Barry Smith

University at Buffalo
National Center for Ontological Research
  • University at Buffalo
    Department of Philosophy
    Biomedical Informatics
    Neurology
    Computer Science and Engineering
    Distinguished Professor, Julian Park Chair
  • National Center for Ontological Research
    Administrator
  • Università della Svizzera Italiana
    Institute of Philosophy (ISFI)
    Visiting Professor (Part-time)
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