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31Epiphenomenalism and the Evolutionary Role of Pleasure and PainJournal of Consciousness Studies 31 (3): 196-219. 2024.One possible challenge for epiphenomenalism arises from the theory of evolution: if the mental has no causal powers, how might it have evolved? The aim of this paper is to argue that, contrary to some arguments advanced by other philosophers, most particularly William Robinson and Joseph Corabi, considerations from the theory of evolution do pose a genuine difficulty for epiphenomenalism.
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73Psyche and Soma: Physicians and Metaphysicians on the Mind-Body Problem From Antiquity to Enlightenment (edited book)Oxford University Press University Press. 2000.This is a multi-disciplinary exploration of the history of understanding of the human mind or soul and its relationship to the body, through the course of more than two thousand years. Thirteen specially commissioned chapters, each written by a recognized expert, discuss such figures as the doctors Hippocrates and Galen, the theologians St Paul, Augustine, and Aquinas, and philosophers from Plato to Leibniz
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14The Treatise: Composition, Reception, and ResponseIn Saul Traiger (ed.), The Blackwell Guide to Hume's Treatise, Blackwell. 2006.This chapter contains section titled: Reception of the Treatise by Francis Hutcheson and Hume's Revisions to Book 3 The Early Reviews of the Treatise and Hume's Response The Principal's Attack in 1745 and Hume's Defence in his Letter from a Gentleman Criticisms of the Treatise after Publication of the Enquiries Thomas Reid's Criticisms of Hume's Philosophy and Hume's Response Hume's Repudiation of the Treatise Conclusion Notes References Further reading.
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20Developing testable theories of brain dynamics: The global mode theory and experimental falsificationBehavioral and Brain Sciences 23 (3): 414-415. 2000.The development of theories of global cortical dynamics, using linear wave theory, owes much to the pioneering work of Nunez. His work leads to clear predictions on relations of brain size, axonal conduction velocity, and the frequencies of the cerebral rhythms. These predictions do not appear to be fulfilled, but their falsification constrains the range of parameters applicable in further formulations.
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31Multiscale modeling of brain dynamics depends upon approximations at each scaleBehavioral and Brain Sciences 19 (2): 310-320. 1996.We outline fresh findings that show that our macroscopic electrocorticographic (ECoG) simulations can account for synchronous multiunit pulse oscillations at separate, simultaneously activated cortical sites and the associated gamma-band ECoG activity. We clarify our views on the approximations of dynamic class applicable to neural events at macroscopic and microscopic scales, and the analogies drawn to classes of ANN behaviour. We accept the need to introduce memory processes and detailed anato…Read more
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40Dynamics of the brain at global and microscopic scales: Neural networks and the EEGBehavioral and Brain Sciences 19 (2): 285-295. 1996.There is some complementarity of models for the origin of the electroencephalogram (EEG) and neural network models for information storage in brainlike systems. From the EEG models of Freeman, of Nunez, and of the authors' group we argue that the wavelike processes revealed in the EEG exhibit linear and near-equilibrium dynamics at macroscopic scale, despite extremely nonlinear – probably chaotic – dynamics at microscopic scale. Simulations of cortical neuronal interactions at global and microsc…Read more
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50Hume's enlightenment tract: The unity and purpose of 'an enquiry concerning human understanding'Australasian Journal of Philosophy 81 (3). 2003.Book Information Hume's Enlightenment Tract: The Unity and Purpose of 'An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding'. By Stephen Buckle. Clarendon Press. Oxford. 2001. Pp. xi + 351. Hardback, 40.
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18Hume's Enlightenment Tract: The Unity and Purpose of 'An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding'Australasian Journal of Philosophy 81 (3): 434-436. 2003.Book Information Hume's Enlightenment Tract: The Unity and Purpose of 'An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding'. By Stephen Buckle. Clarendon Press. Oxford. 2001. Pp. xi + 351. Hardback, £40.
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15How do local reverberations achieve global integration?Behavioral and Brain Sciences 18 (4): 644-645. 1995.Amit's Hebbian model risks being overexplanatory, since it does not depend on specific physiological modelling of cortical ANNs, but concentrates on those phenomena which are modelled by a large class of ANNs. While offering a strong demonstration of the presence of Hebb's “cell assemblies,” it does not offer an equal account of Hebb's “phase sequence” concept.
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658Hysteria and Mechanical ManJournal of the History of Ideas 41 (2): 233. 1980.In this article I contrast 17th and 18th explanations of hysteria including those of Sydenham and Willis with those given by Plato and pre-modern medicine. I show that beginning in the second decade of the 17th century the locus of the disorder was transferred to the nervous system and it was no longer connected with the womb as in Hippocrates and Galen; hysteria became identified with hypochondria, and was a disease contracted by men as well as women. I discuss the purely mechanical explanation…Read more
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18In Memoriam: Michael Alexander StewartHume Studies 47 (1): 5-6. 2022.Sandy, as he was known to so many Hume scholars, died peacefully in Salisbury, England on July 30, 2021. For many years, Sandy welcomed Hume scholars to Edinburgh where he was often found working in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Departments of the National Library of Scotland and the University of Edinburgh. He shared his vast knowledge of all things Humean in conversation with visitors from all parts of the world, as well as in his many publications. He was especially generous with his time an…Read more
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736I argue that incomprehensibility (what the ancient skeptics called acatalepsia) plays a central role in the skepticism of both Bayle and Hume. I challenge a commonly held view (recently argued by Todd Ryan) that Hume, unlike Bayle, does not present oppositions of reason--what Kant called antimonies.
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6Psyche and Soma: Physicians and Metaphysicians on the Mind-Body Problem From (edited book)Oxford University Press UK. 2000.Psyche and Soma is a multi-disciplinary exploration of the conceptions of the human soul or mind and body, through the course of more than two thousand years of Western history. Thirteen specially commissioned chapters, each written by a recogized expert, discuss figures such as the physicians Hippocrates, Galen, Stahl, and Cabanis; theologians St Paul, Augustine, and Aquinas; and philosophers from Plato and Aristotle to Descartes, Leibniz, and La Mettrie. The chapters explore in chronlogical se…Read more
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69Hume: an intellectual biography (review)British Journal for the History of Philosophy 25 (4): 823-832. 2017.This is a review article discussing James Harris’s excellent study of David Hume’s full philosophical career including his epistemology, moral philosophy, politics, economics, religion, and history. Harris argues against a common view that in his later writings Hume is merely working out and developing the ideas of his Treatise of Human Nature. He even argues that Hume’s two Enquiries are substantially new works and not mere recasting of his youthful Treatise. Harris writes that philosophy for H…Read more
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1936Ideas of Habit and Custom in Early Modern PhilosophyJournal of the British Society for Phenomenology 42 (1): 18-32. 2011.
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6Hume's Skeptical RealismIn Wright John (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Hume, . pp. 60-81. 2016.The author argues that the core of Hume’s Academic skepticism lies in his commitment to an external world and objective causal powers that are cognitively opaque to human understanding. Three central topics of Hume’s theory of the understanding are discussed —the existence of absolute space, the existence of a world external to our senses, and the existence of objective causal powers. In each case, Hume draws a Pyrrhonian opposition between judgments based on his “Copy Principle” and the “fictio…Read more
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The scientific reception of Hume's theory of causation: Establishing the Positivist interpretation in early nineteenth-century ScotlandIn Peter Jones (ed.), The Reception of David Hume in Europe, Thoemmes Continuum. pp. 327--347. 2005.
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39Psyche and Soma: Physicians and Metaphysicians on the Mind-Body Problem From Antiquity to Enlightenment (edited book)Clarendon Press. 2000.Psyche and Soma is a multi-disciplinary exploration of the history of understanding of the human mind or soul and its relationship to the body, through the course of more than two thousand years. Thirteen specially commissioned chapters, each written by a recognized expert, discuss such figures as the doctors Hippocrates and Galen, the theologians St Paul, Augustine, and Aquinas, and philosophers from Plato to Leibniz
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22The Philosophy of Medicine: The Early Eighteenth Century Lester King Cambridge, Mass., & London: Harvard University Press, 1978. Pp. viii, 291. $17.50 (review)Dialogue 21 (1): 153-156. 1982.
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293Association, Madness, and the Measures of Probability in Locke and HumeIn Christopher Fox (ed.), Psychology and Literature in the Eighteenth Century, Ams Press. pp. 103-28. 1987.This paper argues for the importance of Chapter 33 of Book 2 of Locke's _Essay Concerning Human Understanding_ ("Of the Association of Ideas) both for Locke's own philosophy and for its subsequent reception by Hume. It is argued that in the 4th edition of the Essay of 1700, in which the chapter was added, Locke acknowledged that many beliefs, particularly in religion, are not voluntary and cannot be eradicated through reason and evidence. The author discusses the origins of the chapter in Locke'…Read more
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Hume’s Skeptical RealismIn Paul Russell (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of David Hume, Oxford University Press. 2016.The author argues that the core of Hume’s Academic skepticism lies in his commitment to an external world and objective causal powers that are cognitively opaque to human understanding. Three central topics of Hume’s theory of the understanding are discussed—the existence of absolute space, the existence of a world external to our senses, and the existence of objective causal powers. In each case, Hume draws a Pyrrhonian opposition between judgments based on his “Copy Principle” and the “fiction…Read more
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Areas of Specialization
17th/18th Century Philosophy |
Metaphysics and Epistemology |
History of Western Philosophy |