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114Literature and TruthfulnessIn James Maclaurin (ed.), Rationis Defensor: Essays in Honour of Colin Cheyne, Springer. pp. 23-31. 2012.How should we characterise the view that we can learn about the mind from literature? Should we say that such learning consists in acquiring knowledge of truths? That option is more attractive than it is sometimes made to seem by those who oppose propositional knowledge to practical knowledge or “knowing how”. But some writers on this topic—Lamarque and Olsen—argue that, while literature may express interesting propositions, it is not their truth that matters, but their “content”. Matters to wha…Read more
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79Simulation-theory, theory-theory, and the evidence from autismIn Peter Carruthers & Peter K. Smith (eds.), Theories of Theories of Mind, Cambridge University Press. pp. 242. 1996.
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9D. H. Ruben [1985]: The Metaphysics of the Social World. Routledge and Kegan Paul. x + 189 pp. £14.95 (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 38 (1): 127-132. 1987.
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Rationality, decentring, and the evidence for pretence in nonhuman animalsIn Susan Hurley & Matthew Nudds (eds.), Rational Animals?, Oxford University Press. 2006.
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78Realism of Character and the Value of FictionIn Jerrold Levinson (ed.), Aesthetics and Ethics: Essays at the Intersection, Cambridge University Press. pp. 161--81. 1998.
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12Pretence, Pretending and MetarepresentingMind and Language 13 (1): 35-55. 1998.I assess the claim that metarepresentation is a key notion in understanding the nature and development of our capacity to engage in pretence. I argue that the metarepresentational programme is unhelpful in explaining how pretence operates and, in particular, how agents distinguish pretence from belief. I sketch an alternative approach to the relations between pretending and believing. This depends on a distinction between pretending and pretence, and upon the claim that pretence stands to preten…Read more
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Pretence and rationality: The case of non‐human animalsIn Arts and minds, Oxford University Press. 2004.Argues that pretence is one clear indication of rationality. Makes a suggestion about the kind of evidence of pretence in animals we should be looking for. This suggestion makes claims about pretence hard to justify by comparison with, say, claims about imitation; Appeals to Morgan's canon in defence of this stance. Suggests that we can learn something about pretence by connecting it with the phenomenon of seeing‐in. Finally, offers a speculation on the evolutionary history of the capacity that …Read more
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81Pretence, pretending, and metarepresentingMind and Language 13 (1): 35-55. 1998.I assess the claim that metarepresentation is a key notion in understanding the nature and development of our capacity to engage in pretence. I argue that the metarepresentational programme is unhelpful in explaining how pretence operates and, in particular, how agents distinguish pretence from belief. I sketch an alternative approach to the relations between pretending and believing. This depends on a distinction between pretending and pretence, and upon the claim that pretence stands to preten…Read more
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244Photography, painting and perceptionJournal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 49 (1): 23-29. 1991.
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Pretence and pretendingIn Arts and minds, Oxford University Press. 2004.Assesses the claim that metarepresentation — the mental representation of a mental representation — is a key notion in understanding the nature and development of our capacity to engage in pretence. Argues that the metarepresentational programme is unhelpful in explaining how pretence operates and, in particular, how agents distinguish pretence from reality. Sketches an alternative approach to the relations between pretending and believing.
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42Preserving the traces: An answer to noël CarrollJournal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 58 (3): 306-308. 2000.
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17Narrative, imitation, and point of viewIn Garry Hagberg & Walter Jost (eds.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Literature, Wiley-blackwell. 2007.This chapter contains sections titled: Agency and Access to the World Speaking and Seeing Imitation Some Resources of Narration The Varieties of Narrative Imitation.
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Methods in the Philosophy of Literature and FilmIn Herman Cappelen, Tamar Gendler & John Hawthorne (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Methodology, Oxford University Press. 2016.This article discusses methods in the philosophy of literature and film. It begins by providing some background on PLF and how it differs from those philosophically influenced projects for understanding and interpreting literature and film most often undertaken by film and literary scholars. It then reviews the history of the study of literature and film before considering how particular filmic or literary works might function as evidence for, or as things to be explained by, general claims offe…Read more
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82Narrative and the Psychology of CharacterJournal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 67 (1): 61-71. 2009.
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26Mimesis: Metaphysics, Cognition, Pragmatics (edited book)College Publications. 2012.The concept of mimesis has been central to philosophical aesthetics from Aristotle to Kendall Walton: in plain terms, it highlights the links between a fictional world or a representational practice on the one hand and the real world on the other. The present collection of essays includes discussions of its general viability and pertinence and of its historical origins, as well as detailed analyses of various relevant issues regarding literature, film, theatre, images and computer games. The ind…Read more