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27Is Conceptualist Realism a Stable Position?Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 71 (2): 456-461. 2007.
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114Substantial change and spatiotemporal coincidenceRatio 16 (2). 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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1655Causal closure principles and emergentismPhilosophy 75 (294): 571-586. 2000.Causal closure arguments against interactionist dualism are currently popular amongst physicalists. Such an argument appeals to some principles of the causal closure of the physical, together with certain other premises, to conclude that at least some mental events are identical with physical events. However, it is crucial to the success of any such argument that the physical causal closure principle to which it appeals is neither too strong nor too weak by certain standards. In this paper, it i…Read more
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2A. J. Ayer: Memorial Essays Edited by A. Phillips Griffiths Cambridge University Press, 1991, v + 239 pp., £12.95 (review)Philosophy 68 (263): 107-108. 1993.
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59Personal AgencyRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 53 211-227. 2003.Why does the problem of free will seem so intractable? I surmise that in large measure it does so because the free will debate, at least in its modern form, is conducted in terms of a mistaken approach to causality in general. At the heart of this approach is the assumption that all causation is fundamentally event causation. Of course, it is well-known that some philosophers of action want to invoke in addition an irreducible notion of agent causation, applicable only in the sphere of intellige…Read more
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248Locke on Real Essence and Water as a Natural Kind: A Qualified DefenceAristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 85 (1): 1-19. 2011.‘Water is H2O’ is one of the most frequently cited sentences in analytic philosophy, thanks to the seminal work of Saul Kripke and Hilary Putnam in the 1970s on the semantics of natural kind terms. Both of these philosophers owe an intellectual debt to the empiricist metaphysics of John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding, while disagreeing profoundly with Locke about the reality of natural kinds. Locke employs an intriguing example involving water to support his view that kinds (or ‘sp…Read more
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194A survey of metaphysicsOxford University Press. 2002.A systematic overview of modern metaphysics, A Survey of Metaphysics covers all of the most important topics in the field. It adopts the fairly traditional conception of metaphysics as a subject that deals with the deepest questions that can be raised concerning the fundamental structure of reality as a whole. The book is divided into six main sections that address the following themes: identity and change, necessity and essence, causation, agency and events, space and time, and universals and p…Read more
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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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67Essentialism, Metaphysical Realism, and the Errors of ConceptualismPhilosophia Scientiae 12 9-33. 2008.Le réalisme métaphysique est la conception suivant laquelle la plupart des objets qui peuplent le monde existent indépendamment de notre pensée et possèdent une nature indépendante de la manière dont nous pouvons éventuellement la concevoir. A mon sens cette position engage à admettre une forme robuste d'essentialisme. Beaucoup des formes modernes de l'anti-réalisme tirent leurs origines d'une forme de conceptualisme, suivant laquelle toutes les vérités que nous puissions connaître au sujet des …Read more
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67Review: Powers: A study in metaphysics (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 55 (4): 817-822. 2004.
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23Logical ArgumentIn Miroslaw Szatkowski (ed.), Ontological Proofs Today, Ontos Verlag. pp. 50--179. 2012.
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281The problem of psychophysical causationAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 70 (3): 263-76. 1992.Argues that there can be interaction without breaking physical laws: e.g. by basic psychic forces, or by varying physical constants, or especially by arranging fractal trees of physical causation leading to behavior
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 |