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116Mind and Brain: A Dialogue on the Mind-Body Problem, 2nd editionHackett Publishing Co.. 2020.In this introductory work, Mind and Brain: A Dialogue on the Mind-Body Problem, 2nd edition, Gennaro updates and expands the work to reflect current topics and discussions. The dialogue provides a clear and compelling overview of the mind-body problem suitable for both introductory students and those who have some background in the philosophy of mind. Topics include: Immortality, Materialism, Descartes' "Divisibility Argument" for substance dualism, The "Argument from Introspection" for substa…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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92Brute experience and the higher-order thought theory of consciousnessPhilosophical Papers 22 (1): 51-69. 1993.
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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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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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83ConsciousnessRoutledge. 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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80Representation of a representation: Reflections on las meninasJournal of Consciousness Studies 15 (9): 47-50. 2008.Diego Velasquez's Las Meninas (The Maids of Honour) is an intriguing work of representational art. It seems to me that there are two central ways to analyse the painting as involving some kind of 'representation of a representation'.
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79Aspects 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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74The 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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73The Relevance of Intentions in Morality and EuthanasiaInternational Philosophical Quarterly 36 (2): 217-227. 1996.
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68New essays on the rationalists (edited book)Oxford University Press. 1999.This collection presents some of the most vital and original recent writings on Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz, the three greatest rationalists of the early modern period. Their work offered brilliant and distinct integrations of science, morals, metaphysics, and religion, which today remain at the center of philosophical discussion. The essays written especially for this volume explore how these three philosophical systems treated matter, substance, human freedom, natural necessity, knowledge,…Read more
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65What is the Structure of Self-Consciousness and Conscious Mental States?Review of Philosophy and Psychology 13 (2): 295-309. 2022.I believe that there is a ubiquitous pre-reflective self-awareness accompanying first-order conscious states. However, I do not think that such self-awareness is itself typically conscious. On my view, conscious self-awareness enters the picture during what is sometimes called “introspection” which is a more sophisticated form of self-consciousness. I argue that there is a very close connection between consciousness and self-consciousness and, more specifically, between the structure of all cons…Read more
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58The Neuroscience of Psychiatric Disorders and the Metaphysics of ConsciousnessIn Pascual Ángel Gargiulo & Humberto Luis Mesones Arroyo (eds.), Psychiatry and Neuroscience Update: From Translational Research to a Humanistic Approach, Volume III, Springer. pp. 53-64. 2019.In this chapter, I first review and assess evidence regarding brain damage or neural abnormalities associated with some psychopathologies and cognitive deficits, such as hemispatial neglect, agnosias, amnesia, somatoparaphrenia, and others. It becomes clear just how closely normal mental functioning and consciousness depend upon normal brain functioning as well as how some very specific mental changes occur when, and only when, very specific brain damage occurs. I then explore the metaphysical i…Read more
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33A Note on Abortion and Capital PunishmentInternational Philosophical Quarterly 40 (4): 491-495. 2000.
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30Kant versus Lewis on the Singularity of Space and TimeHistory of Philosophy Quarterly 11 (2). 1994.
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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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27Disturbed 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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22New Essays on the RationalistsPhilosophical Review 110 (4): 600. 2001.Dr. Johnson famously observed that in lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath. This observation applies with equal force to publishers and their advertisements for books. According to the blurb, the present volume “offers essential critical material for both novice and advanced scholars of early modern philosophy.” In fact, it would be a remarkably sophisticated novice who could derive much benefit from this anthology of essays on seventeenth-century Rationalism; not merely do the authors e…Read more
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19Consciousness and Implicit Self-Awareness: Eastern and Western PerspectivesIn Prem Saran Satsangi, Anna Margaretha Horatschek & Anand Srivastav (eds.), Consciousness Studies in Sciences and Humanities: Eastern and Western Perspectives, Springer Verlag. pp. 43-54. 2024.Some contemporary Western theories of consciousness, such as the higher-order thought (HOT) theory and self-representationalism, hold that there is an implicit (pre-reflective) “self-awareness” that accompanies each conscious mental state. Important twentieth-century historical figures, such as Sartre and Brentano, have also embraced a similar position. This view, or something very close to it, can also be found centuries earlier in some Indian philosophy (such as in Dignāga) where conscious exp…Read more
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18Higher-Order Theories of ConsciousnessInternet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2018.An overview of higher-order representational theories of consciousness. Representational theories of consciousness attempt to reduce consciousness to “mental representations” rather than directly to neural or other physical states. This approach has been fairly popular over the past few decades. Examples include first-order representationalism (FOR) which attempts to explain conscious experience primarily in terms of world-directed (or first-order) intentional states (Tye 2005) as well as sever…Read more
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17Between pure self-referentialism and the HOT theory of consciousnessIn Uriah Kriegel & Kenneth Williford (eds.), Consciousness and Self-Reference, Mit Press. 2006.
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17Precis of The Consciousness Paradox: Consciousness, Concepts, & Higher-Order ThoughtsJournal of Consciousness Studies 20 (11-12): 6-30. 2013.My overall goal in The Consciousness Paradox: Consciousness, Concepts, and Higher-Order Thoughts is to solve what I take to be a paradox with regard to holding a series of interrelated theses, including a version of the higher-order thought theory of consciousness which says that what makes a mental state conscious is that there is a suitable higher-order thought directed at the mental state. Higher-order thoughts are metapsychological or meta-cognitive states, that is, mental states directed at…Read more
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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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2The interplay of consciousness and concepts (edited book)Imprint Academic. 2007.This is a special double issue of the Journal of Consciousness Studies (vol. 14, Sept/Oct) which I guest edited. It is also sold separately as a book and published by Imprint Academic. The essays are authored by both philosophers and psychologists (including Jose Bermudez, Georges Rey, Art Markman, Jesse Prinz, and Simon Baron-Cohen) and include topics such as conceptualism, phenomenal concepts, infant consciousness, and synesthesia.
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Does Consciousness Entail Self-Consciousness?Dissertation, Syracuse University. 1991.Consciousness entails self-consciousness. The entailment is generally denied for two reasons: some primitive forms of consciousness do not seem to require self-consciousness, and self-consciousness is regarded as a sophisticated capacity that need not accompany all conscious states. However, I show that what best explains how a mental state becomes conscious is that it is accompanied by a meta-psychological thought to the effect that one is in that mental state. I argue at some length that the m…Read more
Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Mind |
Philosophy of Cognitive Science |
Metaphysics of Mind |
Philosophy of Consciousness |