• Ecological Self-understanding in Chinese Buddhism
    In Robert H. Scott & James Mcrae (eds.), Introduction to Buddhist East Asia, Suny Press. pp. 189-212. 2023.
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    In this dissertation I offer a new framework for understanding introspection, characterizing it as a multi-faceted phenomenon that has a broad range of epistemic qualities. I begin by arguing that the standard understanding of introspection as a kind of perception through which we observe our own minds is misguided as a literal account of introspection. With this established, I move on to discuss our diverse abilities to know, and fail to know, our own minds. First, I describe the uniquely first…Read more
  •  124
    We seem to have private privileged access to our own minds through introspection, but what exactly does this involve? Do we somehow literally perceive our own minds, as the common idea of a 'mind's eye' suggests, or are there other processes at work in our ability to know our own minds? Rethinking Introspection offers a new pluralist framework for understanding the nature, scope, and limits of introspection. The book argues that, contrary to common misconceptions, introspection does not consist …Read more
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    Introspective knowledge of experience and its role in consciousness studies
    Journal of Consciousness Studies 18 (2): 128-145. 2011.
    In response to Petitmengin and Bitbol's recent account of first-person methodologies in the study of consciousness, I provide a revised model of our introspective knowledge of our own conscious experience. This model, which I call the existential constitution model of phenomenal knowledge, avoids the problems that Petitmengin and Bitbol identify with standard observational models of introspection while also avoiding an underlying metaphorical misconception in their own proximity model, which mis…Read more