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From phenomenal selves to hyperselvesIn Anthony O'Hear (ed.), Mind, Self and Person, Cambridge University Press. 2015.
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Time and Temporal ExperienceIn Adrian Bardon (ed.), The Future of the Philosophy of Time, Routledge. pp. 123-48. 2011.
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19The Perception of TimeIn Adrian Bardon & Heather Dyke (eds.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Time, Wiley-blackwell. 2013.The James‐Husserl thesis is potentially of great importance for the understanding of consciousness. While there may be a good deal of agreement on the need to posit a specious present in some form or other, there is profound disagreement over the correct way of conceiving of it. This chapter surveys some of the more important landmarks in this contentious territory. An account of what is the specious present was elaborated by Brentano in lectures in the 1860s. Brentano fully appreciated the impo…Read more
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163The Silence of PhysicsErkenntnis 88 (5): 2207-2241. 2021.Although many find it hard to believe that every physical thing—no matter how simple or small—involves some form of consciousness, panpsychists offer the reassurance that their claims are perfectly compatible with everything physics has to say about the physical world. This is because although physics has a lot to say about causal and structural properties it has nothing to say about the intrinsic natures of physical things, and if physics is silent in this regard it is perfectly possible that e…Read more
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1747Minding the Future: Artificial Intelligence, Philosophical Visions and Science Fiction (edited book)Springer. 2021.Bringing together literary scholars, computer scientists, ethicists, philosophers of mind, and scholars from affiliated disciplines, this collection of essays offers important and timely insights into the pasts, presents, and, above all, possible futures of Artificial Intelligence. This book covers topics such as ethics and morality, identity and selfhood, and broader issues about AI, addressing questions about the individual, social, and existential impacts of such technologies. Through the wo…Read more
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19Force in Physics and in Metaphysics: A Brief HistoryIn Wuppuluri Shyam & Francisco Antonio Dorio (eds.), The Map and the Territory: Exploring the Foundations of Science, Thought and Reality, Springer. pp. 199-231. 2018.The concept of force can seem comparatively unproblematic—forces are responsible for making things move. However, the history of both physics and metaphysics reveals considerable controversy concerning both the nature of forces, and their very existence. My survey takes in the Greek atomists, Aristotelian physics, the “mechanical” philosophy of the scientific revolution, the innovations of Descartes and Newton, Hume-inspired skepticism, the dynamism of Leibniz, Kant and Boscovich, the field theo…Read more
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35Brentano on Phenomenal Unity and HolismRevue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 142 (4): 513. 2017.
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110I—The Sense of SelfAristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 90 (1): 113-143. 2016.Different conceptions of the nature of subjects of experience have very different implications for the sort of relationship which exists between subjects and their experiences. On my preferred view, since subjects consist of nothing but capacities for experience, the ‘having’ of an experience amounts to a subject’s producing it. This relationship may look to be problematic, but I argue that here at least appearances are deceptive. I then move on to consider some of the ways in which experiences …Read more
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Brentano on the Unity of ConsciousnessIn Uriah Kriegel (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Franz Brentano and the Brentano School, Routledge. pp. 61-74. 2017.
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644Those who believe suitably programmed computers could enjoy conscious experience of the sort we enjoy must accept the possibility that their own experience is being generated as part of a computerized simulation. It would be a mistake to dismiss this is just one more radical sceptical possibility: for as Bostrom has recently noted, if advances in computer technology were to continue at close to present rates, there would be a strong probability that we are each living in a computer simulation. T…Read more
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The Nature and Identity of the SelfDissertation, University of Oxford (United Kingdom). 1989.Available from UMI in association with The British Library. Requires signed TDF. ;We are mental beings whose identity is absolute, intrinsic and real. This conception of the self, which, it is argued, corresponds to our deeper beliefs about, and attitudes towards, ourselves and others, is a consequence of taking the experienced unity and continuity of consciousness as the key to self-identity. Some of the difficulties often taken as fatal to this "subjectivist" view of the self, considerations c…Read more
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139_Stream of Consciousness_ is about the phenomenology of conscious experience. Barry Dainton shows us that stream of consciousness is not a mosaic of discrete fragments of experience, but rather an interconnected flowing whole. Through a deep probing into the nature of awareness, introspection, phenomenal space and time consciousness, Dainton offers a truly original understanding of the nature of consciousness
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174Review of Consciousness and its Place in Nature (review)Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 83 (1): 238-261. 2011.
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1095Unity in the void: Reply to RevonsuoPSYCHE: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Research On Consciousness 10. 2004.While agreeing with me on many issues, Revonsuo rejects my claim that phenomenal states could be co-conscious without being spatially related (in experience). In defence of my claim I described a thought-experiment in which
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89Review: Dan Zahavi: Subjectivity and Selfhood: Investigating the First-Person Perspective (review)Mind 117 (465): 241-245. 2008.
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416The experience of time and changePhilosophy Compass 3 (4): 619-638. 2008.Can we directly experience change? Although some philosophers have denied it, the phenomenological evidence is unambiguous: we can, and do. But how is this possible? What structures or features of consciousness render such experience possible? A variety of very different answers to this question have been proposed, answers which have very different implications for the nature of consciousness itself. In this brief survey no attempt is made to engage with the often complex (and sometimes obscure)…Read more
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155The subject in question—Sartre's critique of Husserl in the transcendence of the ego (review)Mind 111 (442): 473-478. 2002.
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52For those with an interest in the most fundamental components of reality, reflecting on the simplest of things can yield a rich harvest. Consider two buttons, of exactly the same shade of red, one round and made of plastic, the other square and made of wood. Each button is clearly a distinct object in its own right: each is composed of a different portion of matter, each has its own spatial location. But are the buttons completely distinct? It might seem so, but a little reflection can suggest o…Read more
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24Coming together: The unity of conscious experienceIn Max Velmans & Susan Schneider (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness, Wiley-blackwell. pp. 209--222. 2007.
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135The phenomenal selfOxford University Press. 2008.Barry Dainton presents a fascinating new account of the self, the key to which is experiential or phenomenal continuity. Provided our mental life continues we can easily imagine ourselves surviving the most dramatic physical alterations, or even moving from one body to another. It was this fact that led John Locke to conclude that a credible account of our persistence conditions - an account which reflects how we actually conceive of ourselves - should be framed in terms of mental rather than ma…Read more
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161Self-hood and the Flow of ExperienceGrazer Philosophische Studien 84 (1): 161-200. 2012.Analytic philosophy in the 20 th century was largely hostile territory to the self as traditionally conceived, and this tradition has been continued in two recent works: Mark Johnston’s Surviving Death , and Galen Strawson’s Selves . I have argued previously that it is perfectly possible to combine a naturalistic worldview with a conception of the self as a subject of experience , a thing whose only essential attribute is a capacity for unifi ed and continuous experience. I argue here that this …Read more
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2Time and Space: Second EditionAcumen Publishing. 2010.Surveying both historical debates and modern physics, Barry Dainton evaluates the central arguments in a clear and unintimidating way that keeps conceptual issues comprehensible to students with little scientific or mathematical training and makes the philosophy of space and time accessible to anyone trying to come to grips with the complexities of this challenging subject. With over 100 original line illustrations and a full glossary of terms, Time and Space keeps the requirements of students f…Read more
Areas of Specialization
Metaphysics |
Philosophy of Mind |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Mind |
20th Century Philosophy |
Philosophy of Physical Science |