James Giles studied at the University of British Columbia and the University of Edinburgh, where he gained a PhD in philosophical psychology. He is external associate professor of psychology at Roskilde University and lecturer in the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education. In addition to teaching at UBC and Edinburgh, he has also held appointments at other universities in the UK, Denmark, Australia, Guam, and Hawaii.
The purpose of Giles' work is to create a philosophical psychology that explains the core features of the human condition. The unifying theme in his work is the fundamental role that human awareness plays in that condition. Giles' research ranges over metaphysics, the theory of perception, personal identity, the self, sexual desire, sexual attraction, romantic love, friendship, human relationships, evolutionary theory, and non-Western philosophy and psychology. He has argued for an experiential account of the material world and the non-existence of a persisting self, describing self-awareness as the awareness of a constructed self-image.
He is the originator of the vulnerability and care theory of love, the theory of sexual desire as an existential need, and the naked love theory of human hairlessness and its relation to the evolution of romantic love. According to his account, sexual desire, which is integral to romantic love, is neither a social construction nor a biological drive. Rather, it is an existential need based on the universal experience of the incompleteness of gender. He is the first scholar to draw a clear distinction between sexual attraction and physical attraction, showing how sexual attraction is based on the experience of what he calls "allure". He is on the Editorial Board of the journal Personal Relationships and a member of the Social Psychology Network. His research has been featured in several international media, including The Wall Street Journal.
Giles is typically interdisciplinary and intercultural in his research, drawing on such areas as psychology, philosophy, anthropology, and biology, while exploring their expression in different cultures. Only through such an approach, argues Giles, can we hope to understand the human condition.
Copyright © 2015-2020 James Giles
The purpose of Giles' work is to create a philosophical psychology that explains the core features of the human condition. The unifying theme in his work is the fundamental role that human awareness plays in that condition. Giles' research ranges over metaphysics, the theory of perception, personal identity, the self, sexual desire, sexual attraction, romantic love, friendship, human relationships, evolutionary theory, and non-Western philosophy and psychology. He has argued for an experiential account of the material world and the non-existence of a persisting self, describing self-awareness as the awareness of a constructed self-image.
He is the originator of the vulnerability and care theory of love, the theory of sexual desire as an existential need, and the naked love theory of human hairlessness and its relation to the evolution of romantic love. According to his account, sexual desire, which is integral to romantic love, is neither a social construction nor a biological drive. Rather, it is an existential need based on the universal experience of the incompleteness of gender. He is the first scholar to draw a clear distinction between sexual attraction and physical attraction, showing how sexual attraction is based on the experience of what he calls "allure". He is on the Editorial Board of the journal Personal Relationships and a member of the Social Psychology Network. His research has been featured in several international media, including The Wall Street Journal.
Giles is typically interdisciplinary and intercultural in his research, drawing on such areas as psychology, philosophy, anthropology, and biology, while exploring their expression in different cultures. Only through such an approach, argues Giles, can we hope to understand the human condition.
Copyright © 2015-2020 James Giles
