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31What is empiricism?--, Nativism, naturalism, and evolutionary theoryAristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 64 (1): 81-92. 1990.
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6Externalism and Authoritative Self-KnowledgeIn C. Macdonald, Barry C. Smith & C. J. G. Wright (eds.), Knowing Our Own Minds: Essays in Self-Knowledge, Oxford University Press. pp. 123-155. 1998.Externalism in the philosophy of mind has been thought by many to pose a serious threat to the claim that subjects are in general authoritative with regard to certain of their own intentional states.<sup>1</sup> In a series of papers, Tyler Burge (1985_a_, 1985_b_, 1988, 1996) has argued that the distinctive entitlement or right that subjects have to self- knowledge in certain cases is compatible with externalism, since that entitlement is environmentally neutral, neutral with respect to the iss…Read more
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Connectionism and EliminativismIn Cynthia MacDonald & Graham MacDonald (eds.), Connectionism: Debates on Psychological Explanation, Blackwell. 1991.
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678Self-knowledge and the "inner eye"Philosophical Explorations 1 (2): 83-106. 1998.What is knowledge of one's own current, consciously entertained intentional states a form of inner awareness? If so, what form? In this paper I explore the prospects for a quasi-observational account of a certain class of cases where subjects appear to have self-knowledge, namely, the so-called cogito-like cases. In section one I provide a rationale for the claim that we need an epistemology of self-knowledge, and specifically, an epistemology of the cogito-like cases. In section two I argue tha…Read more
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Philosophy of Psychology. Debates on Psychological ExplanationRevue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 187 (1): 110-111. 1997.
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6Explanation in HistoriographyIn Aviezer Tucker (ed.), A Companion to the Philosophy of History and Historiography, Wiley-blackwell. 2008.This chapter contains sections titled: 1 2 3 Acknowledgment Bibliography.
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23Externalism and NormsRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 43 273-301. 1998.We think that certain of our mental states represent the world around us, and represent it in determinate ways. My perception that there is salt in the pot before me, for example, represents my immediate environment as containing a certain object, a pot, with a certain kind of substance, salt, in it. My belief that salt dissolves in water represents something in the world around me, namely salt, as having a certain observational property, that of dissolving. But what exactly is the relation betw…Read more
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Varieties of Things: Foundations of Contemporary MetaphysicsPhilosophical Quarterly 56 (224): 459-463. 2006.
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29Reply to Cynthia MacdonaldPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 59 (3): 739-745. 1999.What is introspective know ledge of one’s own intentional states like? This paper aims to make plausible the view that certain cases of self-knowledge, namely the cogito-type ones, are enough like perception to count as cases of quasi-observation. To this end it considers the highly influential arguments developed by Sydney Shoemaker in his recent Royce Lectures. These present the most formidable challenge to the view that certain cases of self-knowledge are quasi-observational and so deserve de…Read more
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Anti-individualism and Psychological ExplanationIn Cynthia MacDonald & Graham MacDonald (eds.), Philosophy of Psychology: Debates on Psychological Explanation, Blackwell. 1994.
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480The Epistemology of MeaningIn Dan Ryder, Justine Kingsbury & Kenneth Williford (eds.), Millikan and her critics, Wiley. pp. 221--240. 2013.This chapter contains section titles: Introduction Section 1 Section 2 Conclusion.
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IntroductionIn Graham Macdonald & Cynthia Macdonald (eds.), Emergence in mind, Oxford University Press. 2010.
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740Emergence and Downward CausationIn Graham Macdonald & Cynthia Macdonald (eds.), Emergence in mind, Oxford University Press. 2010.
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173The metaphysics of mental causationJournal of Philosophy 103 (11): 539-576. 2006.A debate has been raging in the philosophy of mind for at least the past two decades. It concerns whether the mental can make a causal difference to the world. Suppose that I am reading the newspaper and it is getting dark. I switch on the light, and continue with my reading. One explanation of why my switching on of the light occurred is that a desiring with a particular content (that I continue reading), a noticing with a particular content (that it is getting dark), and a believing with a par…Read more
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184Connectionism: Debates on Psychological Explanation (edited book)Blackwell. 1991.This volume provides an introduction to and review of key contemporary debates concerning connectionism, and the nature of explanation and methodology in cognitive psychology. The first debate centers on the question of whether human cognition is best modeled by classical or by connectionist architectures. The second centres on the question of the compatibility between folk, or commonsense, psychological explanation and explanations based on connectionist models of cognition. Each of the two sec…Read more
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66Self-knowledge and the First PersonIn Maureen Sie, Marc Slors & Bert van den Brink (eds.), Reasons of one's own, Ashgate. 2004.It is a familiar view in the philosophy of mind and action is that for a thought or attitude to constitute a reason for an action is for it to render intelligible, in the light of norms of rationality or reason, that action. However, I can make sense of your actions in this way by crediting you with attitudes that I myself do not hold. Equally, you can do this for my actions. So not all reasons for one’s actions are one’s own reasons. What more is involved in a reason’s being one’s own reason fo…Read more
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37Psychophysical Supervenience, Dependency, and ReductionIn Elias E. Savellos & Ümit D. Yalçin (eds.), Supervenience: New Essays, Cambridge University Press. pp. 140--57. 1995.
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215Introspection and authoritative self-knowledgeErkenntnis 67 (2): 355-372. 2007.In this paper I outline and defend an introspectionist account of authoritative self-knowledge for a certain class of cases, ones in which a subject is both thinking and thinking about a current, conscious thought. My account is distinctive in a number of ways, one of which is that it is compatible with the truth of externalism
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96Emergence in mind (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2010.The volume also extends the debate about emergence by considering the independence of chemical properties from physical properties, and investigating what would ...
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Weak externalism and psychological reductionIn K. Lennon & D. Charles (eds.), Reduction, Explanation, and Realism, Oxford University Press. 1992.
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497Consciousness, self-consciousness, and authoritative self-knowledgeProceedings of the Aristotelian Society 108 (1pt3): 319-346. 2008.Many recent discussions of self-consciousness and self-knowledge assume that there are only two kinds of accounts available to be taken on the relation between the so-called first-order (conscious) states and subjects' awareness or knowledge of them: a same-order, or reflexive view, on the one hand, or a higher-order one, on the other. I maintain that there is a third kind of view that is distinctively different from these two options. The view is important because it can accommodate and make in…Read more
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564Tropes and Other ThingsIn Stephen Laurence & Cynthia Macdonald (eds.), Contemporary Readings in the Foundations of Metaphysics, Wiley-blackwell. 1998.Our day-to-day experience of the world regularly brings us into contact with middlesized objects such as apples, dogs, and other human beings. These objects possess observable properties, properties that are available or accessible to the unaided senses, such as redness and roundness, as well as properties that are not so available, such as chemical ones. Both of these kinds of properties serve as valuable sources of information about our familiar middle-sized objects at least to the extent that…Read more
Manchester, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Mind |
Philosophy of Cognitive Science |
Metaphysics and Epistemology |
Areas of Interest
Epistemology |
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Mind |
Metaphysics and Epistemology |