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28Logic, epistemology and the unity of science: An encyclopedic project in the spirit of Neurath and DiderotIn S. Rahman J. Symons (ed.), Logic, Epistemology, and the Unity of Science, Kluwer Academic Publisher. pp. 3--15. 2004.
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28Open-mindedness as a Corrective VirtuePhilosophy 96 (1): 73-97. 2021.This paper argues that open-mindedness is a corrective virtue. It serves as a corrective to the epistemic vice of confirmation bias. Specifically, open-mindedness is the epistemically virtuous disposition to resist the negative effects of confirmation bias on our ability to reason well and to evaluate evidence and arguments. As part of the defense and presentation of our account, we explore four discussions of open-mindedness in the recent literature. All four approaches have strengths and shed …Read more
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27The results are in: The scope and import of Hintikka's philosophyIn D. Kolak & J. Symons (eds.), Quantifiers, Questions and Quantum Physics, Springer. pp. 209--271. 2004.
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26Information, representation, and the dynamic systems approach to languageBehavioral and Brain Sciences 25 (5): 640-641. 2002.Shanker & King (S&K) provide a criticism of information-theoretic approaches to language, but the real obstacle to their dynamicist approach is the argument that representations are an indispensable part of any cognitive theory. Since the dynamicist approach has a prima facie anti-representationalist bent, the authors must show why dynamicist views can provide adequate explanations of intelligent behavior.
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25Reply to Angius and Primiero on Software Intensive SciencePhilosophy and Technology 27 (3): 491-494. 2014.This paper provides a reply to articles by Nicola Angius and Guiseppe Primiero responding to our paper “Software Intensive Science”
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20Giandomenico Sica’s volume is a collection of eleven papers on category theory by philosophers, mathematicians, and mathematical physicists. In addition to papers of direct interest to philosophers of mathematics, the volume contains some introductory expositions of category theory along with a valuable discussion of the relationship between category theory and physics by Bob Coecke. While there are several technically difficult papers, the volume as a whole is reasonably accessible to those wit…Read more
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17The analytic tradition is sometimes criticized as being narrowly focused on language, logic or conceptual analysis to the detriment of deeper investigations into ontological, metaphysical or moral questions.1 More specifically, analytic philosophy has been associated with a positivist attitude which favored replacing the philosophy’s traditional focus on fundamental questions with an obsequiously deferential relationship to mathematics and the natural sciences. While this line of criticism obscu…Read more
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17The complexity of information-processing tasks in visionIn Carlos Gershenson, Diederik Aerts & Bruce Edmonds (eds.), Worldviews, Science, and Us: Philosophy and Complexity, World Scientific. pp. 300. 2007.
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15Functionalism in the philosophy of mind rests on the claim that mental states are multiply realizable; mental states can be realized by or instantiated in a variety of distinct physical structures. To see them as multiply realizable we take mental states as causal roles rather than particular physical structures. As such, functionalism can be contrasted with metaphysical accounts which treat mental states as instances of a mental substance. Instead of puzzling over the relationship between menta…Read more
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15Masses of Formal Philosophy (edited book)Automatic Press/VIP. 2006.Masses of Formal Philosophy is an outgrowth of Formal Philosophy. That book gathered the responses of some of the most prominent formal philosophers to five relatively open and broad questions initiating a discussion of metaphilosophical themes and problems surrounding the use of formal methods in philosophy. Including contributions from a wide range of philosophers, Masses of Formal Philosophy contains important new responses to the original five questions.
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14Entre darwinisme et biopolitique, le naturalisme en chantierMultitudes 2 (2): 15-26. 2004.In this interview, Symons discusses the scope and character of philosophy of biology, including some reflections on the political implications of biological developments. Topics addressed include the nature of biological knowledge; the status of reductionism; and contemporary discussions of Darwinism, biotechnology and cloning
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14Central Themes and Open Questions in the Philosophy of Computer ScienceGlobal Philosophy 33 (6): 1-14. 2023.This paper introduces the _Global Philosophy_ symposium on Giuseppe Primiero’s book _On the Foundations of Computing_ (2020). The collection gathers commentaries and responses of the author with the aim of engaging with some open questions in the philosophy of computer science. Firstly, this paper introduces the central themes addressed in Primiero’s book; secondly, it highlights some of the main critiques from commentators in order to, finally, pinpoint some conceptual challenges indicating fut…Read more
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1210. Simulated Experiments: Methodology for a Virtual World Simulated Experiments: Methodology for a Virtual World (pp. 105-125) (review)Philosophy of Science 70 (1): 22-26. 2003.In his “A New Program for Philosophy of Science?”, Ronald Giere expresses qualms regarding the critical and political projects I advocate for philosophy of science—that the critical project assumes an underdetermination absent from actual science, and the political project takes us outside the professional pursuit of philosophy of science. In reply I contend that the underdetermination the critical project assumes does occur in actual science, and I provide a variety of examples to support this.…Read more
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12Formal Philosophy (edited book)Automatic Press/VIP. 2005.Formal Philosophy is a collection of short interviews based on 5 questions presented tosome of the most influential and prominent scholars in formal philosophy.
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10Daniel Dennett (edited book)Routledge. 2014.SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY PRICE! Daniel Dennett has been one of the central voices in the philosophy of mind for at least the past forty years. Unlike most philosophers of his generation, Dennett’s work has resonated far and wide. It has powerfully influenced the development of cognitive science, robotics, developmental psychology, and artificial intelligence. Indeed, his work has led to many new lines of inquiry. For example, he has developed a theory of consciousness which provides an approach to n…Read more
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6was a detailed analysis of the methodology of biological investigation. The dissertation examined case studies involving enzymes, proteins, catalysis and other matters apparently far removed from his later work on Mexican and Chicano thought. However, Haddox’s existential engagement with basic philosophical questions is evident throughout this work.
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5Emergence and Reflexive DownwardPrincipia: An International Journal of Epistemology 6 (1). 2002.This paper responds to Jaegwon Kim's powerful objection to the very possibility of genuinely novel emergent properties Kim argue that the incoherence of reflexive downward causation means that the causal power of an emergent phenomenon is ultimately reducible to the causal powers of its constituents. I offer a a simple argument showing how to characterize emergent properties m terms of the effects of structural relations an the causal powers of that constituents.
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4On DennettWadsworth/Thompson Learning. 2001.This brief text assists students in understanding Dennett's philosophy and thinking so they can more fully engage in useful, intelligent class dialogue and improve their understanding of course content. Part of the Wadsworth Notes Series, (which will eventually consist of approximately 100 titles, each focusing on a single "thinker" from ancient times to the present), ON DENNETT is written by a philosopher deeply versed in the philosophy of this key thinker. Like other books in the series, this …Read more
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3Thesis (Master, Philosophy) -- Queen's University, 2007-11-19 19:16:04.362.
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1New approaches to the Unity of Science, vol. 1: Otto Neurath and the Unity of Science (edited book)Springer. 2011.
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Brute facts about emergenceIn Elly Vintiadis & Constantinos Mekios (eds.), Brute Facts, Oxford University Press. 2018.
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Computational Theories of Vision and the Problem of Explanation in NeuroscienceDissertation, Boston University. 2002.This dissertation begins with an analysis of the recent history of the cognitive neuroscience of vision. This analysis is intended to test the basic assumptions of computational functionalism. Functionalists have argued that since psychological properties can be realized by a variety of structures, those structures are irrelevant to a proper characterization of their properties. By considering applications of functionalist methodology in cognitive science, I argue that functionalist models of me…Read more
Lawrence, Kansas, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Science, Logic, and Mathematics |
Metaphysics and Epistemology |
Areas of Interest
Science, Logic, and Mathematics |
Metaphysics and Epistemology |