointment at the Center for Brain Research, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey, where I am engaged in biobehavioral research on animal and human cognitive functions, with special emphasis on sex differences. The human sex-difference work (and its relation to psychological aspects of smoking and smoke-cessation programs) has begun to be continued with Australian colleagues at Bond University and the University of Queensland.

I also have a more general interest in higher education, which is grounded in the realist approach of Australian philosopher, John Anderson. In papers like Furedy & Furedy, 1982 article (see CV), we have argued for the distinction between Socratic and Sophistic approaches to higher education. More recently, I began to advocate the Socratic approach as President (1993-8) and Board member (1992-2001) of the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship, a Canadian organization (see www.safs.ca; for "Offender of the Faith" certificate awarded in 1997 by organization whose motto is nemo veritatem regit, see Certificate). At present I am continuing more scholoarly pursuits both in writing conceptual pieces, as well as doing empirical research on how universities balance the conflicting demands of "merit" and "equity" (or affirmative action", as it is known in the USA) in their hiring policies, as reflected in the phraseology of their tenure-stream advertisements (e.g., http://www.safs.ca/january2003/advertisment.html). This research includes a cultural aspect, as we are studying universities in Canada, the USA and Australia.

 

 

 

In summer 1998 uniform at UofT, waiting to see what happens next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tribute to the retiring Michael Marrus, Dean of Gaduate School, May 2004 (for text of tribute, see Marrus Tribute).

 

 

 

 

 

 

JJF contemplating a bid. For more bridge photos see Retirement Bridge

 

LIE DETECTION

PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF
PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS

ACADEMIC FREEDOM

MERIT VS. EQUITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

TEACHING IN HIGHER EDUCATION

THE
NORTH AMERICAN
BIOETHICS INDUSTRY

REALISM APPLIED TO
THE DISCIPLINE OF PSYCHOLOGY

SEX DIFFFERENCES IN COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS

POLITICAL AND SOCIAL COMMENTARY

RECALLING LATE MEMBERS OF THE "DEMOCRACY OF THE INTELLECT"


FUREDY RESEARCH ADVISING INC.


DANIEL BERLYNE
(1924-76):
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS

 

Here you can
find my

CURRICULUM VITAE

 

 

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University of Toronto, Department of Psychology


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