•  521
    Transformative Experience and the Problem of Religious Disagreement
    In Matthew A. Benton & Jonathan L. Kvanvig (eds.), Religious Disagreement and Pluralism, Oxford University Press. pp. 127-141. 2021.
    Peer disagreement presents religious believers, agnostics, and skeptics alike with an epistemological problem: how can confidence in any religious claims (including their negations) be epistemically justified? There seem to be rational, well-informed adherents among a variety of mutually incompatible religious and non-religious perspectives, and so the problem of disagreement arises acutely in the religious domain. In this paper, we show that the transformative nature of religious experience and…Read more
  •  1
    How the evaluability bias shapes transformative decisions
    with Yoonseo Zoh and M. J. Crockett
    Synthese 203 (2): 1-22. 2024.
    Our paper contributes to the rapidly expanding body of experimental research on transformative decision making, and in the process, marks out a novel empirical interpretation for assessments of subjective value in transformative contexts. We start with a discussion of the role of subjective value in transformative decisions, and then critique extant experimental work that explores this role, with special attention to Reuter and Messerli (2018). We argue that current empirical treatments miss a c…Read more
  •  20
    The Use of Local and Global Ordering Strategies in Number Line Estimation in Early Childhood
    with Jaccoline E. Van ’T. Noordende, M. J. M. Volman, Korbinian Moeller, Tanja Dackermann, and Evelyn H. Kroesbergen
    Frontiers in Psychology 9. 2018.
  •  14
    Predicting Treatment Outcomes from Prefrontal Cortex Activation for Self-Harming Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder: A Preliminary Study
    with Anthony C. Ruocco, Achala H. Rodrigo, Shelley F. McMain, Elizabeth Page-Gould, and Hasan Ayaz
    Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 10. 2016.
  •  26
    Awareness of illness in schizophrenia reflects complex storied understanding of the impact of the disorder upon one’s life. Individuals may be aware of their illness in different ways and this may be related to their functioning. A total of 76 adults with schizophrenia were assessed for their awareness of illness, neurocognition, social cognition, and social function concurrently and social function was also assessed at three later time points. A cluster analysis revealed 3 groups: generally ful…Read more
  •  37
    Psychometric properties and convergent and predictive validity of an executive function test battery for two-year-olds
    with Hanna Mulder, Huub Hoofs, Josje Verhagen, and Ineke van der Veen
    Frontiers in Psychology 5. 2014.
  •  71
    Schizophrenia and the experience of intersubjectivity as threat
    with Jason K. Johannesen and John Timothy Lysaker
    Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 4 (3): 335-352. 2005.
    Many with schizophrenia find social interactions a profound and terrifying threat to their sense of self. To better understand this we draw upon dialogical models of the self that suggest that those with schizophrenia have difficulty sustaining dialogues among diverse aspects of self. Because interpersonal exchanges solicit and evoke movement among diverse aspects of self, many with schizophrenia may consequently find those exchanges overwhelming, resulting in despair, the sensation of fusion wi…Read more
  •  38
    In general, current biomedical models of schizophrenia focus on distinguishing discrete elements that, on their own or in combination with others, might lead to some form of disability. These different and potentially autonomous aspects of the disorder that might disrupt daily activities include positive and negative symptoms as well as disturbances in neurocognitive and psychobiological processes. Such disturbances include genetic vulnerabilities that increase the risk of abnormalities in brain…Read more
  •  28
    Deficits in the ability to recognize one’s own affects and those of others: Associations with neurocognition, symptoms and sexual trauma among persons with schizophrenia spectrum disorders
    with Andrew Gumley, Martin Brüne, Stijn Vanheule, Kelly D. Buck, and Giancarlo Dimaggio
    Consciousness and Cognition 20 (4): 1183-1192. 2011.
    While many with schizophrenia experience deficits in metacognition it is unclear whether those deficits are related to other features of illness. To explore this issue, the current study classified participants with schizophrenia as possessing a deficit in both awareness of their own emotions and those of others , aware of their own emotions but unaware of the emotions of others and aware of their own emotions and of other’s emotions . Groups were compared on assessments of neurocognitive functi…Read more
  •  57
  •  16
    A Case of Major Depression: Some Philosophical Problems in Everyday Clinical Practice
    Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology 24 (3): 215-218. 2017.
    After the publication of third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1980, psychiatry no longer characterized psychological problems as 'reactions,' which seemed to assume unproven psychoanalytically derived explanations, and referred to them instead as 'disorders,' which, it was thought, could be identified phenomenologically and without theoretical 'presuppositions.' Since then, psychiatrists have typically made diagnoses without reflecting on the fact that an…Read more
  •  15
    Microglial Priming and Alzheimer’s Disease: A Possible Role for (Early) Immune Challenges and Epigenetics?
    with Lianne Hoeijmakers, Yvonne Heinen, Anne-Marie van Dam, and Aniko Korosi
    Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 10. 2016.
  •  19
    Self-Experience in Schizophrenia: Metacognition as a Construct to Advance Understanding
    with Jay A. Hamm and Benjamin Buck
    Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology 22 (3): 217-220. 2015.
    In our original piece, we suggested that contemporary phenomenological models of schizophrenia such as the ipseity-disturbance model emphasize perceptual and cognitive elements of self-disturbances, potentially neglecting the presence and central importance of painful affect in the experience of schizophrenia. We concluded that integrating affect within developing phenomenological models would offer not only a theoretical advance but also a possible path to more effective recovery-oriented treat…Read more
  •  25
    Reconciling the Ipseity-Disturbance Model with the Presence of Painful Affect in Schizophrenia
    with Jay A. Hamm and Benjamin Buck
    Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology 22 (3): 197-208. 2015.
    Theoretical models of schizophrenia have traditionally emphasized the biological social, and environmental forces that lead to the dysfunction that characterizes this disorder. However important these aspects may be, an understanding of schizophrenia is incomplete without attention to the first-person perspective of those who continue to struggle to find meaning and security in the midst of this disorder. Encouragingly, an interest has grown steadily in recent years in understanding subjective e…Read more
  •  1
    Experience, Metaphysics, and Cognitive Science
    In Justin Sytsma & Wesley Buckwalter (eds.), A Companion to Experimental Philosophy, Wiley. 2016.
    This chapter explores how to understand the contributions of experience, especially with respect to the role of cognitive science, in developing and assessing metaphysical theories of reality. Further, it develops a methodological basis for the idea that, independently of work in experimental philosophy focused on explications of concepts, contemporary metaphysical theories with a role for experiential evidence can be fruitfully connected to empirical work in psychology, especially cognitive sci…Read more
  •  27
    The Nature of Proof in Psychiatry
    Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology 16 (3): 225-228. 2009.
    In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:The Nature of Proof in PsychiatryPaul Lieberman (bio)Keywordspsychotherapy process, knowledge and psychiatry, externalism, WittgensteinThis vivid clinical report illustrates recognizably, and provocatively, a number of routine, but often unexamined, clinical questions. In its few paragraphs, it depicts challenges that each practitioner confronts, and, in the flux of clinical work, addresses, however implicitly and imperfectly, every …Read more
  •  91
    The Paradox of Empathy
    Episteme 18 (3): 347-366. 2021.
    A commitment to truth requires that you are open to receiving new evidence, even if that evidence contradicts your current beliefs. You should be open to changing your mind. However, this truism gives rise to the paradox of empathy. The paradox arises with the possibility of mental corruption through transformative change, and has consequences for how we should understand tolerance, disagreement, and the ability to have an open mind. I close with a discussion of how understanding this paradox pr…Read more
  •  368
    Causation and Counterfactuals (edited book)
    MIT Press. 2004.
    Thirty years after Lewis's paper, this book brings together some of the most important recent work connecting—or, in some cases, disputing the connection ...
  •  119
    Choosing for Changing Selves (review)
    Philosophical Review 131 (2): 230-235. 2022.
    Review of Richard Pettigrew, Choosing for Changing Selves
  •  15
    We distinguish two types of cases that have potential to generate quasi-cyclical preferences: self-involving choices where an agent oscillates between first- and third-person perspectives that conflict regarding their life-changing implications, and self-serving choices where frame-based reasoning can be “first-personally rational” yet “third-personally irrational.” We argue that the distinction between these types of cases deserves more attention in Bermúdez's account.
  •  1773
    What You Can't Expect When You're Expecting'
    Res Philosophica 92 (2): 1-23. 2015.
    It seems natural to choose whether to have a child by reflecting on what it would be like to actually have a child. I argue that this natural approach fails. If you choose to become a parent, and your choice is based on projections about what you think it would be like for you to have a child, your choice is not rational. If you choose to remain childless, and your choice is based upon projections about what you think it would be like for you to have a child, your choice is not rational. This su…Read more
  • Causation and Preemption
    with Ned Hall
    In Peter Clark & Katherine Hawley (eds.), Philosophy of Science Today, Oxford University Press Uk. pp. 100-130. 2003.
    Causation is a deeply intuitive and familiar relation, gripped powerfully by common sense. Or so it seems. As is typical in philosophy, however, that deep intuitive familiarity has not led to any philosophical account of causation that is at once clean, precise, and widely agreed upon. Not for lack of trying: the last thirty years or so have seen dozens of attempts to provide such an account, and the pace of development is, if anything, accelerating. (See Collins et al. [2003a] for a comprehensi…Read more
  •  132
    Aspiring to be rational (review)
    Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 102 (2): 481-485. 2021.
    Review of Agnes Callard’s 2018 OUP book 'Aspiration: The Agency of Becoming'.
  •  129
    The First Time as Tragedy, the Second as Farce
    Journal of Consciousness Studies 27 (11-12): 145-153. 2020.
    Commentary on Montero, B. (2020) What experience doesn’t teach: Pain-amnesia and a new paradigm for memory research, Journal of Consciousness Studies, 27 (11–12).
  •  306
    Whose Preferences?
    American Journal of Bioethics 20 (8): 65-66. 2020.
    Commentary on Walsh, E. 2020. Cognitive transformation, dementia, and the moral weight of advance directives. The American Journal of Bioethics. 20(8): 54–64.
  •  20
    Reply to Symposiasts
    Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia 10 (3): 357-367. 2019.
  •  22
    Précis of "Transformative Experience"
    Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia 10 (3): 313-319. 2019.