-
47Animal ConsciousnessIn Max Velmans & Susan Schneider (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness, Wiley-blackwell. 2007.This article surveys philosophical and scientific issues arising from questions about animal consciousness. These questions include: which animals have consciousness and what (if anything) that consciousness might be like. Just what sort(s) of science can bear on these questions is a live issue, but investigations of the behavior and neurophysiology of a wide taxonomic range of animals, as well as the phylogenetic relationships among taxa are relevant. Such questions are also deeply philosophica…Read more
-
45The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: A Developed Dynamic Reference WorkMetaphilosophy 33 (1‐2): 210-228. 2003.The present information explosion on the World Wide Web poses a problem for the general public and the members of an academic discipline alike, of how to find the most authoritative, comprehensive, and up-to-date information about an important topic. At the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP), we have since 1995 been developing and implementing the concept of a dynamic reference work (DRW) to provide a solution to these problems, while maintaining free access for readers. A DRW is much mor…Read more
-
55Environmental AestheticsStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2020.Environmental aesthetics is a relatively new sub-field ofphilosophical aesthetics. It arose within analytic aesthetics in thelast third of the twentieth century. Prior to its emergence,aesthetics within the analytic tradition was largely concerned withphilosophy of art. Environmental aesthetics originated as a reactionto this emphasis, pursuing instead the investigation of the aestheticappreciation of natural environments. Since its early stages, thescope of environmental aesthetics has broadene…Read more
-
Teleological Notions in BiologyStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2020.The manifest appearance of function and purpose in living systems is responsible for the prevalence of apparently teleological explanations of organismic structure and behavior in biology. Although the attribution of function and purpose to living systems is an ancient practice, teleological notions are largely considered ineliminable from modern biological sciences, such as evolutionary biology, genetics, medicine, ethology, and psychiatry, because they play an important explanatory role. Histo…Read more
-
107The Aesthetics of Human Environments (edited book)Broadview Press. 2007.The Aesthetics of Human Environments is a companion volume to Carlson's and Berleant's The Aesthetics of Natural Environments. Whereas the earlier collection focused on the aesthetic appreciation of nature, The Aesthetics of Human Environments investigates philosophical and aesthetics issues that arise from our engagement with human environments ranging from rural landscapes to urban cityscapes. Our experience of public spaces such as shopping centers, theme parks, and gardens as well as the imp…Read more
-
55The Aesthetics of Natural Environments (edited book)Broadview Press. 2004.The Aesthetics of Natural Environments is a collection of essays investigating philosophical and aesthetics issues that arise in our appreciation of natural environments. The introduction gives an historical and conceptual overview of the rapidly developing field of study known as environmental aesthetics. The essays consist of classic pieces as well as new contributions by some of the most prominent individuals now working in the field and range from theoretical to applied approaches. The topic…Read more
-
18Static-Dynamic Hybridity in Dynamical Models of CognitionPhilosophy of Science 89 (2): 283-301. 2022.Dynamical models of cognition have played a central role in recent cognitive science. In this paper, we consider a common strategy by which dynamical models describe their target systems neither as purely static nor as purely dynamic, but rather using a hybrid approach. This hybridity reveals how dynamical models involve representational choices that are important for understanding the relationship between dynamical and non-dynamical representations of a system.
-
123Consciousness might matter very muchPhilosophical Psychology 18 (1): 113-22. 2005.Peter Carruthers argues that phenomenal consciousness might not matter very much either for the purpose of determining which nonhuman animals are appropriate objects of moral sympathy, or for the purpose of explaining for the similarities in behavior of humans and nonhumans. Carruthers bases these claims on his version of a dispositionalist higher-order thought (DHOT) theory of consciousness which allows that much of human behavior is the result of first-order beliefs that need not be conscious,…Read more
-
128New formalism and the aesthetic appreciation of natureJournal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 62 (4). 2004.Recently, several authors have defended a new version of formalism in the aesthetics of nature and attempted to refute earlier arguments against the doctrine. In this essay, we assess this new formalism by reconsidering the force of antiformalist arguments against both traditional formalism and new formalism. While we find that these arguments remain effective against traditional formalism, new formalism falls largely beyond their scope. We therefore provide a novel line of argument for the insi…Read more
-
36Distinguishing intention and function in art appreciationBehavioral and Brain Sciences 36 (2). 2013.We applaud Bullot and Reber's attempt to encompass the function of artworks within their psycho-historical model of art appreciation. However, we suggest that in order to fully realize this aim, they require a clearer distinction between an artist's intentions toward an artwork and its proper functions. We also show how such a distinction improves the internal coherence of their model
-
139Why the Causal View of Fitness SurvivesPhilosophy of Science 78 (2): 209-224. 2011.We critically examine Denis Walsh’s latest attack on the causalist view of fitness. Relying on Judea Pearl’s Sure-Thing Principle and geneticist John Gillespie’s model for fitness, Walsh has argued that the causal interpretation of fitness results in a reductio. We show that his conclusion only follows from misuse of the models, that is, (1) the disregard of the real biological bearing of the population-size parameter in Gillespie’s model and (2) the confusion of the distinction between ordinary…Read more
-
46Conceptual discontinuity involves recycling old processes in new domainsBehavioral and Brain Sciences 34 (3): 136-137. 2011.
-
161How “weak” mindreaders inherited the earthBehavioral and Brain Sciences 32 (2): 140-141. 2009.Carruthers argues that an integrated faculty of metarepresentation evolved for mindreading and was later exapted for metacognition. A more consistent application of his approach would regard metarepresentation in mindreading with the same skeptical rigor, concluding that the “faculty” may have been entirely exapted. Given this result, the usefulness of Carruthers’ line-drawing exercise is called into question
-
25Cross-Cutting Categorization Schemes in the Digital HumanitiesIsis 104 (3): 573-583. 2013.Digital access to large amounts of scholarly text presents both challenges and opportunities for researchers in the humanities. Meeting these challenges depends on having high-quality representations of the contents of digital resources suitable for both machines and humans to use. Different ways of categorizing these contents are appropriate for different purposes, leading to the further problem of relating the contents of different categorization schemes to each other. This essay discusses the…Read more
-
523This is an incomplete entry that should be mapped to ALLTII on this site (see link below)
-
46The Case for Animal Emotions: Modeling Neuropsychiatric DisordersIn John Bickle (ed.), The Oxford handbook of philosophy and neuroscience, Oxford University Press. pp. 522--536. 2009.
-
1Manipulating the cosmos : Shamanic tables among the Highland MayaIn Douglas Sharon & James Edward Brady (eds.), Mesas & cosmologies in Mesoamerica, San Diego Museum of Man. pp. 93--104. 2003.
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Mind |
Philosophy of Cognitive Science |
Philosophy of Physical Science |