University of Chicago
Department of Philosophy
PhD, 2000
New York City, New York, United States of America
  •  11
    Interesting Experiences
    Journal of Philosophical Research 48 253-258. 2023.
    Lorraine Besser argues that interesting experiences confer prudential value on those who have them. After summing up what Besser means by this, I question whether interesting experiences always confer such value and whether the experience of the interesting has its own distinctive phenomenal feel. Beyond this, I ponder the contours of Besser’s discussion of how people with Alzheimer’s might experience the interesting, agreeing with her that it seems likely that they can but questioning her sugge…Read more
  •  23
    Unconscious transformative experience
    Synthese 202 (4): 1-26. 2023.
    According to L.A. Paul, conscious experiences can be transformative. But can unconscious experiences also be transformative? After a preliminary clarification of what it means to have an unconscious experience, we marshal three cases of unconscious experiences to support the idea that unconscious experiences can be transformative: one inspired by Anna Karenina, another by a case of Freud’s, and a third by the medical condition hemispatial neglect. Such examples, we argue, suggest not only that y…Read more
  •  14
    This chapter is concerned with materialistic views of the mind and the natural world in general. It examines the scientific evidence for the claim that everything within the spatiotemporal realm is physically constituted, and considers whether this evidence leaves room for any alternatives to this physicalist thesis.
  •  50
    Should Physicalists Fear Abstracta?
    Journal of Consciousness Studies 24 (9-10): 40-49. 2017.
    Susan Schneider argues that physicalism must be false if abstracta are part of the physicalist's dependence base. In opposition to her view, here I set out some reasons to think that abstracta in general, including abstracta that are woven into the dependence base, are something physicalists can countenance with consistency.
  •  11
    The Paradox of Post‐Performance Amnesia
    Midwest Studies in Philosophy 44 (1): 38-47. 2019.
    Midwest Studies In Philosophy, Volume 44, Issue 1, Page 38-47, December 2019.
  •  52
    What Experience Doesn't Teach: Pain Amnesia and a New Paradigm for Memory Research
    Journal of Consciousness Studies 27 (11-12): 102-125. 2020.
    Do we remember what pain feels like? Investigations into this question have sometimes led to ambiguous or apparently contradictory results. Building on research on pain memory by Rohini Terry and colleagues, I argue that this lack of agreement may be due in part to the difficulty researchers face when trying to convey to their study's participants the type of memory they are being tasked with recalling. To address this difficulty, I introduce the concept of 'qualitative memory', which, arguably,…Read more
  •  116
    Intuitions without concepts lose the game: mindedness in the art of chess (review)
    Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 10 (2): 175-194. 2011.
    To gain insight into human nature philosophers often discuss the inferior performance that results from deficits such as blindsight or amnesia. Less often do they look at superior abilities. A notable exception is Herbert Dreyfus who has developed a theory of expertise according to which expert action generally proceeds automatically and unreflectively. We address one of Dreyfus’s primary examples of expertise: chess. At first glance, chess would seem an obvious counterexample to Dreyfus’s view …Read more
  •  13
    Qualitative Memory: A Response to Commentators
    Journal of Consciousness Studies 27 (11-12): 154-165. 2020.
    Do we remember what pain feels like? Investigations into this question have sometimes led to ambiguous or apparently contradictory results. Building on research on pain memory by Rohini Terry and colleagues, I argue that this lack of agreement may be due in part to the difficulty researchers face when trying to convey to their study’s participants the type of memory they are being tasked with recalling. To address this difficulty, I introduce the concept of ‘qualitative memory’, which, ar…Read more
  •  57
    Physicalism is thought to entail that mental properties supervene on microphysical properties, or in other words that all God had to do was to create the fundamental physical properties and the rest came along for free. In this paper, we question the all-god-had-to-do reflex.
  •  163
    A Russellian Response to the Structural Argument Against Physicalism
    Journal of Consciousness Studies 17 (3-4): 70-83. 2010.
    According to David Chalmers , 'we have good reason to suppose that consciousness has a fundamental place in nature' . This, he thinks is because the world as revealed to us by fundamental physics is entirely structural -- it is a world not of things, but of relations -- yet relations can only account for more relations, and consciousness is not merely a relation . Call this the 'structural argument against physicalism.' I shall argue that there is a view about the relationship between mind and b…Read more
  •  25
    Not being there: An analysis of expertise‐induced amnesia
    Mind and Language 35 (5): 621-640. 2019.
    It has been hypothesized that postperformance memory gaps occur in highly skilled individuals because experts generally perform their skills without conscious attention. In contrast, we hypothesize that such memory gaps may occur when performers focus so intently on their unfolding actions that their ongoing attention interferes with long-term memory formation of what was previously attended to, or when performers are highly focused on aspects of their bodily skills that are not readily put into…Read more
  •  135
    Utilitarianism in Infinite Worlds
    Utilitas 12 (1): 91. 2000.
    Recently in the philosophical literature there has been some effort made to understand the proper application of the theory of utilitarianism to worlds in which there are infinitely many bearers of utility. Here, we point out that one of the best, most inclusive principles proposed to date contradicts fundamental utilitarian ideas, such as the idea that adding more utility makes a better world
  •  22
    INDEX for volume 80, 2002
    with Eric Barnes, Neither Truth Nor Empirical Adequacy Explain, Matti Eklund, Deep Inconsistency, Harold Langsam, Self-Knowledge Externalism, Christine McKinnon Desire-Frustration, Moral Sympathy, and Josh Parsons
    Australasian Journal of Philosophy 80 (4): 545-548. 2002.
  •  68
    New inconsistencies in infinite utilitarianism: Is every world good, bad or neutral?
    with Donniell Fishkind and Joel David Hamkins
    Australasian Journal of Philosophy 80 (2). 2002.
    In the context of worlds with infinitely many bearers of utility, we argue that several collections of natural Utilitarian principles--principles which are certainly true in the classical finite Utilitarian context and which any Utilitarian would find appealing--are inconsistent.
  •  93
    With infinite utility, more needn't be better
    Australasian Journal of Philosophy 78 (2). 2000.
    This Article does not have an abstract
  •  1
    Economics and the mind (edited book)
    Routledge. 2007.
    'Economics and the Mind' brings economists and philosophers of the mind together to explore the intersection of their disciplines.
  • Introduction
    In Barbara Montero & Mark D. White (eds.), Economics and the mind, Routledge. 2007.
  •  57
    Many mathematicians are platonists: they believe that the axioms of mathematics are true because they express the structure of a nonspatiotemporal, mind independent, realm. But platonism is plagued by a philosophical worry: it is unclear how we could have knowledge of an abstract, realm, unclear how nonspatiotemporal objects could causally affect our spatiotemporal cognitive faculties. Here I aim to make room in our metaphysical picture of the world for the causal relevance of abstracta.
  •  24
    Philosophy of mind: a very short introduction
    Oxford University Press. 2022.
    Is the neurophysiology of pain all there is to pain? How do words and mental pictures come to represent things in the world? Do computers think, and if so, are their thought processes significantly similar to our thought processes? Or is there something distinctive about human thought thatprecludes replication in a computer? These are some of the puzzles that motivate the philosophical discipline called "philosophy of mind," a central area of philosophy.This Very Short Introduction introduces th…Read more
  •  106
    Chess and the conscious mind: Why Dreyfus and McDowell got it wrong
    Mind and Language 34 (3): 376-392. 2018.
    Mind &Language, Volume 34, Issue 3, Page 376-392, June 2019.
  •  48
    Making Room for a This-Worldly Physicalism
    Topoi 37 (3): 523-532. 2018.
    Physicalism is thought to entail that mental properties supervene on microphysical properties, or in other words that all God had to do was to create the fundamental physical properties and the rest came along for free. In this paper, we question the all-god-had-to-do reflex.
  •  33
    The conservation of energy law, a law of physics that states that the total energy of any closed system is always conserved, is a bedrock principle that has achieved both broad theoretical and experimental support. Yet if interactive dualism is correct, it is thought that the mind can affect physical objects in violation of the conservation of energy. Thus, some claim, the conservation of energy grounds an argument for physicalism. Although critics of the argument focus on the implausibility of …Read more
  •  80
    Considering the role of cognitive control in expert performance
    with John Toner and Aidan Moran
    Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 14 (4): 1127-1144. 2015.
    Dreyfus and Dreyfus’ influential phenomenological analysis of skill acquisition proposes that expert performance is guided by non-cognitive responses which are fast, effortless and apparently intuitive in nature. Although this model has been criticised for over-emphasising the role that intuition plays in facilitating skilled performance, it does recognise that on occasions a form of ‘detached deliberative rationality’ may be used by experts to improve their performance. However, Dreyfus and Dre…Read more
  •  49
    Thinking in the Zone: The Expert Mind in Action
    Southern Journal of Philosophy 53 (S1): 126-140. 2015.
    Athletes sometimes describe “being in the zone,” as a time when their actions flow effortlessly and flawlessly without the guidance of thought. But is it true that athletes don't think when performing at their best? Numerous studies (such as Beilock et al. 2004, 2007 Ford et al 2005, Baumeister 1984, Masters 1992, Wulf & Prinz 2001, Beilock & DeCaro, 2007). However, I aim to argue that because even highly‐practiced skills can remain in part under an expert athlete's conscious control, thinking d…Read more
  •  63
    Irreverent Physicalism
    Philosophical Topics 40 (2): 91-102. 2012.
    Imagine that our world were such that the entities, properties, laws, and relations of fundamental physics did not determine what goes on at the mental level; imagine that duplicating our fundamental physics would fail to duplicate the pleasures, feelings of joy, and experiences of wonder that we know and love; in other words, imagine that the mental realm did not supervene on the physical realm. Would our world, then, be a world in which physicalism is false? A good number of philosophers who p…Read more
  •  19
    The Body of the Mind-Body Problem
    Annals of the Japan Association for Philosophy of Science 9 (4): 207-217. 1999.
  •  121
    Practice makes perfect: the effect of dance training on the aesthetic judge
    Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 11 (1): 59-68. 2012.
    According to Hume, experience in observing art is one of the prerequisites for being an ideal art critic. But although Hume extols the value of observing art for the art critic, he says little about the value, for the art critic, of executing art. That is, he does not discuss whether ideal aesthetic judges should have practiced creating the form of art they are judging. In this paper, I address this issue. Contrary to some contemporary philosophers who claim that experience in creating art is ir…Read more
  •  33
    Thought in Action: Expertise and the Conscious Mind
    Oxford University Press UK. 2016.
    How does thinking affect doing? There is a widely held view that thinking about what you are doing, as you are doing it, hinders performance. Once you have acquired the ability to putt a golf ball, play an arpeggio on the piano, or parallel-park, reflecting on your actions leads to inaccuracies, blunders, and sometimes even utter paralysis--that's what is widely believed. But is it true? After exploring some of the contemporary and historical manifestations of the idea, Barbara Gail Montero deve…Read more
  •  3
    The Body Problem and Other Foundational Issues in the Metaphysics of Mind
    Dissertation, The University of Chicago. 2000.
    My dissertation focuses on the foundations of the mind-body problem: how we should think about the physical world, what the role of science is in arriving at a solution to the problem, and whether it is possible to answer metaphysical questions about the mind while admitting epistemic defeat. ;Many philosophers argue that the mind is physical, but few spend much time explaining what counts as being physical. This, I argue, is a mistake: if the mind-body problem is the problem of explaining how t…Read more