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David Simpson

University of Alberta
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CV
Areas of Specialization
Moral Psychology
Philosophy of Psychology

My Survey Responses

Survey Prompt Response
A priori knowledge Lean towards: yes
Abortion Accept: permissible
Abstract objects Accept: nominalism
Aesthetic value Accept: subjective
Aim of philosophy Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept wisdom
  • Accept truth/knowledge
  • Accept understanding
Analysis of knowledge Accept: other analysis
Analytic-synthetic distinction Lean towards: yes
Arguments for theism Lean towards: design
Belief or credence Accept: credence
Capital punishment Lean towards: impermissible
Causation Accept: counterfactual/difference-making
Concepts Lean towards: nativism
Consciousness Accept: functionalism
Cosmological fine-tuning Lean towards: multiverse
Eating animals and animal products Lean towards: vegetarianism (no and yes)
Environmental ethics Accept: non-anthropocentric
Experience machine Lean towards: no
External world Lean towards: non-skeptical realism
Footbridge Lean towards: push
Free will Accept: compatibilism
Gender Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept social
  • Accept psychological
  • Accept biological
Gender categories Lean towards: revise
God Accept: atheism
Hard problem of consciousness Lean towards: no
Human genetic engineering Accept: permissible
Hume Lean towards: naturalist
Immortality Accept: no
Knowledge Lean towards: empiricism
Knowledge claims Lean towards: contextualism
Law Accept: legal positivism
Laws of nature Lean towards: Humean
Meaning of life Accept: subjective
Meta-ethics Accept: moral anti-realism
Metaphilosophy Accept: naturalism
Mind Accept: physicalism
Mind uploading Accept: survival
Moral judgment Accept: non-cognitivism
Morality Accept a combination of answers:
  • Lean towards constructivism
  • Lean towards expressivism
Newcomb's problem Lean towards: one box
Normative concepts Lean towards: value
Normative ethics Lean towards: consequentialism
Other minds Accept a combination of answers:
  • Accept adult humans
  • Accept cats
  • Lean against fish
  • Lean against flies
  • Lean against worms
  • Reject plants
  • Reject particles
  • Lean towards newborn babies
  • Lean against current AI systems
  • Lean towards future AI systems
Ought implies can Lean towards: yes
Perceptual experience Lean towards: representationalism
Personal identity Accept: psychological view
Philosophical knowledge Accept: a little
Philosophical methods Accept a combination of answers:
  • Lean towards Philosophical methods: conceptual engineering
  • Lean towards Philosophical methods: empirical philosophy
  • Lean towards Philosophical methods: conceptual analysis
  • Lean towards Philosophical methods: experimental philosophy
  • Lean towards Philosophical methods: linguistic philosophy
  • Lean against Philosophical methods: intuition-based philosophy
  • Lean towards Philosophical methods: formal philosophy
Philosophical progress Lean towards: a little
Plato Lean towards: knowledge only of forms
Political philosophy Accept: egalitarianism
Politics Accept: capitalism
Possible worlds Accept: nonexistent
Practical reason Accept a combination of answers:
  • Lean towards Humean
  • Neutral towards Aristotelian
  • Reject Kantian
Principle of sufficient reason Lean towards: false
Propositional attitudes Lean towards: representational
Quantum mechanics Lean towards: many-worlds
Race Accept: social
Race categories Lean towards: eliminate
Rational disagreement Lean towards: permissivism
Science Lean towards: scientific realism
Teletransporter Accept: survival
Time Agnostic/undecided
Time travel Lean towards: metaphysically possible
Trolley problem Accept: switch
Truth Accept: correspondence
Units of selection Accept: genes
Values in science Lean towards: necessarily value-laden
Well-being Lean towards: desire satisfaction
Wittgenstein Accept: late
Zombies There is no fact of the matter