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80Aspects of the unity of consciousness and everyday memory failuresConsciousness and Cognition 15 (2): 372-385. 2006.We argue that analyzing everyday memory failures in terms of the “unity of consciousness” can elucidate the bases of such failures. A perfect unity amongst one’s mental states is rare. In extreme cases the unity of consciousness can breakdown in dramatic fashion , but such breakdowns also occur in less dramatic ways that affect us in everyday life. For example, disruptions in the unity of consciousness can result in everyday memory failures, such as forgetting to put on a tie for an important fo…Read more
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73The Relevance of Intentions in Morality and EuthanasiaInternational Philosophical Quarterly 36 (2): 217-227. 1996.
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15Review of Peter Carruthers', Consciousness: Essays From a Higher-Order Perspective (review)PSYCHE: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Research On Consciousness 12. 2006.This is a fine and important collection of eleven recently published essays by Peter Carruthers, a leading figure in contemporary philosophy of mind. The book contains a very helpful introduction that provides a nice overview of Carruthers’ basic views and orients the reader to the key issues. The introduction also presents a brief summary of the eleven chapters that comprise the remainder of the book. Only three of the essays initially appeared prior to Carruthers’ important 2000 book Phenomena…Read more
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168Leibniz on consciousness and self-consciousnessIn Rocco J. Gennaro & Charles Huenemann (eds.), New essays on the rationalists, Oxford University Press. pp. 353--71. 1999.In the absence of any plausible reductionist account of consciousness in nonmentalistic terms, the HOT theory says that the best explanation for what makes a mental state conscious is that it is accompanied by a thought (or awareness) that one is in that state. I discuss HOT theory with special attention to how Leibnizian theses can help support it and how it can shed light on Leibniz's theory of perception, apperception, and consciousness. It will become clear how treating Leibniz as a HOT the…Read more
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84ConsciousnessRoutledge. 2016.Consciousness is arguably the most important interdisciplinary area in contemporary philosophy of mind, with an explosion of research over the past thirty years from philosophers, psychologists, and scientists. It is also perhaps the most puzzling aspect of the world despite the fact that it is familiar to each of us. Consciousness also seems resistant to any straightforward physical explanation. This book introduces readers to the contemporary problem of consciousness, providing a clear introdu…Read more
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162Animals, consciousness, and I-thoughtsIn Robert W. Lurz (ed.), The Philosophy of Animal Minds, Cambridge University Press. pp. 184--200. 2009.I argue that recent developments in animal cognition support the conclusion that HOT theory is consistent with animal consciousness. There seems to be growing evidence that many animals are indeed capable of having I-thoughts, including episodic memory, as well as have the ability to understand the mental states of others.
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185Consciousness is arguably the most important area within contemporary philosophy of mind and perhaps the most puzzling aspect of the world. Despite an explosion of research from philosophers, psychologists, and scientists, attempts to explain consciousness in neurophysiological, or even cognitive, terms are often met with great resistance. In The Consciousness Paradox, Rocco Gennaro aims to solve an underlying paradox, namely, how it is possible to hold a number of seemingly inconsistent views, …Read more
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108Papineau on the actualist HOT theory of consciousnessAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 81 (4): 581-586. 2003.In Thinking About Consciousness , David Papineau [2002] presents a criticism of so-called 'actualist HOT theories of consciousness'. The HOT theory, held most notably by David Rosenthal, claims that the best explanation for what makes a mental state conscious is that it is the object of an actual higher-order thought directed at the mental state. Papineau contends that actualist HOT theory faces an awkward problem in relation to higher-order memory judgements; for example, that the theory cannot…Read more
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601Disturbed consciousness: New essays on psychopathology and theories of consciousness (edited book)MIT Press. 2015.In Disturbed Consciousness, philosophers and other scholars examine various psychopathologies in light of specific philosophical theories of consciousness. The contributing authors—some of them discussing or defending their own theoretical work—consider not only how a theory of consciousness can account for a specific psychopathological condition but also how the characteristics of a psychopathology might challenge such a theory. Thus one essay defends the higher-order thought (HOT) theory of co…Read more
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751Representationalism, peripheral awareness, and the transparency of experiencePhilosophical Studies 139 (1): 39-56. 2008.It is often said that some kind of peripheral (or inattentional) conscious awareness accompanies our focal (attentional) consciousness. I agree that this is often the case, but clarity is needed on several fronts. In this paper, I lay out four distinct theses on peripheral awareness and show that three of them are true. However, I then argue that a fourth thesis, commonly associated with the so-called "self-representational approach to consciousness," is false. The claim here is that we have out…Read more
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280Mind and Brain: A Dialogue on the Mind-Body ProblemHackett. 1996.Topics include immortality; materlialism; Descartes's 'Divisibility Argument' for dualism; the Argument from introspection'; the problems with..
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388H.O.T. Theory, Concepts, and Synesthesia: A Reply to Adams and ShreveSymposion: Theoretical and Applied Inquiries in Philosophy and Social Sciences 3 (4): 443-448. 2016.In response to Fred Adams and Charlotte Shreve’s (2016) paper entitled “What Can Synesthesia Teach Us about Higher Order Theories of Consciousness?”, previously published in Symposion, I argue that H.O.T. theory does have the resources to account for synesthesia and the specific worries that they advance in their paper, such as the relationship between concepts and experience and the ability to handle instances of ‘pop-out’ experiences.
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86Consciousness and concepts: An introductory essayJournal of Consciousness Studies 14 (9-10): 1-19. 2007.This is an introductory essay from The Interplay between Consciousness and Concepts, which I guest edited as a special double issue of the Journal of Consciousness Studies (vol. 14, Sept/Oct). It is also sold separately as a book by Imprint Academic.
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28This book, written in the form of a dialogue, is an introduction to several ethical theories and to four major contemporary moral issues: euthanasia, abortion, animal rights, and capital punishment
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189The HOT theory of consciousness: Between a rock and a hard placeJournal of Consciousness Studies 12 (2): 3-21. 2005.The so-called 'higher-order thought' theory of consciousness says that what makes a mental state conscious is the presence of a suitable higher-order thought directed at it . The HOT theory has been or could be attacked from two apparently opposite directions. On the one hand, there is what Stubenberg has called 'the problem of the rock' which, if successful, would show that the HOT theory proves too much. On the other hand, it might also be alleged that the HOT theory does not or cannot address…Read more
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134Routledge Handbook of Consciousness (edited book)Routledge. 2018.There has been an explosion of work on consciousness in the last 30–40 years from philosophers, psychologists, and neurologists. Thus, there is a need for an interdisciplinary, comprehensive volume in the field that brings together contributions from a wide range of experts on fundamental and cutting-edge topics. The Routledge Handbook of Consciousness fills this need and makes each chapter’s importance understandable to students and researchers from a variety of backgrounds. Designed to complem…Read more
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3502Jean-Paul Sartre and the HOT Theory of ConsciousnessCanadian Journal of Philosophy 32 (3): 293-330. 2002.Jean-Paul Sartre believed that consciousness entails self-consciousness, or, even more strongly, that consciousness is self-consciousness. As Kathleen Wider puts it in her terrific book The Bodily Nature of Consciousness: Sartre and Contemporary Philosophy of Mind, ‘all consciousness is, by its very nature, self-consciousness.’ I share this view with Sartre and have elsewhere argued for it at length. My overall aim in this paper is to examine Sartre's theory of consciousness against the backgrou…Read more
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491Defending HOT Theory and The Wide Intrinsicality View: A Reply to Weisberg, Van Gulick, and SeagerJournal of Consciousness Studies 20 (11-12): 82-100. 2013.This is my reply to Josh Weisberg, Robert Van Gulick, and William Seager, published in JCS vol 20, 2013. This symposium grew out of an author-meets-critics session at the Central APA conference in 2013 on my 2012 book THE CONSCIOUSNESS PARADOX (MIT Press). Topics covered include higher-order thought (HOT) theory, my own "wide intrinsicality view," the problem of misrepresentation, targetless HOTs, conceptualism, introspection, and the transitivity principle.
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92Brute experience and the higher-order thought theory of consciousnessPhilosophical Papers 22 (1): 51-69. 1993.
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75The Who and Philosophy (edited book)Lexington Books. 2016.The Who was one of the most influential of the 1960s British Invasion bands—not just because of their loud and occasionally destructive stage presence—but also because of its smart songs and albums such as “My Generation,” Who’s Next, Tommy, and Quadrophenia, in which they explored themes such as frustration, angst, irony, and a youthful inclination to lash out. This collection explores the remarkable depth and breadth of the Who’s music through a philosophical lens.
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85Are There Pure Conscious Events?In Chandana Chakrabarti & Gordon Haist (eds.), Revisiting mysticism, Cambridge Scholars Press. pp. 100--120. 2008.There has been much discussion about the nature and even existence of so-called “pure conscious events” (PCEs). PCEs are often described as mental events which are non-conceptual and lacking all experiential content (Forman 1990). For a variety of reasons, a number of authors have questioned both the accuracy of such a characterization and even the very existence of PCEs (Katz 1978, Bagger 1999). In this chapter, I take a somewhat different, but also critical, approach to the nature and possi…Read more
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685Synesthesia, Experiential Parts, and Conscious UnityPhilosophy Study 2 (2): 73-80. 2012.Synesthesia is the “union of the senses” whereby two or more of the five senses that are normally experienced separately are involuntarily and automatically joined together in experience. For example, some synesthetes experience a color when they hear a sound or see a letter. In this paper, I examine two cases of synesthesia in light of the notions of “experiential parts” and “conscious unity.” I first provide some background on the unity of consciousness and the question of experiential parts.…Read more
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363Misrepresentation, empty HOTs, and intrinsic HOTs: A reply to PereplyotchikPhilosophical Psychology 28 (3): 449-451. 2015.Misrepresentation, empty HOTs, and intrinsic HOTs: A reply to Pereplyotchik.
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185This interdisciplinary work contains the most sustained attempt at developing and defending one of the few genuine theories of consciousness
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34A Note on Abortion and Capital PunishmentInternational Philosophical Quarterly 40 (4): 491-495. 2000.
Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Mind |
Philosophy of Cognitive Science |
Metaphysics of Mind |
Philosophy of Consciousness |