-
640Defining physicalismPhilosophy Compass 3 (5): 1033-1048. 2008.This article discusses recent disagreements over the correct formulation of physicalism. Although there appears to be a consensus outside those who discuss the issue that physicalists believe that what exists is what is countenanced by physics, as we will see, this orthodoxy faces an important puzzle now frequently referred to as 'Hempel's Dilemma'. After surveying the historical trajectory from Enlightenment-era materialism to contemporary physicalism, I examine several mainstream approaches th…Read more
-
1538Physicalism, not scientismIn Jeroen de Ridder, Rik Peels & Rene van Woudenberg (eds.), Scientism: Prospects and Problems, Oxford University Press. 2018.
-
180The Wave Function: Essays in the Metaphysics of Quantum Mechanics (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2013.This is a new volume of original essays on the metaphysics of quantum mechanics. The essays address questions such as: What fundamental metaphysics is best motivated by quantum mechanics? What is the ontological status of the wave function? What is the nature of the fundamental space (or space-time manifold) of quantum mechanics?
-
627Neo-positivist metaphysicsPhilosophical Studies 160 (1): 53-78. 2012.Some philosophers argue that many contemporary debates in metaphysics are “illegitimate,” “shallow,” or “trivial,” and that “contemporary analytic metaphysics, a professional activity engaged in by some extremely intelligent and morally serious people, fails to qualify as part of the enlightened pursuit of objective truth, and should be discontinued” (Ladyman and Ross, Every thing must go: Metaphysics naturalized , 2007 ). Many of these critics are explicit about their sympathies with Rudolf Car…Read more
-
4Are There Fundamental Intrinsic Properties?In Allan Hazlett (ed.), New Waves in Metaphysics, Palgrave-macmillan. pp. 219--39. 2010.
-
2813Grounding in the Philosophy of Mind: A DefenseIn Ken Aizawa & Carl Gillett (eds.), Scientific Composition and Metaphysical Ground, Palgrave-macmillan. 2016.
-
116The causal contribution of mental eventsIn Hill Christopher & Gozzano Simone (eds.), New Perspectives on Type Identity: The Mental and the Physical, Cambridge University Press. pp. 230. 2012.
-
243Fundamental physical ontologies and the constraint of empirical coherence: a defense of wave function realismSynthese 192 (10): 3105-3124. 2015.This paper defends wave function realism against the charge that the view is empirically incoherent because our evidence for quantum theory involves facts about objects in three-dimensional space or space-time . It also criticizes previous attempts to defend wave function realism against this charge by claiming that the wave function is capable of grounding local beables as elements of a derivative ontology
-
99Review of Steven French * The Structure of the World (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2014. 2014.
-
232This is a commentary on Mathias Frisch's book Causal Reasoning in Physics (Cambridge 2014). This commentary was presented at the 2016 Pacific Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association in a session sponsored by the Society for the Metaphysics of Science.
-
481Physicalism as an attitudePhilosophical Studies 138 (1). 2008.It is widely noted that physicalism, taken as the doctrine that the world contains just what physics says it contains, faces a dilemma which, some like Tim Crane and D.H. Mellor have argued, shows that “physicalism is the wrong answer to an essentially trivial question”. I argue that both problematic horns of this dilemma drop out if one takes physicalism not to be a doctrine of the kind that might be true, false, or trivial, but instead an attitude or oath one takes to formulate one’s ontology …Read more
Davis, California, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Mind |
Philosophy of Physical Science |