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35John Locke is widely acknowledged as the most important figure in the history of English philosophy and _An Essay Concerning Human Understanding_ is his greatest intellectual work, emphasising the importance of experience for the formation of knowledge. The _Routledge Guidebook to Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding_ introduces the major themes of Locke’s great book and serves as a companion to this key work, examining: The context of Locke’s work and the background to his writing Each …Read more
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34Review of Maria Elisabeth Reicher (ed.), States of Affairs (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2009 (10). 2009.
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34A problem for a posteriori essentialism concerning natural kindsAnalysis 67 (4): 286-292. 2007.There is a widespread assumption that the classical work in philosophical semantics of Saul Kripke (1980) and Hilary Putnam (1975) has taught us that the essences of natural kinds of substances, such as water and gold, are discoverable only a posteriori by scientific investigation. It is such investigation, thus, that has supposedly revealed to us that it is an essential property of water that it is composed of H2O molecules. This is the way in which Scott Soames, in a recent paper, makes the po…Read more
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33Substance and SelfhoodPhilosophy 66 (255). 1991.How could the self be a substance? There are various ways in which it could be, some familiar from the history of philosophy. I shall be rejecting these more familiar substantivalist approaches, but also the non-substantival theories traditionally opposed to them. I believe that the self is indeed a substance—in fact, that it is a simple or noncomposite substance—and, perhaps more remarkably still, that selves are, in a sense, self-creating substances. Of course, if one thinks of the notion of s…Read more
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32Identity, Composition, and the Simplicity of the SelfIn Kevin Corcoran (ed.), Soul, body, and survival: essays on the metaphysics of human persons, Cornell University Press. 2001.
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29Indeterminist Free WillPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 70 (3): 681-690. 2007.The aim of the paper is to prove the consistency of libertarianism. We examine the example of Jane, who deliberates at length over whether to vacation in Colorado (C) or Hawaii (H), weighing the costs and benefits, consulting travel brochures, etc. Underlying phenomenological deliberation is an indeterministic neural process in which nonactual motor neural states n(C) and n(H) corresponding to alternatives C and H remain physically possible up until the moment of decision. The neurophysiological…Read more
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29The rationality of metaphysicsSynthese 178 (1): 99-109. 2011.In this paper, it is argued that metaphysics, conceived as an inquiry into the ultimate nature of mind-independent reality, is a rationally indispensable intellectual discipline, with the a priori science of formal ontology at its heart. It is maintained that formal ontology, properly understood, is not a mere exercise in conceptual analysis, because its primary objective is a normative one, being nothing less than the attempt to grasp adequately the essences of things, both actual and possible,…Read more
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29Substantial Change and Spatiotemporal CoincidenceRatio 16 (2): 140-160. 2003.Substantial change occurs when a persisting object of some kind either begins or ceases to exist. Typically, this happens when one or more persisting objects of another kind or kinds are subjected to appropriate varieties of qualitative or relational change, as when the particles composing a lump of bronze are rearranged so as to create a statue. However, such transformations also seem to result, very often, in cases of spatiotemporal coincidence, in which two numerically distinct objects of dif…Read more
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29Review of Frank Plumpton Ramsey and Maria Carla Galavotti: Notes on Philosophy, Probability and Mathematics (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 48 (2): 300-301. 1997.
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28Vagueness and MetaphysicsIn Giuseppina Ronzitti (ed.), Vagueness: A Guide, Springer Verlag. pp. 19--53. 2011.
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27Are the natural numbers individuals or sorts?Analysis 53 (3): 142-146. 1993.E. J. Lowe; Are the natural numbers individuals or sorts?, Analysis, Volume 53, Issue 3, 1 July 1993, Pages 142–146, https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/53.3.142.
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27The Human Person: Animal and Spirit By David Braine London:Duckworth, 1993, viii+182pp., £35.00 (review)Philosophy 69 (268): 244-. 1994.
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27Is Conceptualist Realism a Stable Position?Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 71 (2): 456-461. 2007.
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26A Defence SubstanceIn Alessandro Antonietti, Antonella Corradini & E. Jonathan Lowe (eds.), Psycho-Physical Dualism Today: An Interdisciplinary Approach, Lexington Books. pp. 167. 2008.
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25A. J. Ayer: Memorial Essays Edited by A. Phillips Griffiths Cambridge University Press, 1991, v + 239 pp., £12.95 (review)Philosophy 68 (263): 107-. 1993.
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25Modes of exemplificationIn Langlet B. Monnoyer J.-M. (ed.), Gustav Bergmann : Phenomenological Realism and Dialectical Ontology, Ontos Verlag. pp. 29--173. 2009.
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25The psychology of freedom by Thomas pink. Cambridge university press, 1996, pp. X + 284. £35.00Philosophy 73 (2): 305-324. 1998.
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23Testimony: A Philosophical Study By C. A. J. Coady Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992, x + 315 pp., £40.00 (review)Philosophy 68 (265): 413-. 1993.
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23Powerful Particulars:Review Essay on John Heils From an Ontological Point of View (review)Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 72 (2): 466-479. 2006.John Heil's new book (Heil 2003) is remarkable in many ways. In a concise, lucid and accessible manner, it develops a complete system of ontology with many strikingly original features and then applies that ontology to fundamental issues in the philosophy of mind, with illuminating results. Although Heil acknowledges his intellectual debts to C. B. Martin (p. viii), he is unduly modest about his own contribution to the development and application of this novel metaphysical system. A full examina…Read more
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23Logical ArgumentIn Miroslaw Szatkowski (ed.), Ontological Proofs Today, Ontos Verlag. pp. 50--179. 2012.
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22Origins of Analytical Philosophy By Michael Dummett London:Duckworth, 1993, xi+199pp., £25.00 (review)Philosophy 69 (268): 246-. 1994.
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22Objects and criteria of identityIn R. Hole & C. Wright (eds.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Language, Blackwell. 1997.'Object' and 'criterion of identity' are philosophical terms of art whose application lies at a considerable theoretical remove from the surface phenomena of everyday linguistic usage. This partly explains their highly controversial status, for their point of application lies precisely where the concerns of linguists and philosophers of language merge with those of metaphysicians. This chapter explains the possession of determinate identity‐conditions. It argues that the distinction between 'abs…Read more
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22The Determinists Have Run Out of Luck—For a Good ReasonPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 77 (3): 745-748. 2008.
Areas of Specialization
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Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Action |
Philosophy of Language |
Philosophy of Mind |
Logic and Philosophy of Logic |
Philosophy of Physical Science |