•  201
    The philosophy of neuroscience
    Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2006.
    Over the past three decades, philosophy of science has grown increasingly “local.” Concerns have switched from general features of scientific practice to concepts, issues, and puzzles specific to particular disciplines. Philosophy of neuroscience is a natural result. This emerging area was also spurred by remarkable recent growth in the neurosciences. Cognitive and computational neuroscience continues to encroach upon issues traditionally addressed within the humanities, including the nature of …Read more
  •  103
    William Uttal's The new phrenology is a broad attack on localization in cognitive neuroscience. He argues that even though the brain is a highly differentiated organ, "high level cognitive functions" should not be localized in specific brain regions. First, he argues that psychological processes are not well-defined. Second, he criticizes the methods used to localize psychological processes, including imaging technology: he argues that variation among individuals compromises localization, and th…Read more
  •  66
    Neuroeconomics, neurophysiology and the common currency hypothesis
    Economics and Philosophy 24 (3): 419-429. 2008.
    We briefly describe ways in which neuroeconomics has made contributions to its contributing disciplines, especially neuroscience, and a specific way in which it could make future contributions to both. The contributions of a scientific research programme can be categorized in terms of (1) description and classification of phenomena, (2) the discovery of causal relationships among those phenomena, and (3) the development of tools to facilitate (1) and (2). We consider ways in which neuroeconomics…Read more
  • The Philosophy of Neuroscience
    with Bickle John and Mandik Peter
    In Peter Adamson (ed.), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2012.
  •  118
    Confusion, Cost, and Emotion Research
    Emotion Review 2 (4): 373-374. 2010.
    The inferences that can be drawn from Izard’s article are unclear. Izard (2010) suggests that his data raise questions concerning inconsistencies, confusion, and costs in emotion research. I suggest that his data do not speak to the issues of confusion and costs, and that the choice of distinguished scientists may have been inappropriate to meet the goals of Izard’s study. Of course, questions concerning the efficiency of research in emotion studies are interesting. I describe more appropriate w…Read more