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83Folk-psychology, psychopathology, and the unconsciousPhilosophical Explorations 2 (3): 206-224. 1999.There is a 'philosophers' assumption that there is a problem with the very notion of an unconscious mental state.The paper begins by outlining how the problem is generated, and proceeds to argue that certain conditions need to be fulfilled if the unconscious is to qualify as mental. An explanation is required as to why we would ever expect these conditions to be fulfilled, and it is suggested that the Freudian concept of repression has an essential role to play in such an explanation. Notoriousl…Read more
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Beyond Program ExplanationIn Geoffrey Brennan, Robert Goodin, Frank Jackson & Michael Smith (eds.), Common minds: themes from the philosophy of Philip Pettit, Clarendon Press. 2007.
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Perception and Identity: Essays Presented to A. J. Ayer with his Replies to ThemMind 92 (368): 608-615. 1983.
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8Meaning and Method in the Social Sciences by Paul A. Roth (review)Journal of Philosophy 86 (8): 442-446. 1989.
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The role of experience in Popper's philosophy of science and political philosophyIn Philip Catton & Graham Macdonald (eds.), Karl Popper: Critical Appraisals, Routledge. 2004.
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59Causation, supervenience, and special sciencesBehavioral and Brain Sciences 27 (5): 631-631. 2004.Ross & Spurrett (R&S) argue that Kim's reductionism rests on a restricted account of supervenience and a misunderstanding about causality. I contend that broadening supervenience does nothing to avoid Kim's argument and that it is difficult to see how employing different notions of causality helps to avoid the problem. I end by sketching a different solution.
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20Perception and identity: essays presented to A. J. Ayer, with his replies (edited book)Cornell University Press. 1979."The philosophical works of A. J. Ayer": p. [334]-341. Bibliography: p. [343]-346. Includes indexes.
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The biological turnIn C. Macdonald (ed.), Philosophy of Psychology: Debates on Psychological Explanation, Blackwell. 1995.
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40Alfred Jules AyerRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement. 2008.Alfred Jules Ayer was born in London and educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. He attended sessions of the logical positivist ‘Vienna Circle’ in 1932, and taught at Oxford from 1933 until joining the Army in 1940. His Language, Truth and Logic was published in 1936, and The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge in 1940. After war service he returned to Oxford in 1945, and became Grote Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic at University College, London, the following year. The Problem …Read more
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13The two natures: Another dogma?In Cynthia Macdonald & Graham Macdonald (eds.), Mcdowell and His Critics, Blackwell. pp. 6--222. 2006.
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81Emergence and causal powersErkenntnis 67 (2). 2007.This paper argues that the non-reductive monist need not be concerned about the ‘problem’ of mental causation; one can accept both the irreducibility of mental properties to physical properties and the causal closure of the physical. More precisely, it is argued that instances of mental properties can be causally efficacious, and that there is no special barrier to seeing mental properties whose instances are causally efficacious as being causally relevant to the effects they help to bring about…Read more
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85Karl Popper: Critical Appraisals (edited book)Routledge. 2004.One of the most original thinkers of the century, Karl Popper has inspired generations of philosophers, historians, and politicians. This collection of papers, specially written for this volume, offers fresh philosophical examination of key themes in Popper's philosophy, including philosophy of knowledge, science and political philosophy. Drawing from some of Popper's most important works, contributors address his solution to the problem of induction, his views on conventionalism and criticism i…Read more
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31The Grounds for Anti-HistoricismRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 39 241-257. 1995.In his seminal The Poverty of Historicism Sir Karl Popper deployed a number of arguments to prick the pretensions of those who thought that they were, or could come to be, in possession of knowledge of the future. These ‘historicists’ assumed that they could lay bare the law of evolution of a society, and that their possession of knowledge of such a law justified political action which had the aim of removing obstacles to the progress of history. In arguing against historicism Popper was clearly…Read more
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