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Fred Dretske
(1932 - 2013)

Last affiliation: Duke University
  •  Home
  •  Publications
    194
    • Most Recent
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    • Topics
  •  Events
    2
  •  News and Updates
    129

 More details
  • Duke University
    Department of Philosophy
    Researcher
Durham, North Carolina, United States of America
Areas of Interest
Epistemology
Philosophy of Mind
  • All publications (194)
  •  93
    Reply to Slater and Garcia-carpintero
    Mind and Language 9 (2): 203-8. 1994.
    Explanatory Role of Content
  •  1
    Explaining Behaviour
    British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 44 (1): 157-165. 1993.
    Science, Logic, and Mathematics
  •  133
    What isn't wrong with folk psychology
    Metaphilosophy 23 (1-2): 1-13. 1992.
    Externalism and Psychological ExplanationThe Nature of Folk Psychology
  •  227
    Norms, history, and the mental
    In D. Walsh (ed.), Evolution, Naturalism and Mind, Cambridge University Press. pp. 87-104. 2001.
    Many people think the mind evolved. Some of them think it had to evolve. They think the mind not only has a history, but a history essential to its very existence.
    Teleological Accounts of Mental Content
  •  146
    A cognitive cul-de-sac
    Mind 91 (361): 109-111. 1982.
    Philosophy of MindPhilosophy of Cognitive Science, Miscellaneous
  •  5
    Dretske and His Critics
    Blackwell. 1991.
    Information-Based Accounts of Mental Content
  • The Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy, Volume 2: Metaphysics
    Bowling Green: Philosophy Doc Ctr. 1999.
    Metaphysics, Misc
  •  86
    Mental causation
    Think 3 (7): 7-16. 2004.
    When we explain someone's behaviour, we do so by appealing to their mental states – their beliefs, desires, and so on. But, as Fred Dretske explains below, materialists have a hard time explaining how our mental states could have any effect on our behaviour.
    Mental Causation, MiscExplanatory Role of Content
  •  23
    Richard Rorty., Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (review)
    International Studies in Philosophy 14 (1): 96-98. 1982.
  •  269
    Can intelligence be artificial?
    Philosophical Studies 71 (2): 201-16. 1993.
    Artificial Minds, Misc
  •  52
    The Likelihood of Knowledge
    Review of Metaphysics 42 (3): 632-632. 1989.
    This is a competent review and critique of contemporary theories of knowledge and justification. With the exception of memory, truth and the a priori, most of the standard subjects are discussed: certainty, incorrigibility, perception, the given, rationality, and scepticism. There are a few new technical wrinkles, but no real surprises. The book's strength lies, instead, in its solid, sensible treatment of most topics.
    Probabilistic Frameworks
  •  203
    Lost knowledge
    with Palle Yourgrau
    Journal of Philosophy 80 (6): 356-367. 1983.
    Defeat
  •  107
    Reviews (review)
    British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 36 (1): 79-81. 1985.
  •  4
    The epistemology of pain
    In Murat Aydede (ed.), Pain: New Essays on its Nature and the Methodology of its Study, Mit Press. pp. 3-20. 2005.
    PainEpistemology of Specific Domains, Misc
  •  3
    Information-theoretic Semantics
    In Brian McLaughlin, Ansgar Beckermann & Sven Walter (eds.), The Oxford handbook of philosophy of mind, Oxford University Press. 2007.
    Semantic Theories
  •  4
    Putting information to work
    In Philip P. Hanson (ed.), Information, Language and Cognition, University of British Columbia Press. 1990.
    Information-Based Accounts of Mental Content
  •  100
    Constraints and meaning
    Linguistics and Philosophy 8 (1): 9-12. 1985.
    Meaning, Misc
  • Sensation and perception (1981)
    In Essays on Nonconceptual Content, Bradford Book/mit Press. 2003.
    Conceptual and Nonconceptual ContentSensation and Perception
  •  141
    How beliefs explain: Reply to Baker
    Philosophical Studies 63 113-117. 1991.
    Explanatory Role of Content
  •  94
    Causal Theories of Knowledge1
    with Berent Enç
    Midwest Studies in Philosophy 9 (1): 517-528. 1984.
  •  156
    Observational terms
    Philosophical Review 73 (1): 25-42. 1964.
    The Objects of PerceptionObservation in Science
  •  60
    Abstract of Comments: Seeing through Pictures
    Noûs 18 (1): 73-74. 1984.
    Depiction
  •  181
    Reply to Lopes
    Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 60 (2): 455-460. 2000.
    There is a terminological matter that should be settled before getting down to business. Lopes himself is not confused about this, but a reader—especially one who doesn't pay much attention to footnotes —might easily be.
    Representationalism
  •  306
    Externalism and Modest Contextualism
    Erkenntnis 61 (2-3): 173-186. 2004.
    Externalism about knowledge commits one to a modest form of contextualism: whether one knows depends (or may depend) on circumstances (context) of which one has no knowledge. Such modest contextualism requires the rejection of the KK Principle (If S knows that P, then S knows that S knows that P) - something most people would want to reject anyway - but it does not require (though it is compatible with) a rejection of closure. Radical contextualism, on the other hand, goes a step farther and rel…Read more
    Externalism about knowledge commits one to a modest form of contextualism: whether one knows depends (or may depend) on circumstances (context) of which one has no knowledge. Such modest contextualism requires the rejection of the KK Principle (If S knows that P, then S knows that S knows that P) - something most people would want to reject anyway - but it does not require (though it is compatible with) a rejection of closure. Radical contextualism, on the other hand, goes a step farther and relativizes knowledge not just to the circumstances of the knower, but to the circumstances of the person attributing knowledge. I reject this more radical form of contextualism and suggest that it confuses (or that it can, at least, be avoided by carefully distinguishing) the relativity in what S is said to know from the relativity in whether S knows what S is said to know.
    Closure of KnowledgeContextualist Replies to Skepticism
  •  526
    What change blindness teaches about consciousness
    Philosophical Perspectives 21 (1). 2007.
    Change/Inattentional Blindness
  •  2
    Minds, Machines and Meaning in Philosophy and Technology II. Information Technology and Computers in Theory and Practice
    Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science 90 97-109. 1986.
    Science, Logic, and MathematicsPhilosophy of Computing and Information
  •  119
    A Misrepresentation
    In Alvin I. Goldman (ed.), Readings in Philosophy and Cognitive Science, Mit Press. pp. 297. 1993.
    Naturalizing Mental Content
  •  264
    Causal theories of reference
    Journal of Philosophy 74 (10): 621-625. 1977.
    Causal Theories of Reference
  •  254
    The nature of thought
    Philosophical Studies 70 (2): 185-99. 1993.
    Twin Earth and ExternalismPropositional AttitudesThe Language of Thought
  •  234
    Machines and the mental
    Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 59 (1): 23-33. 1985.
    Artificial Minds, Misc
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