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267Matter, motion, and Humean supervenienceAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 67 (4). 1989.This paper examines a doctrine which David Lewis has called 'Humean Supervenience' (hereafter 'HS'), and a problem which certain imaginary cases seem to generate for HS. They include rotating perfect spheres or discs, and flowing rivers, imagined as composed of matter which is perfectly homogeneous right down to the individual points. Before considering these examples, I shall introduce the doctrine they seem to challenge.
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160Personal Identity: Reid’s Answer to HumeThe Monist 61 (2): 326-339. 1978.In the third of his Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man, Reid devotes the fourth chapter to the concept of‘identity’, and the sixth chapter to Locke’s theory of ‘personal identity’. This latter chapter is widely regarded as a definitive refutation of the thesis that personal identity is no more than memories of a certain sort. It is interesting that the terms ‘identity’ and ‘personal identity’ do not appear as chapter or section titles elsewhere in any of Reid’s works; and Hume is neither m…Read more
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127Can amoebae divide without multiplying?Australasian Journal of Philosophy 63 (3). 1985.This Article does not have an abstract
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110What sort of persons are hemispheres? Another look at "split-brain" manBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 27 (March): 73-8. 1976.
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95Consciousness and Mental LifeCambridge University Press. 2007.In recent decades, issues that reside at the center of philosophical and psychological inquiry have been absorbed into a scientific framework variously identified as "brain science," "cognitive science," and "cognitive neuroscience." Scholars have heralded this development as revolutionary, but a revolution implies an existing method has been overturned in favor of something new. What long-held theories have been abandoned or significantly modified in light of cognitive neuroscience? _Consciousn…Read more
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86Philosophical foundations of neuroscience by M. R. Bennett and P. M. S. Hacker oxford: Blackwell publishing; 2003. XVII +461pp (review)Philosophy 79 (1): 141-146. 2004.
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57Determinism: Did Libet Make the Case?Philosophy 87 (3): 395-401. 2012.Benjamin Libet's influential publications have raised important questions about voluntarist accounts of action. His findings are taken as evidence that the processes in the central nervous system associated with the initiation of an action occur earlier than the decision to act. However, in light of the methods employed and of relevant findings drawn from research addressed to the timing of neurobehavioural processes, Libet's conclusions are untenable.
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51Thomas Reid's critique of Dugald StewartJournal of the History of Philosophy 27 (3): 405-422. 1989.
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51The Demography of the Kingdom of EndsPhilosophy 69 (267): 5-19. 1994.In the Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals' Kant is explicit, sometimes to the point of peevishness, in denying anthropology and psychology any part or place in his moral science. Recognizing that this will strike many as counterintuitive he is unrepentant: ‘We require no skill to make ourselves intelligible to the multitude once we renounce all profundity of thought’. That the doctrine to be defended is not exemplified in daily experience or even in imaginable encounters is necessitated by t…Read more
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47The insanity defense as a history of mental disorderIn K. W. M. Fulford (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry, Oxford University Press. pp. 18. 2013.Throughout its history, the insanity defense specifically and the more general concept of mental defect or incompetence have been grounded in the assumption that those people fit for the rule of law are able to give and to comprehend reasons for their actions. This chapter traces the evolution of perspectives on the nature of mental illness and the manner in which cultural and extra-scientific influences have shaped perspectives. These perspectives are most saliently expressed in statutory provi…Read more
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45Neuroscience and Philosophy: Brain, Mind, and LanguageColumbia University Press. 2007.In _Neuroscience and Philosophy_ three prominent philosophers and a leading neuroscientist clash over the conceptual presuppositions of cognitive neuroscience. The book begins with an excerpt from Maxwell Bennett and Peter Hacker's _Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience_, which questions the conceptual commitments of cognitive neuroscientists. Their position is then criticized by Daniel Dennett and John Searle, two philosophers who have written extensively on the subject, and Bennett and Hac…Read more
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43Explaining social phenomenaTheoretical and Philosophical Psychology 6 (1): 18-22. 1986.Philosophers of science have devoted volumes to the question of explanation; I've devoted some pages to it myself. In this highly contracted essay I shall offer no more than a comment on the problem of explanation, some vagrant but critical assessments of the dominant approaches to it, and a caution lest we take comfort in some of the recent "success"—or alleged success—in Psychology. I begin with this question: What does it mean to explain an occurrence? And then: What is it about any explanati…Read more
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43Antigone's Defense: A Critical Study of Natural Law Theory: Contemporary EssaysReview of Metaphysics 45 (2). 1991.By the sixth century of the modern era, and after centuries of refinement and skillful application by Roman jurists, the core principles appear in Justinian's Institutes, where it is simply taken for granted, without benefit of analysis or argument, that.
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43Secular Philosophy and the Religious Temperament (review)Faith and Philosophy 28 (4): 478-483. 2011.
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41Failing to Agree or Failing to Disagree?The Monist 87 (4): 512-536. 2004.I hold a view I call “Personal Identity Quasi-Relativism,” PIQR for short.
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40Summary of Praise and BlameJournal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology 23 (1): 2-7. 2003.A summary of the major arguments of PRAISE AND BLAME, both critical and constructive, is offered. The overarching objectives of the book are set forth, making clear the radical form of moral realism defended. Additional material is presented to justify the attention paid to historical vs. contemporary alternatives to moral realism, the latter found to be at once indebted to the former but often less developed. 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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39Psyche and paideiaTheoretical and Philosophical Psychology 10 (1): 7-12. 1990.The perils and sometimes macabre consequences of Aristotle-worship have been documented historically and serve as a general warning to scholars in every discipline. The necessary course—I might say the "golden mean"—is to be found between an uncritical praise and a final burial. Aristotle's record can only enjoy the lasting respect of all students, but apart from the matter of his just deserts is the enduring usefulness of his contributions. Nonetheless a certain perspective must be maintained i…Read more
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38Wild Beasts and Idle Humours: Legal Insanity and the Finding of FaultRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 37 159-. 1994.So fearfully and wonderfully are we made, so infinitely subtle is the spiritual part of our being, so difficult is it to trace with accuracy the effect of diseased intellect upon human action, that I may appeal to all who hear me, whether there are any causes more difficult, or which, indeed, so often confound the learning of the judges themselves, as when insanity, or the the effects and consequences of insanity, become the subjects of legal consideration and judgment.
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37Praise and Blame: Moral Realism and Its Applications: Moral Realism and Its ApplicationsPrinceton Univ. Press. 2002."This book is a significant contribution to the analytic study of ethics, to the history of ethics, and to the growing field of philosophical psychology.
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36Text, context and agencyTheoretical and Philosophical Psychology 11 (1): 1-10. 1991.Presents the Presidential address by Daniel N. Robinson at the Division of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology. Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association in Boston on August 11, 1990. His remarks included a series of important developments within Psychology but also outside its traditional areas of interest, in such fields as anthropology, linguistics and ethnology. 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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33Body-Self Dualism in Contemporary Ethics and Politics (review)Faith and Philosophy 26 (4): 478-480. 2009.
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31Consciousness, Attention, and Conscious Attention by Haroutioun Haladjian and Carlos Montemayer (review)Review of Metaphysics 69 (1): 134-135. 2015.