Cambridge University
Faculty of Philosophy
PhD, 2011
London, England
  •  189
    How to be a type-C physicalist
    Philosophical Studies 164 (2): 301-320. 2013.
    This paper advances a version of physicalism which reconciles the “a priori entailment thesis” (APET) with the analytic independence of our phenomenal and physical vocabularies. The APET is the claim that, if physicalism is true, the complete truths of physics imply every other truth a priori. If so, “cosmic hermeneutics” is possible: a demon having only complete knowledge of physics could deduce every truth about the world. Analytic independence is a popular physicalist explanation for the appa…Read more
  •  20
    The Descent of Culture
    with T. Lewens
    British Journal of Aesthetics 54 (4): 489-492. 2014.
    Stephen Davies’ book shows admirable sensitivity to the complexities of aesthetic appreciation, the making of art, and evolutionary explanation. Our critical comments focus on his understanding of how the natural and the cultural are to be distinguished. We suggest that recent work on the evolution of cognition undermines any strict distinction between that which is learned, and therefore within the domain of culture or technology, and that which is part of human nature, and therefore within the…Read more