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176Phenomenally Mine: In Search of the Subjective Character of ConsciousnessReview of Philosophy and Psychology 8 (1): 103-127. 2017.It’s a familiar fact that there is something it is like to see red, eat chocolate or feel pain. More recently philosophers have insisted that in addition to this objectual phenomenology there is something it is like for me to eat chocolate, and this for-me-ness is no less there than the chocolatishness. Recognizing this subjective feature of consciousness helps shape certain theories of consciousness, introspection and the self. Though it does this heavy philosophical work, and it is supposed to…Read more
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56Consciousness and the Limits of Objectivity: The Case for Subjective PhysicalismOxford University Press. 2013.Robert J. Howell offers a new account of the relationship between conscious experience and the physical world, based on a neo-Cartesian notion of the physical and careful consideration of three anti-materialist arguments. His theory of subjective physicalism reconciles the data of consciousness with the advantages of a monistic, physical ontology
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95Perception from the First‐Person PerspectiveEuropean Journal of Philosophy 24 (1): 187-213. 2013.This paper develops a view of the content of perceptual states that reflects the cognitive significance those states have for the subject. Perhaps the most important datum for such a theory is the intuition that experiences are ‘transparent’, an intuition promoted by philosophers as diverse as Sartre and Dretske. This paper distinguishes several different transparency theses, and considers which ones are truly supported by the phenomenological data. It is argued that the only thesis supported by…Read more
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70Extended Virtues and the Boundaries of PersonsJournal of the American Philosophical Association 2 (1): 146--163. 2016.
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100The God Dialogues: A Philosophical JourneyOup Usa. 2011.The God Dialogues is an intriguing and extensive philosophical debate about the existence of God. Engaging and accessible, it covers all the main arguments for and against God's existence, from traditional philosophical "proofs" to arguments that involve the latest developments in biology and physics.
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18Review of Lucy O'Brien, Self-Knowing Agents (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2008 (3). 2008.
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142The skeptic, the content externalist, and the theistInternational Journal for Philosophy of Religion 69 (3): 173-180. 2011.Some philosophers argue that content externalism can provide the foundations of an argument against the traditional epistemological skeptic. I maintain that if such an argument is available, it seems there is also an a priori argument against the possibility of a creationist god. My suspicion is that such a strong consequence is not desirable for the content-externalists, and that the availability of this argument therefore casts doubt on the anti-skeptical position. I argue that all content ext…Read more
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142Sensations, swatches, and speckled hensPacific Philosophical Quarterly 84 (4): 371-383. 2003.We argue that there is a interesting connection between the old problem of the Speckled Hen and an argument that can be traced from Russell to Armstrong to Putnam that we call the “gradation argument.” Both arguments have been used to show that there is no “Highest Common Factor” between appearances we judge the same – no such thing as “real” sensations. But, we argue, both only impugn the assumption of epistemic certainty regarding introspective reports.
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132The Physicalist's Tight Squeeze: A Posteriori Physicalism vs. A Priori PhysicalismPhilosophy Compass 10 (12): 905-913. 2015.Both a priori physicalism and a posteriori physicalism combine a metaphysical and an epistemological thesis. They agree about the metaphysical thesis: our world is wholly physical. Most agree that this requires everything that there is must be necessitated by the sort of truths described by physics. If we call the conjunction of the basic truths of physics P, all physicalists agree that P entails for any truth Q. Where they disagree is whether or not this entailment can be known a priori. The a …Read more