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710Emergence and Downward CausationIn Cynthia Macdonald & Graham Macdonald (eds.), Emergence in Mind, Oxford University Press. 2010.
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452The Epistemology of MeaningIn Dan Ryder, Justine Kingsbury & Kenneth Williford (eds.), Millikan and her critics, Wiley. pp. 221--240. 2013.This chapter contains section titles: Introduction Section 1 Section 2 Conclusion.
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297Beyond program explanationIn Geoffrey Brennan (ed.), Common minds: themes from the philosophy of Philip Pettit, Oxford University Press. pp. 1--27. 2007.
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289The metaphysics of mental causationJournal of Philosophy 103 (11): 539-576. 2006.A debate has been raging in the philosophy of mind for at least the past two decades. It concerns whether the mental can make a causal difference to the world. Suppose that I am reading the newspaper and it is getting dark. I switch on the light, and continue with my reading. One explanation of why my switching on of the light occurred is that a desiring with a particular content (that I continue reading), a noticing with a particular content (that it is getting dark), and a believing with a par…Read more
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241Fact, Science and Morality: Essays on A. J. Ayer's Language, Truth and Logic (edited book)Blackwell. 1987.
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183Connectionism: Debates on Psychological Explanation (edited book)Blackwell. 1991.This volume provides an introduction to and review of key contemporary debates concerning connectionism, and the nature of explanation and methodology in cognitive psychology. The first debate centers on the question of whether human cognition is best modeled by classical or by connectionist architectures. The second centres on the question of the compatibility between folk, or commonsense, psychological explanation and explanations based on connectionist models of cognition. Each of the two sec…Read more
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148Teleosemantics: New Philo-sophical Essays (edited book)Oxford: Clarendon Press. 2006.Teleosemantics seeks to explain meaning and other intentional phenomena in terms of their function in the life of the species. This volume of new essays from an impressive line-up of well-known contributors offers a valuable summary of the current state of the teleosemantics debate
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94Emergence in mind (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2010.The volume also extends the debate about emergence by considering the independence of chemical properties from physical properties, and investigating what would ...
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85Karl Popper: Critical Appraisals (edited book)Routledge. 2004.One of the most original thinkers of the century, Karl Popper has inspired generations of philosophers, historians, and politicians. This collection of papers, specially written for this volume, offers fresh philosophical examination of key themes in Popper's philosophy, including philosophy of knowledge, science and political philosophy. Drawing from some of Popper's most important works, contributors address his solution to the problem of induction, his views on conventionalism and criticism i…Read more
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83Folk-psychology, psychopathology, and the unconsciousPhilosophical Explorations 2 (3): 206-224. 1999.There is a 'philosophers' assumption that there is a problem with the very notion of an unconscious mental state.The paper begins by outlining how the problem is generated, and proceeds to argue that certain conditions need to be fulfilled if the unconscious is to qualify as mental. An explanation is required as to why we would ever expect these conditions to be fulfilled, and it is suggested that the Freudian concept of repression has an essential role to play in such an explanation. Notoriousl…Read more
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81Emergence and causal powersErkenntnis 67 (2). 2007.This paper argues that the non-reductive monist need not be concerned about the ‘problem’ of mental causation; one can accept both the irreducibility of mental properties to physical properties and the causal closure of the physical. More precisely, it is argued that instances of mental properties can be causally efficacious, and that there is no special barrier to seeing mental properties whose instances are causally efficacious as being causally relevant to the effects they help to bring about…Read more
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59Causation, supervenience, and special sciencesBehavioral and Brain Sciences 27 (5): 631-631. 2004.Ross & Spurrett (R&S) argue that Kim's reductionism rests on a restricted account of supervenience and a misunderstanding about causality. I contend that broadening supervenience does nothing to avoid Kim's argument and that it is difficult to see how employing different notions of causality helps to avoid the problem. I end by sketching a different solution.
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40Alfred Jules AyerRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement. 2008.Alfred Jules Ayer was born in London and educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. He attended sessions of the logical positivist ‘Vienna Circle’ in 1932, and taught at Oxford from 1933 until joining the Army in 1940. His Language, Truth and Logic was published in 1936, and The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge in 1940. After war service he returned to Oxford in 1945, and became Grote Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic at University College, London, the following year. The Problem …Read more
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37Emergence and Non-reductive PhysicalismIn Sophie Gibb, Robin Findlay Hendry & Tom Lancaster (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Emergence, Routledge. pp. 195-205. 2018.
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31The Grounds for Anti-HistoricismRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 39 241-257. 1995.In his seminal The Poverty of Historicism Sir Karl Popper deployed a number of arguments to prick the pretensions of those who thought that they were, or could come to be, in possession of knowledge of the future. These ‘historicists’ assumed that they could lay bare the law of evolution of a society, and that their possession of knowledge of such a law justified political action which had the aim of removing obstacles to the progress of history. In arguing against historicism Popper was clearly…Read more
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24XI*—Modified Methodological IndividualismProceedings of the Aristotelian Society 86 (1): 199-212. 1986.Graham Macdonald; XI*—Modified Methodological Individualism, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 86, Issue 1, 1 June 1986, Pages 199–212, https://do.
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20Perception and identity: essays presented to A. J. Ayer, with his replies (edited book)Cornell University Press. 1979."The philosophical works of A. J. Ayer": p. [334]-341. Bibliography: p. [343]-346. Includes indexes.
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18Review. Representations, Targets and Attitudes. R CumminsBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 49 (1): 175-180. 1998.
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