Barry Smith

University at Buffalo
National Center for Ontological Research
University of Manchester
Department of Philosophy
PhD, 1976
APA Eastern Division
CV
Buffalo, New York, United States of America

My Survey Responses

Survey Prompt Response
A priori knowledge Lean towards: yes
Abortion Lean towards: impermissible
Abstract objects Accept an alternative view: Debts, laws and other social objects are abstract and exist in time
Aesthetic experience Lean towards: sui generis
Aesthetic value Lean towards: objective
Aim of philosophy Lean towards: truth/knowledge
Analysis of knowledge Lean towards: other analysis
Analytic-synthetic distinction Accept: yes
Arguments for theism There is no fact of the matter
Belief or credence Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Capital punishment Agnostic/undecided
Causation Lean towards: process/production
Chinese room Accept: doesn't understand
Concepts Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept nativism true for some
Consciousness Accept an alternative view: Consciousness is a physical process
Continuum hypothesis Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Cosmological fine-tuning Lean towards: brute fact
Eating animals and animal products Accept: omnivorism (yes and yes)
Environmental ethics Accept: anthropocentric
Epistemic justification The question is too unclear to answer
Experience machine Accept: no
Extended mind Lean towards: no
External world Accept: non-skeptical realism
Footbridge Lean towards: push
Foundations of mathematics Accept: formalism
Free will Lean towards: compatibilism
Gender Accept: biological
Gender categories The question is too unclear to answer
God Accept: atheism
Grounds of intentionality Lean towards: primitive
Hard problem of consciousness Accept: no
Human genetic engineering Lean towards: permissible
Hume Lean towards: skeptic
Immortality The question is too unclear to answer
Interlevel metaphysics Lean towards: identity
Justification Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Kant Accept: two worlds
Knowledge Accept an alternative view: Much innate knowledge
Knowledge claims There is no fact of the matter
Law Accept an alternative view: some laws are positive laws
Laws of nature Accept: non-Humean
Logic Lean towards: classical
Material composition The question is too unclear to answer
Meaning of life Lean towards: objective
Mental content Lean towards: internalism
Meta-ethics Lean towards: moral realism
Metaontology Accept: heavyweight realism
Metaphilosophy Lean towards: naturalism
Method in history of philosophy Lean towards: analytic/rational reconstruction
Method in political philosophy Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Mind Accept: physicalism
Mind uploading Accept: death
Moral judgment Accept: non-cognitivism
Moral motivation The question is too unclear to answer
Moral principles Lean towards: moral generalism
Morality Lean towards: naturalist realism
Newcomb's problem Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Normative concepts Lean towards: value
Normative ethics Accept an alternative view: Value ethics
Other minds Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept adult humans
  • Lean against cats
  • Reject fish
  • Reject flies
  • Reject worms
  • Reject plants
  • Reject particles
  • Accept newborn babies
  • Reject current AI systems
  • Reject future AI systems
Ought implies can Lean towards: no
Perceptual experience Accept an alternative view: Direct realism a la J J Gibson
Personal identity Accept: biological view
Philosophical knowledge Lean towards: a lot
Philosophical methods Accept a combination of answers:
  • Neutral towards conceptual analysis
  • Neutral towards intuition-based philosophy
  • Neutral towards conceptual engineering
  • Neutral towards experimental philosophy
  • Lean towards formal philosophy
  • Lean towards empirical philosophy
  • Lean towards linguistic philosophy
Philosophical progress Lean towards: a little
Plato Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Political philosophy Lean towards: libertarianism
Politics Accept: capitalism
Possible worlds Lean towards: nonexistent
Practical reason Accept: Aristotelian
Principle of sufficient reason Lean towards: true
Proper names Lean towards: Millian
Properties Lean towards: immanent universals
Propositional attitudes Lean towards: dispositional
Propositions Lean towards: acts
Quantum mechanics Lean towards: collapse
Race The question is too unclear to answer
Race categories The question is too unclear to answer
Rational disagreement Lean towards: permissivism
Response to external-world skepticism Accept: dogmatist
Science Lean towards: scientific realism
Semantic content Lean towards: moderate contextualism (intermediate)
Sleeping beauty Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Spacetime Lean towards: substantivalism
Statue and lump Accept: one thing
Teletransporter Accept: death
Temporal ontology Lean towards: growing block
Theory of reference Lean towards: causal
Time Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Time travel Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Trolley problem Lean towards: switch
True contradictions Accept: impossible
Truth Accept: correspondence
Units of selection Lean towards: genes
Vagueness Lean towards: epistemic
Values in science Lean towards: can be either
Well-being Lean towards: objective list
Wittgenstein Accept: early
Zombies Accept: inconceivable