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61From Metaphysics to Ethics: A Defence of Conceptual Analysis (review)Philosophical Review 109 (3): 459. 2000.This slim volume is sure to provoke. The topics include physicalism, the theory of color, and metaethics, but the primary focus is metaphilosophical: Jackson aims to defend the use of conceptual analysis as a tool for doing “serious metaphysics.”
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47A Simple Theory of IntrinsicalityIn Robert M. Francescotti (ed.), Companion to Intrinsic Properties, De Gruyter. pp. 111-138. 2014.
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76What is wrong with the manifestability argument for supervenienceAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 76 (1): 84-89. 1998.The manifestability argument presented by Papineau and Loewer turns on the premise that nonphysical properties are capable of making a difference to physical conditions. From this and the completeness of physics a strenuous supervenience conclusion is supposed to follow. I argue that the plausible version of this premise implies a weaker supervenience thesis only, one that is too weak to be of any use for a physicalist. There is a more contentious premise one might use to deduce the needed concl…Read more
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56Review of Christopher Peacocke, Truly Understood (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2009 (6). 2009.
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105Locating the overdetermination problemBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 51 (2): 273-286. 2000.Physicalists motivate their position by posing a problem for the opposition: given the causal completeness of physics and the impact of the mental (or, more broadly, the seemingly nonphysical) on the physical, antiphysicalism implies that causal overdetermination is rampant. This argument is, however, equivocal in its use of 'physical'. As Scott Sturgeon has recently argued, if 'physical' means that which is the object of physical theory, completeness is plausible, but the further claim that the…Read more
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91Dupre's anti-essentialist objection to reductionismPhilosophical Quarterly 53 (211): 181-200. 2003.In his 'The Disorder of Things' John Dupré presents an objection to reductionism which I call the 'anti-essentialist objection': it is that reductionism requires essentialism, and essentialism is false. I unpack the objection and assess its cogency. Once the objection is clearly in view, it is likely to appeal to those who think conceptual analysis a bankrupt project. I offer on behalf of the reductionist two strategies for responding, one which seeks to rehabilitate conceptual analysis and one …Read more
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67Stalking the elusive physicalist thesis: Daniel Stoljar: Physicalism. New York: Routledge, 2010, 252pp, $35.95 PB, $140.00 HB (review)Metascience 21 (1): 71-75. 2011.Stalking the elusive physicalist thesis Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-5 DOI 10.1007/s11016-011-9528-2 Authors D. Gene Witmer, Department of Philosophy, University of Florida, P. O. Box 118545, Gainesville, FL 32611-8545, USA Journal Metascience Online ISSN 1467-9981 Print ISSN 0815-0796.
APA Eastern Division
Gainesville, Florida, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics |
Physicalism |
Grounding |
Metaphysics of Mind |
Functionalism |
Areas of Interest
1 more
Metaphilosophy |
Disagreement in Philosophy |
Metaontology |
Philosophy of Language |
Epistemology |
Philosophy of Religion |
PhilPapers Editorships
Supervenience |
Supervenience and Physicalism |
Supervenience, General |
Supervenient Causation |